After years of cuts, CTA train service is returning to prepandemic levels this fall, the agency said Monday.
The transit authority is adding service on each of its eight rail lines on all days of the week. But service will look different than prepandemic, the agency said. More riders have returned on weekends than weekdays, so some rush hour service will be reduced so more can be added on weekends, especially Sundays. Additional changes could be made as the CTA evaluates ridership.
The CTA did not immediately provide information about how the schedule changes would affect wait times between trains. The agency also did not immediately answer questions about what kind of metrics it was using to measure a return to prepandemic levels.
Bus service is at about 98% of prepandemic levels, the CTA said, and the agency expects to return to full pre-2020 levels by the end of the year.
The CTA has struggled with complaints about the quality of service and safety since the pandemic emptied trains of many riders. President Dorval Carter vowed to restore rail service to prepandemic levels by the end of the year, and the CTA on Monday touted the service additions as Carter meeting his goal.
Carter came under fire in recent years as ridership, service and the perception of personal safety on the CTA lagged. A groundswell of politicians called for him to resign, including a majority of City Council members, as Carter blasted attacks against him as racist and unfair.
Carter and the CTA also face an existential challenge, with a regional $730 million fiscal cliff looming once federal pandemic aid dries up in early 2026. Tied to the financial challenges is a bill pending in Springfield that would consolidate the CTA with the region’s other three transit agencies, a concept the heads of the agencies have pushed back against.
Reaching prepandemic levels of train service was bound to be a heavy lift for the CTA. In fall 2023, the Tribune found the CTA slashed schedules on some train lines by as much as 25% to 30% compared with 2019 service levels. At the start of 2024, efforts to add back trains moved slower than riders and city aldermen hoped, prompting more outcry from critics, but by July the agency had begun to add back service.
The CTA’s $2.16 billion 2025 budget includes plans to boost service above prepandemic levels next year, calling for additional bus and rail operators.
“To our loyal riders, we thank you for your patience,” Carter said in a statement. “Hundreds of dedicated personnel throughout our agency worked tirelessly over the last couple years to recruit, hire, and train the unprecedented number of employees needed to strengthen our workforce and get us where we are today.”
The CTA has tied service cuts to challenges hiring and retaining enough employees to operate buses and trains, and has said adding back service depends on the agency’s ability to add operators. Carter said he planned to add 200 rail operators this year.
The CTA has so far added more than 150 rail operators, the agency said. More are in training and expected to qualify to enter service before the end of the year. In September, the most recent month for which data is available, the number of rail operators was about 90% of prepandemic levels.
On the bus side, CTA has added service on 58 of its roughly 128 routes, the agency said. Ridership on those routes is up 13% compared to 2023, outpacing increases on ridership on other routes. CTA now has slightly more bus operators than the agency did in 2019.
Still, ridership has continued to lag prepandemic levels. In August, the most recent month for which data is available, the CTA provided about 27.3 million rides across its buses and trains, about 70% of August 2019 rides.
