After facing years of complaints about service, cleanliness, and safety, the CTA faced a major test this week during the Democratic National Convention.
With tens of thousands of politicians, dignitaries, protesters and media in the city, the agency was tasked with helping show off Chicago to a national audience, while still serving everyday residents on their journeys around the city. And by many accounts, the week was marked by clean trains and stations and reliable service.
It had some Illinois delegates wondering whether the experience could be the same on the CTA year-round.
“They absolutely rose to the occasion,” said state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, a member of the Illinois delegation who said she rode the CTA frequently throughout the event.
“Man, if only it was this clean every day,” she later added. “If only there were this many people on the train every day.”
Though Chicago is used to hosting much larger events — trade shows often bring in more guests than the DNC was anticipated to draw, and Lollapalooza routinely sees 100,000 attendees per day — the made-for-TV event brought unique security challenges and national attention, and months of city beautification efforts.
With that came pressure for the CTA to step up its game. Stations were tidied up. New exterior artistic wraps were to be affixed to CTA train cars before the convention, courtesy of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The CTA planned to add extra train service on the Blue and Orange lines, which run to the city’s two airports, and the Green Line, which runs between convention venues United Center and McCormick Place. Later, after the start of the convention, the CTA said it was also adding service after the evening convention activities on the Blue Line, which also runs near the United Center.
Extra police officers were also visible at some train stations. About 200 employees volunteered to help answer questions, guide visitors and assist commuters with DNC-related changes over the weekend and on Monday, the agency said. And, on top of the preparations for public service, CTA provided dedicated buses to transport convention participants.
The CTA wasn’t immune from DNC-related closures, though. On Monday, trains along the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line were delayed 50 minutes because of a closure from an unplanned motorcade, the agency said. Some buses were also rerouted because of protests.
In a statement, the CTA said the recent hiring of operators — an ongoing effort to account for a shortage that has limited service — has allowed it to provide more bus and train service.
“Planning for and managing rail and bus service for events like the DNC are at the core of CTA’s expertise and longstanding experience,” the agency said.
The CTA efforts added up to a pleasant experience for Delgado, who said she rode trains multiple times each of the four days of the convention. It was the best option to get around, she said, with traffic difficult to navigate as hired cars flooded the streets and motorcades and security barriers shut down roads.
Delgado, a Chicago Democrat who once worked for the CTA and is a supporter of legislative efforts to reform transit governance, praised CTA employees who were visibly present helping out-of-towners navigate the system. She saw transit agency staff, noticing crowds of people walking from convention events toward stations, calling to hold arriving trains to wait for the crowd.
Shuttles provided to transport convention participants were initially less efficient than the trains, getting stuck in traffic on the first day, she said. The buses, provided by the CTA, took a seemingly roundabout route while heading to that first evening’s activities at the United Center, she said, around the same time protesters broke down the first barrier of the security perimeter around the arena.
After 45 minutes on a stuck shuttle, Delgado got out and walked the remaining blocks to the security perimeter, she said.
In the following days, the shuttles seemed to run much more smoothly, she said. But the experience convinced her to rely more often on the train.
Delgado praised the CTA’s track record of responding to large events. But if, during regular service, the same efforts were made to keep CTA clean and provide a pleasant experience, perhaps more riders would return.
“If the amount of attention that was given this week could be given all the time, I think it would make a huge difference in getting more people on,” she said.
All told, CTA ridership during the convention was up on the Green Line related to convention events and demonstrations, the agency has said, citing preliminary information. But fewer regular commuters were riding, and overall bus and rail ridership was down “modestly” from the prior week, a spokesman said.
One of the week’s riders was state Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner, a Chicago Democrat and transit advocate. Buckner said he was impressed by how clean trains and stations were, and how well service ran throughout the week.
When he returned Sunday from Minnesota, where he was doing work for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, he took the Orange Line in from Midway Airport, experiencing what an arriving convention attendee might see. And train service was running smoothly, he said.
Riding the Pink and Green lines around during the convention, he said he wished the trains were more widely used. But as the week progressed, more people seemed to be riding.
“We probably could have done a better job of promoting the fact that CTA was an option, because traffic was crazy,” he said.
Transit can play a key role in marketing the city to visitors, like those in town for the convention, who could potentially be future Chicago residents, he said. It shows how the city can work for employees, tourists and students.
And the levels of service and cleanliness Buckner encountered during the convention should be available all the time for Chicago residents, he said, calling for work by CTA, the region’s other transit agencies, and city and state government.
“The takeaway from that is that we have the ability to do that all the time,” he said. “We just have to find a way to make it important, which recently it has not seemed like it’s important. And we’ve got to change that narrative.”
