IL: CTA says bus schedules to return to prepandemic levels, one month after train service returns

The CTA says bus schedules will return to prepandemic levels during the last full week of 2024, marking the fulfillment of the agency’s plan to restore service by the end of the year.

The additional bus service comes a month after the CTA said train schedules hit prepandemic levels, a vow CTA President Dorval Carter made to the Chicago City Council in early 2024 after schedule cuts and years of complaints about service, safety and conditions on transit.

But on both buses and trains, service could still look different on individual routes and at certain times of day or days of the week than it has in the past, as the CTA adjusts schedules to reflect changing ridership. The agency is measuring the return of service by total hours of service scheduled.

When new schedules take effect Sunday, 19 bus routes will have service added to the schedule, the CTA said. That includes routes such as the #4 Cottage Grove bus that runs from the Far South Side to downtown, the #56 Milwaukee route that runs through the Northwest Side and the #80 Irving Park bus on the North Side, along with several express routes to downtown.

Most routes will see additional weekday service scheduled, though five routes will also have schedules boosted on Saturdays and one route is scheduled for more Sunday service.

The CTA and Carter have tied lagging service to challenges hiring and retaining enough employees to operate buses and trains, and have long said adding back service depends on adding operators. In November, as the CTA restored rail service, the agency had slightly more bus operators than prepandemic, agency data shows. Rail operations staff had not yet returned to prepandemic levels, and were about 94% of 2019 numbers.

Restoring service has been a key concern for Carter, as complaints about the CTA mounted and a groundswell of politicians, including a majority of City Council members, called for Carter to resign. He blasted attacks against him as racist and unfair.

“Our ability to provide prepandemic service marks not a finish line but a milestone in providing the exceptional bus service our riders deserve,” Carter said in a statement Wednesday.

The agency’s 2025 budget includes plans to boost service above prepandemic levels.

Carter and the agency will continue to face other challenges. Agency leadership and the board have been grappling with the best way to address violent crime and the perception of personal safety.

Then there is the looming existential challenge of a regional fiscal cliff once federal pandemic aid dries up in 2026, which the Regional Transportation Authority now estimates could reach $771 million. 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.

In the meantime, the CTA has added service back to bus routes throughout the year. Agency officials said ridership ticked up on routes that received more service, rising at least 14% through October, compared to a 10% increase in routes that did not get additional service.

But ridership has not yet reached prepandemic levels. In October, the most recent month of data available, bus ridership was at 80% of 2019 levels, and overall on both buses and trains CTA served 71% of prepandemic riders.

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