The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) will each be launching new bus and rail services to better address the needs of their respective community of riders.
CTA
The CTA has added more scheduled bus services across the region in an effort to improve bus service efficiency and reliability. Nearly a dozen of the CTA's bus routes are receiving additional service, as the agency continues to bring on more bus operators into service -- the result of the agency’s aggressive recruitment and hiring efforts.
“With this latest change, we’ve improved service on 59 bus routes this year—bringing our bus system back to 98 percent of pre-pandemic scheduled service levels,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “The CTA is committed to continuing to work to make our bus service more frequent and reliable, building on our significant recruitment and hiring successes and we are still on track to fully restore pre-pandemic scheduled bus service by the end of 2024.”
The changes to the bus schedules are implemented as part of the agency’s quarterly scheduling process, whereby bus employees are able to “pick” their work assignments at designated times throughout the year. The scheduling process is included in the collective bargaining agreement with the union representing bus employees.
The CTA has seen increased in ridership on routes that have received additional service throughout the year. Ridership on routes receiving additional service in March went up 21 percent year-over-year during June and July. Ridership on the routes that received additional service in June was up 18 percent year-over-year during June and July.
Later this fall, CTA will also look to improve scheduled rail service as new operators are added following the successful completion of their training. Rail services will be added across rail lines on both peak and off-peak hours.
SEPTA
SEPTA is working to increase its regional rail service in the coming months by adding 99 weekend trains and 24 weekday trains to the schedule. New timetables for all lines will be going into effect Sept. 8.
The service additions will help to restore 80 percent of the agency's pre-COVID-19 services on weekdays (up from 77 percent) and 84 percent on weekends (up from 63 percent). Regional rail ridership recovery is currently at about 67 percent of pre-pandemic levels, with weekend ridership growth outpacing weekdays.
“As we continue to rebuild ridership, SEPTA is still facing a $240 million annual budget deficit and the need for a permanent solution grows more urgent by the day,” said SEPTA CEO and General Manager Leslie S. Richards. “Despite this funding crisis, we can not put critical investments in our system on hold. We must move forward with efforts to make our service more reliable for our riders who depend on us to get where they need to go.”
The agency will also be adding additional crews to address personnel shortages and provide more consistent service, putting SEPTA on track to meet its budgeted headcount of 213 by next spring.
The schedule changes are part of SEPTA’s Reimagining Regional Rail initiative and will help to accommodate off-peak, evening and weekend trips.
