CHICAGO — The CTA is promising to bring back service to some of its core bus routes crisscrossing the city as it hires more new drivers.
Starting Sunday, 29 CTA bus routes returned to near pre-pandemic scheduled service levels, according to the agency.
The returning bus runs will mostly be for weekday service, with additional Saturday service on the #77 Belmont and #81 Lawrence routes expected, according to the agency. The 29 routes target a “diverse network” of buses that have recently seen an increase in ridership, which has yet to fully recover from the pandemic, according to the agency.
Later this spring and summer, the CTA will also look to add back weekday rush hour rail service on the Red, Green, Brown, Purple and Blue lines, which the agency had reshuffled in fall 2022 with the goal of improving the overall reliability of the system.
In a statement, CTA President Dorval Carter called the returning service a “down payment” on the agency’s pandemic rebound. There are 127 total bus routes on the CTA, according to the agency’s website.
“[W]hile this additional service will definitely benefit our customers, our job is not done,” Carter said in a statement. “We know we have much more work to do, and we’re committed to it.”
The announcement comes after Carter — who has held onto the $376,000-a-year job despite calls for his ouster for rarely riding transit and dodging public criticism — made his first mandated appearance before City Council last month. Carter assured skeptical council members the CTA is finally back on track to plug workforce shortfalls from the pandemic.
The CTA hired 1,000 new bus operators last year, according to the agency. Carter said the CTA is also “aggressively training” 90 new rail operators and plans to hire another 200 this year.
Carter promised the return of pre-pandemic rail service by the end of this year — and set a broader goal to make the CTA comparable to the London Tube.
Transit advocates said they’re encouraged by the return of scheduled service to the 29 bus routes but are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Brandon McFadden, a cybersecurity analyst who tracks CTA reliability, said time will tell if the CTA can field the staff needed to fulfill the greater scheduled service.
People calling out of work without a replacement or leaving the job can lead to “ghost” buses and trains that show up late or not at all when there is no employee available to run the scheduled route, McFadden said.
“The CTA can make promises all they want, but if you don’t have people to run the service, what’s the point?” McFadden said. “But this is pretty promising, that they’re onboarding operators, bringing back runs and fulfilling more of the scheduled service. I hope they maintain this trajectory.”
Julia Gerasimenko, advocacy manager for the Active Transportation Alliance, said the CTA has lagged behind other U.S. transit systems in rebounding from the pandemic, but called the new bus schedules “certainly exciting.”
“It’s clear the CTA is making an effort to respond to the public concerns,” Gerasimenko said. “Now we’re just going to have to see how the service performs.”
Gerasimenko said she hopes the CTA focuses on restoring service equitably across the city and making the job more attractive to people, as negotiations for new contracts with the agency’s biggest unions gear up.
“These employees have difficult, intimidating work, like operating heavy machinery, resolving conflicts, collecting fares, answering questions from riders,” Gerasimenko said. “The agency needs to keep looking for ways to minimize the stress of the job.”
Despite the agency’s claims of steady improvements, a WBEZ survey of 460 riders late last year found that three-quarters of riders felt their opinion of CTA either stayed the same (49.1 percent) or diminished (25.9 percent).
Juan Reyes, a South Sider who relies on the CTA for business around the city, said catching the bus can still be “hit or miss.”
Reyes said he recently waited over an hour for a bus on the South Side. CTA service on the South Side feels infrequent and less reliable compared to his experience taking CTA in “more upscale neighborhoods” on the North Side, he said.
“The CTA is accessible, but other than that, it’s still not reliable enough,” Reyes said. “I haven’t noticed much improvement. Except during rush hours, the buses are always crowded again.”
Jake Silver, a Logan Square resident, said CTA service has been “slightly better,” but there are exceptions every once and while where it can be spotty.
“There’s not this expectation anymore that it’s usually going to be bad, like it was a year or two years ago,” Silver said. “Certain bus lines are good to excellent. We still want it to be better overall.”
Silver said he recently had a friend in town from London, which is known globally for its robust transit system.
“Walking around, my friend noticed the stark difference compared to London, where you just see buses everywhere,” Silver said. “There, you don’t have to think about it. The bus just shows up.”
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