CTA said more train service would be coming. Most riders will have to wait longer for that to happen

By Sarah Freishtat | Chicago Tribune (TNS)

CHICAGO — In February, after years of complaints about CTA service, agency President Dorval Carter told aldermen rail service would be restored to prepandemic levels by the end of 2024. The following month the CTA doubled down, saying the agency planned to add rail service throughout the spring and summer.

But under the most recent set of train schedules that took effect Sunday, service additions were few, and CTA spokeswoman Catherine Hosinski said much scheduled service was set to remain similar to previous levels.

The CTA is still working to add service, especially during peak periods on the Red, Green, Brown, Purple and part of the Blue Line, as previously proposed, Hosinski said. The agency plans to regularly roll out updated schedules through the summer, as more rail operators are trained and available to head out on the tracks.

The CTA’s latest schedules come after years of frustration about unreliable bus and train service, which has left riders with long wait times and crowded vehicles. An October Tribune analysis found the CTA slashed schedules on some train lines by as much as 25% to 30% compared with 2019 service levels.

The CTA has pegged service cuts on challenges hiring and retaining enough employees to operate buses and trains, and has said adding back service will depend on its ability to add operators. In February, the most recent month of data available, the CTA had some 3,600 bus operators — down from more than 3,800 in 2019 — and 723 rail staff, down from 880 prepandemic.

In March, the agency unveiled new bus schedules that included more service on 29 of the agency’s 127 routes, bringing them to “near pre-COVID-19 scheduled service levels.” But rail schedules have yet to see the same large-scale additions.

The newest set of train schedules included some improvements, including along the busy O’Hare branch of the Blue Line. For example, average scheduled wait times during commuting hours, around 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., were set to be 4.5 minutes, down from 6 minutes, and wait times would also be reduced at points during the middle of the day.

On the Green Line, which doesn’t run all night, service was set to begin earlier, and the last trip in the evening from the South Side toward downtown was scheduled to leave the station several minutes later, the CTA said.

But along the branch of the Blue Line that runs through the West Side to Forest Park, keeping service during peak travel times the same or improving it will be offset by longer waits at off-peak times, according to the CTA.

CTA train schedules are typically updated twice a year as part of a union scheduling process, but the agency now plans to roll out rail updates through the summer, Hosinski said. Sixty-seven rail employees are going through training, with more expected to begin in the coming months, and as they are qualified they will be added into service, the CTA said.

The changes address only schedules. For much of the pandemic, the CTA struggled to run all of its scheduled service, leading to the phenomenon known as “ghosting.” The agency has since begun updating its bus trackers and cut back on schedules in an attempt to make the actual buses and trains running match more closely to scheduled service, meaning riders were less likely to get ghosted but that listed wait times increased.

How closely actual service matches the new schedules now will depend in large part on whether the CTA has enough operators.

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