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The Orange Line registers an increase of 11%
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From staff reports
The Chicago Transit Authority has announced that, thanks to what it described as continued aggressive recruiting, hiring and training efforts, it has added 8.5% more scheduled rail service in recent weeks, for a total of 9% more scheduled service added since April 2024.
Locally, 73 trips have been added to the Orange Line since April, an increase of 10.5%.
The news marks a major milestone in CTA Chairman Dorval R. Carter, Jr.’s commitment to deliver pre-pandemic levels of rail service by the end of the year, the CTA said in a statement. Since the beginning of April, the CTA has added 788 weekly rail trips compared to the fall 2023 schedule.
“The CTA is putting reliability at the forefront of what we do. We will not announce the addition of new rail service until we are confident in our ability to consistently offer those additional rail trips,” Carter said. “As promised, thanks to our ongoing recruitment and training efforts, we are now at a point where we have been consistently completing more rail trips than are listed on our schedules, and we are now updating our rail schedules and Train Tracker data to reflect these service improvements.”
The CTA continues to make progress in hiring new bus and rail operators to address staffing shortages and common attrition trends. This year, the CTA plans to train up to 200 new rail operators, double the number it had in 2023.
So far this year, 79 employees have successfully completed rail operator training. The next training course will begin soon, with more than 80 employees in training and expected to begin qualifying for rail operator status in the coming months. CTA rail operator training courses allow for at least 20 participants per class, with up to three classes in training at any given time. Additional rail service improvements are planned as part of the upcoming fall program, which will be announced in the coming months.
On the bus side, the CTA has also made progress toward its goal of providing pre-pandemic bus service levels by the end of the year. As of June, service levels have been improved on 48 bus routes across the service region, and all of these routes have returned to near-pre-pandemic scheduled service levels. An additional 28 bus routes are expected to receive improvements this fall and winter to meet the goal of providing pre-pandemic service levels.
Bus routes receiving additional service in the spring 2024 schedule increased 21% in June year-over-year for weekdays, far outpacing other routes which grew 11% year-over-year.
Updated train schedules are now available online at transitchicago.com/schedules, and these changes should be reflected in most third-party mobile apps, including the Ventra app, shortly.
Related: The CTA just announced that it is hiring bus service personnel. Video on https://www.facebook.com/thecta/videos/2483245035220162.
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