On December 18, the Chicago Transit Authority announced that it intended to restore bus service to pre-COVID-19 levels before the giant New Year's Eve Pierogi dropped in nearby Whiting, Indiana. (OK, the agency didn't exactly use that language.)
The agency had already announced in November that rail service would hit pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024. Transit advocates were skeptical about that.
In December, the CTA said it would reach the bus service milestone by boosting service on 19 bus lines, with some (not all) of the added runs rolling out on December 22. The agency said this service upgrade was possible because it was "[hiring] more than 1,000 new bus operators in 2024, of which more than 850 have entered service."
Last month, Streetsblog checked in with local transit advocates again to get their take on the supposed glad tidings about bus service.
In December, Active Transportation Alliance Communications Director Ted Villaire argued that the CTA deserved credit for the announced bus service change. "Restoring bus service to pre-pandemic levels is a significant milestone in Chicago's public transportation recovery," he said. "We're pleased that the efforts to boost the number of drivers have paid off. Moreover, the increase in ridership on routes with additional service underscores the importance of reliable, frequent transit options."
Also last month, Fabio Göttlicher, cofounder of the grassroots advocacy organization Commuters Take Action (CTAction), declined to fully comment about the announced bus service. "We have not had a chance to run our analysis on the new [bus] schedules yet," he said "Once we do, we'll update the stats on our website and post a short statement."
That wasn't shocking, because in November, when the agency said its new fall rail schedule would return to pre-pandemic service levels, CTAction's data analysis determined that as little as 81 percent of scheduled trips were materializing. (The agency disputed the advocacy group's numbers.)
CTAction's take on recent agency service announcements
But now CTAction is ready to spill the beans about the new bus schedule. "At Commuters Take Action, we are happy to see that the CTA is able to restore its full bus schedules, with the amount scheduled of service being equivalent to 2019 levels," the group said in a statement. "Looking at CTA performance dashboard (page 4), it’s great to see the number of bus operators is higher than it was in 2019."
"However, due to the below-target headcount of rail operators and CTA’s continued failure to deliver on their 'L' schedule (pages 15 and 16 of the dashboard), we would argue that a full service restoration has not been achieved yet," CTAction added.
CTAction said they wished the transit agency had been transparent about the shortcomings of its rail staffing and train service delivery.
"Looking forward, we hope to see a CTA that will focus on improving service consistency," CTAction added. "Three buses ten minutes apart is not the same as three buses in 5 minutes followed by a 25 minute gap. Unfortunately, the latter is an all too common occurrence on Chicago streets and 'L' tracks... Solving this on the L should only require operational optimizations on the CTA side (please make it happen!). [But] improving our buses is a more complex issue that will require cooperation with the City and State to implement more dedicated bus infrastructure, culminating with Bus Rapid Transit, which would be a great fit for our great city."
You can view CTAction's updated map and table of service cuts and changes here.
The CTA flies the Twitter coop
In related news, CTAction is one of many transit boosters who've reacted to the agency's recent announcement that it is suspending the use of its general info (@cta) and service alerts (@ctaAlert) Twitter accounts. "This social media platform no longer provides the value it once did for us to effectively reach and communicate with our riders," the agency stated.
"As Commuters Take Action, we understand CTA’s decision to leave [the] X (formerly Twitter) platform," the group stated. "We believe this is potentially the result of the CTA no longer being able to utilize the X API at no cost to post updates, and we are supportive of the CTA’s decision to not give any money to the platform. We hope that riders will continue to be able to access CTA’s alerts in a convenient way, and would love to see CTA alerts provided by the agency on other emerging social websites (e.g. BlueSky or Threads). Lastly, we hope that the CTA will ensure that bus and train alerts are posted in a timely manner when disruptions happen - something that the agency often misses the mark on."
It's interesting to see that, unlike many other commenters, CTAction, which is often (politely) critical of the agency, is fairly sympathetic to the CTA flipping the bird at Twitter.
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