Last Monday, St. Patrick's Day, it appeared there may be a bit of good luck for Chicagoland straphangers.
The CTA announced that as part of its new spring train schedules, rolling out on April 20, it will add more trains to the Blue Line. That will especially be true on on that route's Forest Park branch, the agency promises. The service bump is also supposed to help alleviate crowding on the line's O'Hare leg while the adjacent Kennedy Expressway is in its final reconstruction phase. In particular, headways will get shorter on weekends, the news release states.
The schedules are an effort to increase 'L' capacity to keep up with ridership growth expected during spring and summer due to special events, warmer-weather tourism, and folks avoiding traffic jams during construction season.
They will also coincide with the last stretch of the Kennedy Expressway rehab, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 18. Currently priced at $169 million, that initiative covers a 7.5-mile stretch of I-90/I-94, including improvements to the reversible lane system and 36 bridge structures.
So why stew in car traffic on the clogged Kennedy? And what's the point of blaming decades-old bike lanes on parallel Elston and Milwaukee avenues for recent driver-created congestion, Chicago Tribune Editorial Board-style? If it's an option for you, why not go Blue (and/or take Metra) instead?
Acting CTA President Nora Leerhsen basically said as much in a statement. "Over the last three years, CTA has added service to the Blue Line to improve its reliability and we are excited to add even more service in 2025," she said. "This investment makes the Blue Line an even better transportation alternative for those affected by the reconstruction of the Kennedy Expressway. We are eager to welcome new riders to our system and support existing riders with more frequent service."
The CTA is crediting the higher train frequencies to "aggressive" hiring and training of rail operators, including the goal of returning 'L' service to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024. (Transit advocates previously said the agency had limited success with that target.)
Here are specifics on service upgrades planned for next month, according to the transit agency.
- "Blue Line O’Hare Branch will have two extra trips added each weekday and six extra trips added on Saturdays. Sundays will see five additional trips."
- "The Blue Line Forest Park Branch will have 30 extra trips added each weekday,17 extra trips added on Saturdays, and two extra trips added on Sundays."
- "Yellow Line early morning weekday service will better align with the Red Line early morning weekday service. The first northbound Yellow Line train will depart Howard at 4:40 a.m., and the southbound service from Dempster-Skokie will start at 4:55 a.m. "
The CTA says the O'Hare Branch will mostly get more frequent service on weekday morning and afternoon, plus weekend mornings. But waits are also supposed to be shorter every day in the late evenings and during early Night Owl service.
Between 6:30 p.m. and midnight on weekday, and between 9 p.m. and midnight on Saturday, Forest Park Branch trains are supposed to show up every 7.5 minutes. "This is a significant improvement with trains currently scheduled to arrive every 15 minutes," the press release notes.
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We checked in with local transit advocacy organizations to get their takes on the announcement. "We applaud the CTA's proactive approach to meeting the anticipated seasonal growth in ridership and their efforts to train more rail operators," said Active Transportation Alliance spokesperson Ted Villaire. "By offering more frequent and reliable service, the CTA is encouraging more people to choose public transportation, reducing traffic congestion and environmental impact. The improved schedules will benefit commuters, tourists, and those attending special events, making Chicago more accessible and enjoyable for everyone."
The grassroots group Commuters Take Action (CTAction) is less confident the 4/20 results will be buzzworthy. "Unfortunately, it seems like the CTA won't have their machine-readable GTFS schedules ready until early April, and we don't want to make any conclusions until we can run our analysis of that data," said cofounder Fabio Göttlicher. "The changes described in the press release sound good, but it's hard to believe they will be actually fulfilled."
Göttlicher pointed to CTA’s performance metrics dashboard. "On pages 4 and 16 you can see RTO headcount and percent of service delivered has been once again trending downward in the last two to three months. Once again, CTA is trying to get some good press by increasing schedules on paper, while the reality is starkly different."
So the CTA's encouraging announcement gives its customers reason to be optimistic about the Blues. But the sobering stats Göttlicher cites do muddy the waters a bit.
Read the recent CTA press release here.
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