CHICAGO — From service to staffing, and from reliability to ridership, the Chicago Transit Authority is falling short of post-pandemic public transportation recoveries in comparable cities, according to an analysis of data by WGN News.
Comparing ridership numbers from 2019 to 2023, the CTA’s “ridership recovery” lags behind systems in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Boston, and slightly edges past New York’s MTA, a system, with more than six times the CTA’s daily ridership.
The CTA, the nation’s second largest public transportation system, has cut service on rail lines by 22 percent, and service on city busses by 7 percent, according to publicly available data analyzed by Commuters Take Action, a public transportation advocacy group.
The service cuts were meant to bring the schedule in line with demand, but riders continue to report problems.
“It’s still fairly consistent on every rail line all day that there’s something going on that the trains are not running as they’re supposed to,” said Brandon McFadden, a data analyst, and core organizer for Commuters Take Action, which tracks the entire CTA system, monitoring whether trains are arriving at stations as scheduled and departing on time. The CTA’s spring schedule reduced the overall frequency of service on the L.
“It means that we’re really not making any progress on hiring rail operators to run these trains,” McFadden said.
In January the CTA held a job fair to attract new bus and rail operators – trying to fix what the labor shortage. According to the latest available data, the system has lost at least 200 bus operators and 150 rail operators since before the pandemic.
At the University of Illinoi- Chicago’s Department of Urban Planning and Policy, Professor Kate Lowe studies public transit and has the closely monitored the CTA’s staffing shortage.
“Our labor crisis in Chicago is really making our recovery worse,” she said, “So, I would say a short-term solution is to have realistic schedules, but there’s no point in scheduling a run if you don’t have the operators to serve it.”
There are other reasons for the scaled back service: greater numbers of people working from home, and some are finding alternatives like biking, but experts say there’s something less quantifiable at play – a loss of confidence in the CTA to deliver on the most basic promises: trains and buses arriving on schedule.
“People don’t trust it,” said State Rep. Kam Buckner. “Listen, if you want a system to work, if you want a transit system to work in a city like Chicago, you have to make the system irresistible.”
Calls for new leadership at CTA
In a written statement, a CTA official said: “We’ve restored bus service to near-pre-covid-19 levels and are adding rail service as we increase staffing levels to meet the growing need.”
The problems, though, persist for customers. Those concerns ultimately land on the desk of CTA President Dorval Carter. Despite several requests from WGN News, the CTA did not make carter available for an interview.
Carter – a former federal transportation official – has been at the helm of Chicago’s transit system since 2015 and has now served under three mayors. He earns a salary of $376,066 a year (1.5 times what the mayor earns), yet routinely avoids answering questions from the press, infrequently rides the CTA, and only recently agreed to provide quarterly updates to the city council, where at least five members are demanding his ouster. “I believe that we’ve had enough time under President Carter,” said Ald. Andre Vasquez. “As we see, things are not improving as we others as we see other cities are improving.”
Three influential publications – the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Crain’s Chicago Business — have all published editorials calling for change at the top.
In April, Gov. J.B. Pritzker added his voice to the chorus of critics: “A lot of changes are going to have to take place, there’s no doubt, at CTA,” he said. “I think that’s going to take some new leadership, and additional leadership.”
The Chicago transit board is ultimately responsible. The board is made up of seven members — three appointed by the governor, and four by the mayor.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has only said he’s ‘evaluating’ Carter. “I have a full vision for transportation,” Johnson said. “It’s in my report, and as i said, I don’t discuss personnel details in the public. I don’t believe that’s appropriate. I’ve been quite consistent with that. thank you.”
Fiscal cliff looms
The CTA received $2.2 billion in federal covid relief to keep the system operating during the pandemic. CTA authorities said in a statement that they have served as a ‘good steward” of covid relief funding, but there is a “fiscal cliff” on the horizon.
In 2026, CTA, Pace, and Metra are projected to face a budget gap of $730 million.
The CTA statement said: “neither fare increases, nor service cuts will fill the anticipated annual budget gap …” “without additional revenue streams, (CTA) may be faced with drastic service cuts, employee layoffs, or other unwanted cost-saving measures.”
“So right now, we have a crisis due to staffing,” Lowe, the UIC professor, said. “If we don’t get funds from Springfield, we’re going to see cuts that we can’t imagine.”
Recently, state lawmakers unveiled a proposal to merge the CTA, Pace, and Metra into a regional transportation agency, but any solution to the dire fiscal situation would require action from the Illinois General Assembly. “We can’t just write a $800 million check and not have some new oversight or not have some structural changes that will help this system work better,” Buckner said.