CTA lags comparable cities in ridership recovery, staffing shortage remains a ‘crisis’

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.

In response to this story, the CTA provided WGN News the following statement:

“Under President Carter’s leadership, CTA continues to develop new, innovative solutions to improve the CTA travel experience, create new jobs and contracting opportunities for the communities we serve, and reshape what public transit looks like in Chicago through transformative, equity-focused investments like the long overdue Red Line Extension project.

“The CTA is working diligently to attract customers to public transit and the upward ridership trends, added service, decreasing crime rates and improved reliability that CTA is experiencing are evidence our efforts have been productive. Bus service is coming back to pre-COVID levels and rail services continue to increase as staffing levels rise to meet the growing need.

“President Carter is firmly focused on securing the CTA’s financial future as the region’s service boards work to overcome the looming, combined $730 million fiscal cliff that will be created once federal aid from the pandemic runs out. And through the lens of innovation, President Carter remains committed to the 24/7 nature of overseeing an agency of more than 10,000 employees working to deliver equitable and reliable services that meet the evolving needs of nearly 1 million riders each day.

“Among the highlights of CTA’s recent efforts include:

• “In March, 99.5% of bus service was delivered – and 92.4% of rail service was delivered. This is a massive increase from 80.4% bus service delivered and 71.8 % rail service delivered in 2022.

• “Through the end of April 2024, overall transit crime is 6% lower year-to-date, and 15% compared to April last year. Violent crime on CTA has dropped 6% compared to the same period in 2023.

• “Ridership continues to increase, experiencing multiple milestones since fall:

  • Surpassing the 1 million daily rides threshold multiple times; Reaching a new post-pandemic Saturday ridership record of more than 869k rides during Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations; and

  • Ridership related to special events regularly has met or exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

• “CTA’s ridership levels are on par with its similar peer agencies.  CTA ridership is currently 65% of 2019 levels – the same percentage seen in Philadelphia and Boston. 

• “Comparison of ridership to some peer agencies is not apples-to-apples, for example, New York’s MTA rebounded faster as it a transit-centric city; while the likes of Los Angeles and Washington D.C.had new rail services added in the last couple years.

• “Hiring Efforts:

• “At our lowest headcount, CTA had 9,644 employees (7/31/22).  As of the end of March, we now have 10,606.

• “Hired over 1,000 bus operators last year and current bus workforce is 12% higher than a year ago.  CTA is on track to match pre-pandemic bus workforce levels by the end of the summer, if not sooner. 

• “On the rail side, the attrition rate has been stable and hiring has exceeded attrition to add the overall agency headcount.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.