CTA's Scorecard Shows More Reliability in January Service

Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) latest interactive scorecard on the “Meeting the Moment” Action Plan shows that both bus and rail service reliability improved in January, according to the agency's news release.

The revised scorecard, which tracks the monthly progress the agency is making to improve service, is now fully interactive, which allows customers to see detailed service results for their bus route or rail line.

Among the results of the January scorecard:

• The CTA’s efforts to reduce long gaps between trains continue to show improvement. Instances of customers experiencing long wait times for trains fell for the fifth straight month.
• Triple headways down to an average of 14 instances each weekday, down from 29.
• Double headways down to an average of 96 instances each weekday, down from 158.

The CTA added that January 2023 saw improvements in service delivered compared to December 2022:

• Bus service delivered: 92.7% in January 2023, compared to 83.4% in December 2022.
• Rail service delivered: 80.6% in January 2023, compared to 75.4% in December 2022.
• The Orange, Green, Brown, and Pink lines are all providing approximately 90% or more of their weekday scheduled service. The Red Line achieved 71.5% of scheduled service, while the Blue Line achieved 66.8%.

The primary contributor to service challenges is the shortage of transit-industry workers, according to the CTA.

The interactive component of the scorecard now shows a year of historical data on service delivery for seven rail lines and 126 bus routes.

As it relates to bus operations, the CTA hired 452 people into bus operator positions in 2022. The latest scorecard includes several new 2023 goals for the agency, including the agency’s plans to hire 700 bus operators this year.

Unveiled in August 2022, the “Meeting the Moment: Transforming CTA’s Post-Pandemic Future” Action Plan is an investment plan to improve the rider experience.