The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) celebrated two major milestones recently, the training and qualifying of more than 200 new rail operators and the hiring of more than 1,000 new bus operators in 2024, of which more than 850 have entered service. 

CTA President Dorval R. Carter JR. along with other agency leadership celebrated these achievements, which were critical to the agency reaching pre-pandemic service levels across the bus and rail systems before the end of the year.

The event comes after the CTA announced its winter bus schedule and restored scheduled bus services to pre-pandemic levels.

“We have reached and surpassed our goal of qualifying 200 new rail operators this year — an achievement that was vital to re-establishing the level of rail service our riders expect,” Carter said. “Meanwhile, we’ve also ensured our bus network can fully return to pre-pandemic levels. We owe much gratitude for the dedication and teamwork of our new operators, veteran instructors and temporary retired instructors, who worked tirelessly to bring our transit system back from an unprecedented pandemic and the darkest times many of us have seen in our lifetimes.”

The event also brought together newly trained operators, community members and instructors. Carter acknowledged the operators’ role in boosting service, while congratulating and thanking bus and rail instructors.

Impact of New Hires

CTA was able to meet their goals for rail service and bus service that were set at the beginning of the year. 

For rail service, CTA decided to double their intake of new rail operator trainees, increasing classes from the previous year, and accommodating at least 20 participants per training cohort. The workforce expansion helped ensure CTA has the skilled personnel needed to meet increasing ridership demands and service enhancements in 2025.

CTA was able to restore pre-pandemic service with a 20% boost in scheduled weekly roundtrips across all eight lines. The system now provides over 1,200 additional weekly rail trips.

Coming into the Fol

More than 1,000 operators were hired to enhance CTA’s bus service as well. 850 of these operators have been qualified and entered service. With the new operators in place the bus system currently exceeds 99% of scheduled service delivery.

In 2025, CTA hopes to further improve the rider experience by introducing more frequent bus and rail service while also exploring tools that improve their services. This includes piloting a service disruption management feature on CTA Bus Tracker to eliminate ghost buses, testing of new technologies that expand real-time arrival and alert signage to bus stops.

The CTA remains committed to ongoing improvements and expansions that benefit both riders and employees.