The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) outlined its new spring rail service schedules and plans for increasing rail services throughout the spring and summer as new rail operators complete the required training and are added into service.

The spring rail schedule, which goes into effect April 7, will have some immediate improvements, and riders should expect to see gradually increasing service as more operators are added to service in the coming months.

The new schedules enable the agency to dynamically add scheduled service to align with the growing rail operator workforce throughout the spring and summer. This is an important step toward CTA achieving its goal of returning scheduled rail services to pre-pandemic levels.

“Our goal is to transparently communicate with our riders throughout the spring and summer on scheduled rail service. We will continue to provide them with estimated service frequencies throughout the day, while also providing enough room to allow us to add in service in the coming months as our workforce grows,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter Jr.

Growing Workforce, Adding Options

Per the terms of the collective bargaining agreement CTA has with its union representing rail personnel, rail schedules can be revised twice a year. The lack of flexibility is further complicated by CTA’s growing workforce and ever evolving ridership trends in this post-pandemic world.

“Based on the existing limitations and new challenges, CTA is taking a new approach to delivering rail schedules. The rail schedule that we are releasing on Sunday shows the service we can confidently put out today, while allowing us to regularly update the schedule based on ridership trends and operators entering the workforce throughout the summer,” Carter added.

CTA has already made significant progress in hiring new bus and rail operators to address workforce shortages and the usual trends of attrition. This year, CTA plans to train up to 200 new operators, which is double the number in 2023.

To achieve the rail service improvements planned as part of the spring 2024 schedule, CTA is anticipating adding upwards of 50 newly trained rail operators to its workforce between now and this summer. So far, 67 are currently in training and are expected to begin qualifying for rail operator status over the next three months. The first class of the year has completed. CTA’s rail operator training courses allow for 20 participants per class with up to three classes in training at a given time.