Chicago's Scorecard Shows Improved Rail Service
The enhanced scorecard shows continued progress in many areas including rail and bus service, and also reflects the need for more work in other areas.

The scorecard will continue to evolve over time to reflect new initiatives introduced in the coming months.
DePaul University/Jeff Carrion
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) issued its latest monthly scorecard tracking the progress the agency is making on initiatives introduced in support of its “Meeting the Moment” Action Plan. The enhanced scorecard shows continued progress in many areas including rail and bus service, and also reflects the need for more work in other areas.
Detailed data included in this scorecard provides riders and the public with transparent analysis of rail service delivery and ridership statistics.
Unveiled in August, the “Meeting the Moment: Transforming CTA’s Post-Pandemic Future” Action Plan is a multifaceted investment plan to strengthen the rider experience — more consistent and reliable service, safe rides, clean facilities, modern amenities, dynamic customer engagement tools, and a strong CTA workforce.
Each monthly scorecard shows the latest milestones and achievements related to the Action Plan. The scorecard also measures progress on key performance metrics. Among the results on the November scorecard:
The percentage of service delivered on rail lines continues to increase:
In October, 77.2% rail service was delivered, an increase from 71.8% in August this year.
In comparison to pre-pandemic service delivery, weekday service since October 23 is at 82.5% (it was 95.4% pre-pandemic), Saturday service at 77.3% (83.9% pre-pandemic) and Sunday service at 77.6% (87.1% pre-pandemic).
The Brown, Orange, Green, and Pink Lines are all providing more than 90% of their weekday scheduled service, a significant improvement from previous schedule. Blue Line service continues to see challenges from workforce unavailability, slow zones on the Forest Park branch, and intermittent weekend construction impact.
Instances of customers experiencing long wait times for trains — gaps known as double and triple the scheduled headways—on weekdays has dropped system-wide:
Triple headways down 61%.
Double headways down 45%.
The scorecard also shows continuing gains in ridership, and how the recent pandemic highs are spread across the system, especially on the downtown commuter routes. Compared to 2019, many of the neighborhood bus routes continue to have some of the highest retention of ridership. Additionally, CTA has hired more than 390 bus operators so far this year and will continue to focus on addressing workforce challenges in the coming months.
The scorecard will continue to evolve over time to reflect new initiatives introduced in the coming months. For example, CTA plans to provide a bus route-level analysis of service delivery after the implementation of new bus schedules later this winter.
The plan is the latest effort by CTA to further improve communication and demonstrate the progress it is making to improve the customer experience and address the most pressing challenges brought on by the pandemic.
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