CTA increasing bus service to pre-pandemic levels

The Chicago Transit Authority plans to increase bus service to pre-pandemic levels starting Sunday.

The CTA's winter schedule adds more weekday buses on 19 lines and additional weekend buses on six lines, the agency announced Wednesday.

The CTA has been increasing the frequency of its trains and buses since the COVID-19 pandemic sent ridership tumbling. The agency has struggled to hire and retain operators but has doubled its hiring efforts in the last year.

CTA President Dorval R. Carter Jr. said the new schedule fulfills his goal of returning to pre-pandemic service levels by the end of 2024.

“Our ability to provide pre-pandemic service marks not a finish line but a milestone in providing the exceptional bus service our riders deserve,” Carter said in a news release.

The CTA said the new winter schedule includes "strategic adjustments" to "better meet changing ridership patterns." Carter has previously said fewer people travel during the rush periods and more people travel at off-peak hours, as well as on weekends.

The CTA said it returned train service to pre-pandemic levels in November.

Ridership on the CTA is still low compared with five years ago. Average weekday ridership on the CTA this summer was about 67% of what it was in 2019, according to an agency report on ridership in July.

The CTA said these bus routes will see more weekday service:

• No. 2 Hyde Park Express
• No. 4 Cottage Grove
• No. 6 Jackson Park Express*
• No. 15 Jeffery Local
• No. 26 South Shore Express
• No. 28 Stony Island
• No. 35 31st/35th
• No. 56 Milwaukee
• No. 67 67th-69th-71st
• No. 80 Irving Park*
• No. 84 Peterson*
• No. 86 Narragansett/Ridgeland
• No. 120 Ogilvie/Streeterville Express
• No. 121 Union/Streeterville Express
• No. 135 Clarendon/LaSalle Express
• No. 136 Sheridan/LaSalle Express
• No. 143 Stockton/Michigan Express
• No. 151 Sheridan
• No. 201 Central/Ridge

The Nos. 6, 80, 84, 151 and 201 will also receive Saturday service increases. The No. 151 Sheridan will also receive a Sunday service increase.