Recession hits CTA ridership; monthly drop continues

The thing you didn't mention was that CTA reconfigured a number of bus routes effective next Monday, including combining 38 and 157. Some changes were by alerts, others by press release. No explanation why some required board action and others didn't.

Also not clear whether someone waiting for the 82 at the Devon-Kedzie loop will actually get one. According to chicagobus.org, not even the drivers on Devon know.

All in all I think the ridership numbers are positive. Weekday rush riders will come back when the jobs come back. The CTA seemed rather insulated from ridership losses up until last month, so it's finally catching up. The fact that cumulative ridership is still up for the year and that additional riders are using it on the weekends is good news. With gas prices creeping back up toward $3, we'll see more off peak riders I think, especially for people that don't have jobs.

I applaud the AT&T deal. I think this will make the CTA some good money as well as provide convenience for users. I don't think I'd ever make a call from down there except on a platform, but the ability to text or use internet is immensely useful to me. Plus, I can check Bus Tracker!

Things like the AT&T deal make me very thankful that T-Mobile has free roaming :)

Does anyone know why the Titan media displays that are at some rail stations don't display the time until next train anymore (at least at Addison Red)?

I watched the sign for about 6 minutes this morning and it never showed the time until the next train.

Hopefully Chris is right that ridership will do well this Summer.

Soooo......where's the budget crisis? All gone? Oh...that's right--they solved it last month.

Ladies and gents--doomsday is coming. It has to. If they've balanced everything off the back of next year (discussed previously), then we're only months away from CTA execs having to publically start talking about next year. How ugly will it be? We have a right to know!!! Their silence is crazy.

From CTA website: "#18 16th/18th. On weekdays, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., #18 16th/18th buses will begin offering midday service...#53A South Pulaski. To improve access to work and retail locations, weekend service hours along the #53A Pulaski route will be extended from approximately 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.....The #67 67th/69th/71st route will be extended to the Ford City Mall...The #130 Grant Park Treasures route name will be changed to #130 Museum Campus. In addition, summer seasonal weekday service will be added to the route beginning the next day....."

Adding service during a budget crisis. Brilliant.

And they wouldn't have to add service to the #130 if the city had not gotten rid of their free trolly service. That whole thing cost less than $2 million a year and likely generated far, far, more than it in tax revenue from everyone it attracted to the city. And we see, of course, that some of the money saved is now being spent right back because another government body realizes that it is sort of worthwhile to provide transportation from the train stations to the musuems in the enormously busy tourist season. Unfortenetely, it won't be as attractive for people to come to the musuems since they now have to pay $8 instead of nothing for a family of four to make the two or three mile trip from the train stations. That may not seem like a lot but people certainly are likely to take it into account when deciding whether to spend their day in Chicago or somewhere else (and if they are taking the train they are more likely to be influenced by budgetery concerns). The musuems will get less revenue as will the many businesses that people patronize when coming to the city. As a result of this the CTA will probably increase service on the #124 (perhaps they have already and I don't know about it), another route that duplicates a trolly that was cut. There is no way that the #124, using last year's schedule of fifteen minute intervals, can handle the amount of demand from riders that is likely to come with the trolly service gone. That route was alredy enormously crowded at its most peak times when the trolly service existed. So we will end up with about as much tax money spent (probably even less since I'm pretty sure trolly drivers were paid much less than CTA bus drivers) while likely forfeiting a huge amount of dollers in tax revenue. It is increadibly stupid policy.

By the way, if the city decides, as it likely will, to bring back the trolly system when the economy improves (whether it is next year or the year after) you can bet that this weekday summer summer bus service is not going to end. Once service is added it never gets cut, even when there are obvious strong differences in the competive landscape and the market it serves. As I mention several months ago, Metra still continues to operate extra trains (and extra stops on other trains) that it put in place in order to provide relief for the CTA's three-tracking project. The project ended around October. In the meantime, there are many people complaining legitimently that Metra does not provide good reverse-commute or weekend service. People need to start demanding that our taxdollers are used correctly. That means not cutting things that actually generate more revenue than it costs and it also means not spending money on inefficiant services.