CTA and Metra riders are slowly returning. Here’s what they’re finding on trains and buses.
Riders are trickling back to buses and trains as more people get vaccinated and go back to restaurants, events and offices.
On weekdays, they’re finding open seats on trains and buses that once would have been standing room only and CTA trains that are noticeably cleaner. Mask-wearing, still required on CTA and Metra, is mixed: During recent trips by a Tribune reporter, on some train cars and buses every rider was masked, while on others and some ‘L’ platforms handfuls of unmasked customers could be found.
With ridership on CTA and Metra still at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels, the agencies are planning for the possibility that ridership won’t return to normal anytime soon.
To woo back riders, CTA kicked off a marketing effort Friday that includes advertising, special events and new customer incentives. The “When you’re ready, we’re ready” campaign aims to provide information about mask requirements, cleaning efforts and investments in service and technology, such as an updated Ventra app.
CTA buses and trains are carrying more than 500,000 weekday riders, about one-third of their pre-pandemic levels, spokesman Brian Steele said. Ongoing improvements to the experience could help bring customers back, he said.
The CTA gets about half its operating budget from fares, advertising, concessions and other system-generated sources, Steele said.
Metra launched a similar ad campaign in September to encourage riders to return.
Thinking about getting back on public transit? Here’s what the experience is like on weekdays.
CTA trains
The agency never cut its schedule during the pandemic. That allowed essential workers and others who relied on transit to access transportation and allowed for social distancing.
Shortly after 8 a.m. on a weekday Red Line train to downtown, a train car carried only a handful of riders, leaving plenty of seats open for distanced seating. Signs and announcements reminded customers to wear masks, spread out and avoid boarding crowded buses and trains.
A Blue Line train to the Loop around 10 a.m. was somewhat more crowded, though empty seats remained. No seat stains or mystery puddles were spotted.
Gabriela Lopez, waiting for a Purple Line train Monday at the Harold Washington Library station in the Loop, was taking the train for the first time in nearly a year because she’d been called back to her office. It felt emptier, but safe, and most people she saw wore masks and distanced, Lopez said.
”There’s still a lot less people than there were before the pandemic,” she said.
Grace Sweeney, who had just gotten off the Pink Line at the Clark and Lake station on her way to her first day at a new job, said she felt safe riding the train because she was fully vaccinated. She’s unsure if she’ll return to riding public transit regularly, but she began taking more bus and train trips in recent weeks.
“It was weird, because it was honestly cleaner,” she said. “And way less crowded.”
But Keron Singh found the Blue Line “still smells a lot,” though it, too, carried far fewer passengers, he said. He had just taken the train from O’Hare International Airport and was on his way to his office.
CTA hopes ongoing repair, maintenance and modernization projects will help bring riders back. That includes new rail cars on the Blue Line, and construction work on the Red Line to modernize the Lawrence, Bryn Mawr, Argyle and Berwyn stations and construct a flyover at the Belmont station to take the northbound Brown Line trains over Red and Purple Line tracks.
CTA buses
In some cases, CTA added bus service or lengthened buses midpandemic on routes with high ridership.
Leaving downtown Chicago shortly after 6 p.m., a No. 135 Clarendon/LaSalle express bus was full enough that there were few socially distant seating options, though plenty of seats remained for those willing to sit next to someone.
Signs on the bus reminded riders to wear masks and stay distant. All riders were masked.
Alexis Jablon began taking the bus to work again when she got vaccinated in March, though she recently moved to a new neighborhood and switched to the train. The cost of taking a ride-share to work for nearly 10 months convinced her to return to public transit, she said.
She found bus drivers hit-or-miss in enforcing capacity limits and asking riders to wear masks, she said. And she has seen public transit get more crowded recently.
More people rode the bus than the train before the pandemic, and during the pandemic bus ridership dropped less, Steele said.
The agency is testing six electric buses along the Chicago Avenue route, with a plan to authorize 17 more at about $900,000 each if the test is successful. That, along with maintenance work at bus terminals, could help attract riders, he said.
Metra
Metra made steep cuts to service during the pandemic, but in recent months has been steadily adding cars to trains and trains to service. The agency is now running 61% of the trains it ran before the pandemic.
“We want to be ahead of demand, because we don’t want people who haven’t ridden in a while to show up at the train and encounter a crowded situation,” spokesman Michael Gillis said.
A Metra Electric District train leaving Millennium Station during evening rush hour Tuesday carried one or two passengers per car. Large “commute with confidence” signs outlined safety measures, while other signs reminded customers “face coverings or masks are a must.”
Le’Prince Green began commuting on the train in March when he started a new job. He was at first nervous to take public transit but the largely empty trains were reassuring. The convenience, on-time schedule and smooth ride won him over.
Renee Moy and her daughter, Katherine Tanski, were surprised at how few riders were on the train as they returned home to Indiana after a day of shopping and lunch in Chicago. It was their first train trip since the pandemic began.
“We knew they were going to enforce the masks, so it wouldn’t be problematic,” Tanski said.
Metra provided 35,400 passenger trips Thursday, at the time a high for the pandemic but still just 13% of May 2019 levels, Gillis said.
The agency’s annual budget assumes it will reach 30% of pre-pandemic ridership by the end of 2021.
All 10-ride passes and one-way tickets that were set to expire after March 2020 are now valid until Sept. 30. Riders using the Ventra app need to contact the agency to extend their tickets.
Metra’s $10 daily passes, introduced during the pandemic to draw back riders, will continue to be sold at least through June.
The agency is adding designated bicycle cars, which can hold up to 16 bikes instead of the typical five. The cars were added to the Milwaukee North Line over the winter and were recently added to some weekend and weekday trains on the Rock Island District and BNSF Railway lines.
Metra expects to soon add bike cars to the Union Pacific and Metra Electric District lines, the agency said.
