Meeting the Moment

Transforming CTA’s Post-Pandemic Future

Every day, we work to provide as much service as possible to our bus and rail customers.

However, unprecedented workforce challenges facing the entire U.S. transit industry are preventing us from providing all our scheduled service. In August, we issued “Meeting the Moment,” a comprehensive plan to address the myriad issues facing the CTA, and the first plan of its kind among U.S. transit agencies.

Here’s a look at the issues surrounding the workforce challenges, and what we are doing to address it:

A national issue

Workforce shortages have plagued many industries, but the entire transportation segment, particularly those where commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) are required – e.g.., aviation, trucking, logistics and delivery companies, construction and more – has been particularly hard hit. Two recent transit industry reports highlight the prevalence of the issue.

The first, “Transit Workforce Shortage” (October 2022) issued by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) – which represents more than 1,500 public- and private-sector organizations in North America – found that:

• 96% of agencies surveyed are having workforce challenges
• 84% of agencies reported that staffing shortages are impacting service

The second report “Bus Operators in Crisis” (July 2022), issued by The TransitCenter, which focused solely on bus operators, found that:

• In 2021, the average transit operator is ten years older than the average American worker, 52.7, leading to higher attrition rates.
• The staffing crisis began before COVID-19, but the unprecedented pandemic worsened the existing problem for agencies across the nation.

Here is some recent media coverage from across the U.S. about the industrywide workforce challenges:

• Streetsblog MASS - The MBTA’s Bus Driver Shortage Is Getting Even Worse
• San Francisco Chronicle - Here’s how S.F. is trying to fix its ‘absolutely insane’ hiring process

How we are addressing the challenge

The days of simply posting a “Now Hiring” notice are long gone. We are now competing with numerous other industries for qualified candidates to fill positions that require CDLs. We have taken numerous and extraordinary steps to remain competitive in the marketplace, including:

Expanded and aggressive recruitment, hiring and retention initiatives

Optimized schedules for more consistent service

Rail Schedule Optimization

New rail schedules, which maintained hours of service, were implemented in October to better reflect existing staffing levels. All rail lines, except the Yellow Line, saw weekday schedules optimized, while the weekend schedules for Blue, Red, Brown and Orange lines were also optimized. Within the first few weeks of these changes, improvements included:

• Reduced instances of rail service intervals that were three times the scheduled service by 65.7% on the Blue Line and 41.1% on the Red Line (weekdays).
• Reduced instances of rail service intervals that were two times scheduled service by 20.1% on the Blue Line and 10.8% on the Red Line (weekdays).

​Bus Schedule Optimization

New, temporary schedule changes were implemented along 52 bus routes—nearly half of all bus routes—to also better align schedules with the current available workforce. These changes went into effect in early January and are intended to provide more consistent service and improve the accuracy of Bus Tracker results.

Tracking our progress

As part of its continuing commitment to transparency and to keeping customers informed on all aspects of operations, the CTA now offers an improved, expanded and interactive tool to track the agency’s performance.

CTA’s updated Performance Metrics report, updated monthly and are accessible to address constituent concerns an interactive dashboard on CTA’s website, measures multiple areas of performance, from ridership numbers to operator headcount, elevator and escalator up-time and availability of bus and rail fleet for service. The dashboard will provide a 13-month history to look at historical performance and customize information to user preferences.

View our Performance Management Dashboard 

Newsletters

• Meeting the Moment Newsletter 4
• Meeting the Moment Newsletter 3
• Meeting the Moment Newsletter 2
• Meeting the Moment Newsletter 1