Share Your CTA Experience
Dear Neighbors,
I recently co-sponsored a resolution calling for a new CTA president due to consistent issues with service frequency and hiring. Despite stating that service would increase in April 2024, President Dorval Carter has reduced service on the Red, Green, Orange, Pink, and Yellow Lines. Additionally, with staffing still below pre-pandemic levels, we have yet to see a satisfactory hiring plan. Read more about our concerns in the full resolution below.
I understand that 48th ward residents depend on functional, safe, and timely transit to get to work, school, appointments, and more. As a a regular CTA rider myself, I'm committed to working at City Hall to hold CTA leadership accountable to all of their riders. As we continue advocating for the improved service that we deserve, I want to hear from you. Click below to share your experience riding CTA buses and trains.
Yours in community,
Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth
Alderwoman, 48th ward
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, public transit is a public good and the lifeblood of a world class city. It is a crucial service that supports the most vulnerable among us and allows our city to thrive. The residents of Chicago deserve to have a reliable and functioning public transportation system.
WHEREAS, riders rely upon the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to access their work and crucial services. The unreliability and reduction of transit service has disrupted Chicagoans’ lives, work, and access to opportunities, and has negatively impacted the city economically; and
WHEREAS, scheduled CTA service has been reduced system-wide by 22% on rail and 7% on bus compared to 2019 schedules—service has been reduced by 32.2% on the Yellow Line, 25.7% on the Red Line, 29.8% on the Brown Line, 25.7% on the Orange Line, 19.5% on the Green Line, 18.5% on the Purple Line, 18.4% on the Blue Line, and 9% on the Pink Line since 2020; and
WHEREAS, at the February 2024 meeting of the City Council Committee on Transportation and Public Way, CTA President Dorval Carter stated that rail service would begin to increase in April 2024. However, in early April the CTA released new rail schedules that further cut service 3% compared to Fall 2023, and 22% compared to 2019—with Yellow Line service reduced by 24.6%, Orange Line service by 9.5%, Green Line service by 8.1%, Purple Line service by 7%, Red Line service by 5.7%, and Pink Line service by 4.3%, compared to Fall 2023 schedules; and
WHEREAS, even with reduced schedules, the CTA only managed to deliver 60-80% of scheduled service on many lines in 2022 and 2023, and schedule cuts have not been communicated to riders in a transparent and straightforward manner, or sometimes at all; and
WHEREAS, President Carter has denied CTA service has been cut despite CTA-published schedules showing increasingly less service is scheduled to run; and
WHEREAS, President Carter has stated the CTA was “ahead of target on [their] goal" for hiring even while both numbers of bus drivers and Rapid Transit Operators were trending downward due to attrition. The number of rail operating employees is down 157 employees since 2019 and continued to decline from February 2022 to February 2024; and
WHEREAS, President Carter acknowledged at his City Council appearance in 2022 that the CTA needed to hire 200 rail operators, yet still has not presented a full plan on how to do so. As of March 2024, Rail Transit Operator hiring for this year was still net negative and attrition consistently outpaced CTA hiring; and
WHEREAS, President Carter has consistently dismissed the CTA’s challenges as national challenges, even as peer agencies return to pre-pandemic staffing levels and schedules—for example, Washington D.C. restored most of its rail and bus lines to pre-pandemic levels and
even increased service on some lines, while New York City has increased service on seven of its lines. Moreover, national transit experts have been quoted in the media saying the CTA is alone in its inability to return to pre-pandemic staffing levels; and
WHEREAS, numerous CTA employees have testified publicly to poor working conditions including concerns for safety and lack of bathroom access along bus routes; and
WHEREAS, according to a 2023 satisfaction survey distributed by the CTA, 51% of riders are not satisfied with their level of personal safety on the train. In 2022, the CTA spent $71 million on a contract to hire 300 security officers, as well as $30.9 million on a separate contract for 100 unarmed guards and 50 canines per day, yet from 2022 to 2023 crime increased on the CTA by 23%; and
WHEREAS, President Carter dismissed multiple requested appearances before City Council in 2022, leading City Council to pass a resolution requiring him to appear at quarterly hearings; and
WHEREAS, of the leaders of the seven largest transit agencies in the US, President Carter is one of only two agency leads who do not have a written contract or formal performance review procedures; and
WHEREAS, despite thousands of rider complaints about reliability, cleanliness, and safety, multiple calls for CTA improvement by City Council, and multiple news outlets frequently reporting about the CTA’s struggles, President Carter received at least two salary increases per year since 2018 — a more than 60% increase over the eight years of his tenure to a current annual salary of $376,060; and
WHEREAS, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has said that the CTA is in need of “new leadership” and has expressed concerns that the CTA has not yet presented state leadership with plans for the forthcoming transit fiscal cliff; and
WHEREAS, the CTA needs a president who is well prepared to face the challenges of an impending fiscal cliff, and to champion expanding public transit as the ultimate solution to the challenges Chicago faces in transportation connectivity, traffic, pedestrian safety, and climate change; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled here on this 22nd day of May, 2024, do hereby call upon Dorval Carter to resign his position as President of the Chicago Transit Authority; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that, absent such a resignation, we, the City Council of the City of Chicago, call upon Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker to name a new CTA President and publicly call upon the CTA Board to appoint them, per the formal process.
