CTA plan for service and safety includes schedule changes

Facing complaints about safety and long wait times, the CTA is planning to change schedules, boost security efforts, and upgrade its bus and train trackers.

The measures are part of a broad plan CTA President Dorval Carter laid out at a lunch for the city’s business and political elite Thursday, including efforts intended to address unpredictable wait times, crime and so-called ghost buses and trains, which show up on digital trackers but fail to arrive in real life. Parts of the plan, including some of the increased safety measures and hiring, are not new.

“CTA service has been under immense pressure for nearly three years, and recent job market and workforce challenges are compounding an already difficult time,” Carter said. “From the market forces of the ‘great resignation’ to a very competitive job market and unusually high attrition rates among bus and rail operators, our services are not meeting our high expectations for reliability.”

The CTA has struggled with complaints about service, safety and conditions as ridership plummeted during the pandemic. In recent months, ridership has been hovering at more than half of pre-pandemic levels.

Carter has said a bus and train operator shortage is largely behind the long wait times for buses and trains, as the agency faces challenges with hiring and employee attrition. The agency has more than 1,000 fewer union employees than pre-pandemic, including about 890 bus operators.

Carter’s plan calls for changing schedules to take into account the limited number of operators, a move that could mean “marginally” longer wait times, he said. The changes will be based on existing rider patterns, and are intended to make wait times more consistent and limit the number of large gaps between buses or trains at stations.

No changes will be made to service hours, no routes eliminated and no employees laid off, Carter said. Schedules will continue to be adjusted as more operators are hired, he said.

More reliable schedules will help with inaccurate bus and train trackers — which rely on both scheduled and real-time service — Carter said, but further upgrades are also expected in the coming months that are intended to help with accuracy. They will also include the creation of a “chat bot” that will allow riders to report issues such as dirty trains.

The plan includes hiring efforts already underway, including hiring directly for full-time operators, rather than having new hires start first as part-time operators, thanks to changes in a labor contract. The agency is asking retired bus and train operators to return to work part time.

“It’s not a question of, can we (hire),” Carter said. “It’s a question of, how long is it going to take.”

Carter said one key challenge is the number of employees retiring or leaving, and his plan also includes efforts to recruit and retain staff. Among the efforts are installing new driver shields on buses, as the unions representing bus and train operators have expressed concern over operator safety.

The CTA and Chicago police recently announced increased CTA safety measures, including additional police officers and K-9 security guard teams, after a man was shot and killed on the Red Line on Saturday. That announcement follows one in March that included more officers and supervisors to patrol the transit system, and increased unarmed security guards.

“It’s not as simple as, I do this one thing and crime goes away,” Carter said. “I think you have to have as many tools as you can in the toolbox to do that.”

The CTA has previously used K-9s, but in 2019 decided it would no longer use dogs to deter crime and canceled its contract with a security firm that struggled to train its guards to handle dogs. Spokesman Brian Steele said the new K-9 security contract had not been awarded, but it would go to a different contractor and there would be better training.

The latest plan also includes monitors for customer service representatives to view stations, and expanded use of security guards, including overnight in some locations. Carter highlighted a plan to boost outreach to people who are living on the CTA or experiencing mental health crises or drug abuse.

It calls for taller ADA-compliant entry gates to prevent fare evasion. So far, 18 tall gates have been installed along the Red, Green, Orange and Blue lines, and the transit agency plans to install more than 100 additional throughout the system, Steele said.

The CTA could not put a price tag on the plan or provide a cost estimate. Details of the plan are in some cases still being worked out and other measures were already underway, Steele said. Other pieces, including schedule changes, aren’t expected to cost anything. All funding will come from the agency’s budget.

sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com