The Chicago Transit Authority saw continued growth in 2023, recording its highest year of ridership since the pandemic.
The CTA provided 279 million train and bus rides in 2023, 14% higher than ridership in 2022. Rail ridership increased by 13.4%, and bus ridership increased by 15.5% over 2022.
In April 2020, ridership fell to about 20% of pre-pandemic levels. Ridership has steadily climbed since then, reaching about 60% of pre-pandemic levels this year.
“Last year we experienced significant post-pandemic improvement and saw very good trends that we hope will continue, year-over-year, in 2024,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. in a news release. “As we look toward meeting the ridership demands of this year— particularly on rail — we have set an aggressive goal of training 200 rail operators in 2024.”
Over 26.8 million rides were taken in October, the highest recorded ridership month in 2023. The CTA partially attributed the high ridership that month to the Chicago Marathon, which took place Oct. 8.
“The increase in marathon ridership over last year is the result of the work we have been doing to recover post-pandemic. These ridership numbers are made possible by our aggressive hiring and retention efforts over the past year,” Carter said in an October news release.
