Starting Sunday, service will be expanded on nearly a dozen additional bus routes across Chicago.
This is the latest of several service expansions by the Chicago Transit Authority this year, with the goal of returning to pre-pandemic service levels by year’s end.
“With this latest change, we have improved service on 59 bus routes this year – and brought our bus system back to 98% of pre-pandemic service levels,” CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said in a statement released Friday.
The ability to deploy additional buses is due to the CTA hiring more bus drivers as part of increased recruitment efforts, the agency said.
Earlier this year, bus service was expanded on certain routes twice, in March and June, resulting in ridership on those routes increasing by about 20% in June and July compared to the previous year, according to the CTA.
Even on routes that did not receive additional buses this year, passenger numbers have increased by about 12% since last year, the agency said.
The service will be increased on weekdays on the following routes:
• No. 21 Cermak
• No. 22 Clark
• No. 24 Wentworth
• No. 53A South Pulaski
• No. 62 Archer
• No. 77 Belmont
• No. 87 87th Street
• No. 94 California
• #146 Inner Lake Shore/Michigan Express
• No. 152 Addison (Saturday service also added)
• No. 156 LaSalle
