Beat the traffic: CTA adds trains to Blue Line

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) announced it will add more trains to the northwest O’Hare branch of the Blue Line to address the increasing ridership. The additional “short-turn” trips will begin March 26th, and run daily between the O’Hare station and the University of Illinois Chicago-Halsted station. The short-turn trips already occur during rush hours, but will now be expanded to run throughout the day.

The CTA cited increasing ridership on the line’s O’Hare branch, calling it “the busiest action of the line.” The Blue Line’s O’Hare branch averaged 39,000 daily weekday riders in February, up from 25,900 weekday rides in 2022. In recent months, Blue Line riders have been subjected to the discomfort of squeezing into overly crowded cars or enduring lengthy waits for the subsequent train, which are also likely to be teeming with passengers.

The additional service is also designed to help absorb new riders who may opt for the train as an alternative to the Kennedy Expressway, which began a three-year rehab that will almost certainly lead to more traffic. “The Blue Line is a great alternative to the Kennedy, with Park and Ride lots at Cumberland and Rosemont offering ample parking capacity,” the CTA wrote.

The new additional service will take more riders between northwest Chicago through the Loop and to the Greektown neighborhood but halt before the Blue Line’s additional stops on the West Side. Ridership is considerably lower on the line’s West Side Forest Park branch, CTA data shows. The change will also help the Blue Line absorb extra ridership that may occur as a result of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT) reconstruction of the Kennedy Expressway.

The CTA's new strategic service adjustment is designed to provide added capacity and improve service reliability, by adding more trains to carry more riders. The extra trains will provide more service and help address crowding, as riders return to the office and other daily activities and events. The change is the latest effort the CTA has undertaken to improve the commuting experience along the Blue Line O’Hare Branch, one of the system’s busiest. In February, the CTA began providing live video feeds of O’Hare Branch stations from Logan Square to Chicago, a tool to provide customers with real-time information on platform crowding conditions to help them make decisions on the best times to commute.