CTA Ridership Up Up Up

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 14, 2009 10:50PM

Given the economic crisis as well as high gas prices, it comes as no surprise that the CTA's 2008 ridership numbers were way up. The agency announced it had 526.4 million rail and bus rides in 2008, an increase of 26.8 million (or 5.4 percent) over 2007. The overall total is the highest since 1992 and it's also the largest single-year increase in 34 years. That worked out to 1.68 million rides per weekday. The big gainer was the buses, which saw a total of 328.2 million rides rides, up 6.1 percent over 2007. The CTA is attributing a part of this jump to the Blue Line slow zone work and the Brown Line expansion work. Rail rides increased by 4.1 percent to 198.2 million. Also not surprising: the largest decreases in ridership occurred at train stations near the city's two airports, something the CTA blames on the decrease in air travel. Check out the CTA's full report at their site.

Photo by Cycle the Ghost Round