CTA Rider Satisfaction Is Still High, But Has Fallen In Recent Years
By Lisa White in News on Mar 30, 2015 3:15PM
Despite the nightmare known as Ventra, cutting back of multiple services and the intense rage we feel when a bus zooms past our stop, apparently the vast majority of customers are still satisfied with the CTA's service. A survey of 10,400 customers obtained by the Sun-Times states that 77 percent of them were satisfied in 2014. That said overall satisfaction has still dropped, from 81 percent in 2011, with one particular section of ridership not feeling the love— bus riders.
Bus rider satisfaction saw the biggest decline, from 80 percent satisfaction down to 75 percent. And, not surprisingly, rider satisfaction differed greatly depending on location. The study by RSG Inc. showed that those on the North Side, in the downtown area and Evanston were the most satisfied while South Side riders were the least satisfied. Of course when you drill down the data even more, things get a little more complicated, especially when looking at service dependent on direction instead of general area. But the Sun-Times does show a few compelling examples of the difference between stops in various locations across the city, including a prime example of a downtown bus shelter compared to one located on the South Side.
The three biggest pain points on the survey were overall appearance, getting to a destination on time and availability. The Sun-Times takes a closer look at the the most and least satisfied neighborhoods or rail lines in each of those categories. Some other interesting factors of the survey were that despite efforts to reduce crowding on buses and trains by the CTA, only 50 percent of those surveyed were satisfied with how much "personal space" they have on public transit. That's actually 5 percent less than before the CTA's "de-crowding" efforts began. And although riders weren't asked about Ventra, more than 400 people mentioned the program and, no surprise here, their comments were mainly negative. Overall the report suggested that some scores might be skewed by animosity from customers unhappy with Ventra but that Ventra might not be the only cause. We'd venture a guess that the maligned program isn't likely helping much.
CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase told the Sun-Times that the 4 percentage point drop overall was "slight" and just a "snapshot in time."