[Speculative] 2025 Service Planning (was: March 25 System Pick)

[TaylorTank1229]

New notice for #75 route extension to 79th/Western is now posted on the website.

https://www.transitchicago.com/travel-information/alert-detail/?AlertId=112050

[Tcmetro]

I got an email from CTA this morning listing all of the changes: 

Quote

CTA Ready to Close Out 2025 with Full Frequent Network and Expanded Service on Additional Bus Routes

The Frequent Network, which launched in March, has been steadily growing throughout the year— delivering the network of service to more than 2.3 million riders in the Chicago area. With the Frequent Network 70% of the CTA service area will be within a half mile of a frequent bus route.

 

Beginning on December 21, the final four routes of the initial 20 routes for 2025 will be joining the Frequent Network: 

#9 Ashland: 10% more service weekdays 

#12 Roosevelt: 15% more service Saturdays, 25% more service Sundays/holidays 

#72 North: 10% more service Weekdays and Saturdays, 25% more service Sundays/holidays 

#81 Lawrence: 10% more service Saturdays, 25% more service Sundays/holidays 

 

In addition to expanding the Frequent Network, the CTA will also be extending service on the following routes beginning December 21: 

#75 74th/75th: Extending route to Western Avenue, providing a connection to various CTA and Pace routes along the busy Western Corridor.  

#93 California/Dodge: Extending route to Logan Square Blue Line station along Kedzie and California Avenues, closing a gap in service between Western and Kimball Avenues 

 

The CTA will also be adding service to the following routes: 

#81W West Lawrence: Expanding weekend service via East River Road 

#120 Ogilvie/Streeterville Express and #121 Union/Streeterville Express: simplified weekday morning routing in the westbound direction to better serve Streeterville residents 

#124 Navy Pier: Added earlier weekday service, starting at 8:10 am from Navy Pier 

#134 Stockton/LaSalle Express: Added weekday morning service 

#156 LaSalle: Added weekday morning service

 

[Sam92]

1 hour ago, Tcmetro said:

I got an email from CTA this morning listing all of the changes: 

 

Guess I gotta check the schedules but I'm guessing 134 and 156 are frequency increases? I wonder if they're still considering canning 143?

[strictures]

4 hours ago, Tcmetro said:

I got an email from CTA this morning listing all of the changes: 

 

So when will Clark be added?

One thing I do know, when they rebuilt the Fullerton & Belmont stations, they incresed the buses on Clark & that was the only time that Clark ran without huge delays!

[Sam92]

10 hours ago, strictures said:

So when will Clark be added?

One thing I do know, when they rebuilt the Fullerton & Belmont stations, they incresed the buses on Clark & that was the only time that Clark ran without huge delays!

When will you take another route if Clark is so bad 🙄

[Busjack]

5 hours ago, Sam92 said:

When will you take another route if Clark is so bad 🙄

Which brings up that the Frequent Bus Network is a combination of the old idea that there should be a 1/2 mile grid and more recent ideas about the ridership model. Clark is not on the grid and is nonnavigable. It's sort of like )and maybe worse than) Lincoln south of Lawrence or Clybourn. Maybe what to do is get the Boring Co.to put an LRV subway, but he'll say that's a waste of money because there are the Red and Brown Lines, and I think I just answered the questing for jim. If the issue is not going downtown, but within Rogers Park, there could be other solutions, but he appeared to resist CTA proposals such as the 201 extension.

[artthouwill]

5 hours ago, Sam92 said:

When will you take another route if Clark is so bad 🙄

I don't know for a fact,  but there could be a physical reason why Clark is the best option for him, perhaps he can't walk long distances or some other reason. Maybe the closest Red Line station doesn't have an elevator or escalator.   Unfortunately it wouldn't matter how many buses they put on Clark,  the traffic problem won't go away.  It would just mean more buses would be stuck in traffic  

Apparently Pace Paratransit isn't an option or one he refuses to use 

[MetroShadow]

11 hours ago, Sam92 said:

When will you take another route if Clark is so bad 🙄

Before or after the active line project? 😅😤

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I don't know for a fact,  but there could be a physical reason why Clark is the best option for him, perhaps he can't walk long distances or some other reason. Maybe the closest Red Line station doesn't have an elevator or escalator.   Unfortunately it wouldn't matter how many buses they put on Clark,  the traffic problem won't go away.  It would just mean more buses would be stuck in traffic  

Apparently Pace Paratransit isn't an option or one he refuses to use 

The main answer to the alternative toute has been the same for over 50 years--take an eastbound bus to the L. or a bus on Sheridan. The cmain difference is that the Howard, Loyola, and Bryn Mawr stations and the 136 and 147 buses are accessible, and there is also the Peterson-Ridge Metra station, which he said no one would use.

Your second point about no number of buses would cure Clark (that's why I said it was unnavigable) reminds me of the State Street Mall, which was 2 lanes in each direction packed front to rear mostly with Archer/Stevenson express buses, mostly artics. Only way to cure that was the Orange Line, but as I  said, there are the Red and Brown lines.

[strictures]

On 12/13/2025 at 7:39 AM, Sam92 said:

When will you take another route if Clark is so bad

What a truly ignorant response! What's wrong with you, Clark is just 250 feet from my house. Many of the stores I go to are on Clark! I take Clark to get to other bus routes. It doesn't pay for me to go to the Red Line, because the transfer time means it takes just as long as staying on the Clark bus the entire way! Plus the Red Line is now a 24/7 homeless shelter & filled with the homeless fighting with each other, screaming loudly about useless crap & smoking up the cars!

[YoungBusLover]

30 minutes ago, strictures said:

What a truly ignorant response! What's wrong with you, Clark is just 250 feet from my house. Many of the stores I go to are on Clark! I take Clark to get to other bus routes. It doesn't pay for me to go to the Red Line, because the transfer time means it takes just as long as staying on the Clark bus the entire way! Plus the Red Line is now a 24/7 homeless shelter & filled with the homeless fighting with each other, screaming loudly about useless crap & smoking up the cars!

That's a bit of an exaggeration about the Red Line as I take it towards the North side quite a few times during the week and a majority of that stuff you're referring to takes place from Clark/Division to 95th. I hardly have issues on the northern end like I do on the southern end with the red line. As far as Clark is concerned as I've stated before the entire route needs a viable short turn option to counter the bottlenecks that occurs all over the route. North Ave is a good one as the the viable transfer options to get into downtown range from the 36, 151 or 156. Another good short turn option is Belmont/Halsted. I don't know of any other options better than those two right there. Supervison and the control center can only do so much to maintain a priority street such as Clark. We have a lot more rookies entering the streets than ever before and they're still getting there feet wet when it comes to operating on time and safely. 

[strictures]

3 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

That's a bit of an exaggeration about the Red Line as I take it towards the North side quite a few times during the week and a majority of that stuff you're referring to takes place from Clark/Division to 95th. I hardly have issues on the northern end like I do on the southern end with the red line. As far as Clark is concerned as I've stated before the entire route needs a viable short turn option to counter the bottlenecks that occurs all over the route. North Ave is a good one as the the viable transfer options to get into downtown range from the 36, 151 or 156. Another good short turn option is Belmont/Halsted. I don't know of any other options better than those two right there. Supervison and the control center can only do so much to maintain a priority street such as Clark. We have a lot more rookies entering the streets than ever before and they're still getting there feet wet when it comes to operating on time and safely. 

Clark doesn't need short turns, it had them years ago & that didn't work.

I've said what works, more buses!  It worked when they added them for the Fullerton & Belmont L station rebuilds, then the Clark bus ran excellently, no long waits for that entire time.  The second thing, only veteran drivers, the rookies are a disaster.  Then authorize the drivers if their bus is overloaded, don't stop at the regular stops, stop on the wrong corner away from the actual stop to let off people & don't pick them up.  Ban strollers from rush hours too, plus they should pay at least double fares, due to all the space they take up! And rush hours should be artics only, no 40 footers.

And of course, bring back the street corner supervisors, the smart ones were able to make alterations to schedules on the spot & even reassign a Broadway into a Clark if necessary!

And don't tell me there aren't any homeless problems on the North Side Red Line, anytime I ride up north, there they are, causing problems for everyone!  The South Side Red Line problem starts with the people going from car to car trying to sell crap to the riders, like socks!

[YoungBusLover]

3 hours ago, strictures said:

Clark doesn't need short turns, it had them years ago & that didn't work.

I've said what works, more buses!  It worked when they added them for the Fullerton & Belmont L station rebuilds, then the Clark bus ran excellently, no long waits for that entire time.  The second thing, only veteran drivers, the rookies are a disaster.  Then authorize the drivers if their bus is overloaded, don't stop at the regular stops, stop on the wrong corner away from the actual stop to let off people & don't pick them up.  Ban strollers from rush hours too, plus they should pay at least double fares, due to all the space they take up! And rush hours should be artics only, no 40 footers.

And of course, bring back the street corner supervisors, the smart ones were able to make alterations to schedules on the spot & even reassign a Broadway into a Clark if necessary!

And don't tell me there aren't any homeless problems on the North Side Red Line, anytime I ride up north, there they are, causing problems for everyone!  The South Side Red Line problem starts with the people going from car to car trying to sell crap to the riders, like socks!

Short turns would work when you have a convoy 4 - 6 buses riding together going SB/NB. How many buses do you think should be on Clark during the hours of 4 am to 12 am? 20 - 25? or more than 30? Because right now service looks pretty good to me with only 18 compared to a street like Halsted that sees just as much demand at times with only 11 buses running out there currently. "Street corner supervisors" Should still be out there between Diversey/Clark and North/Clark I forget what K badges they have but they are always in the general area. I won't address the other nonsense you elaborated on as it would only apply in a perfect world for you. At the end of the day you should really voice your concerns with the CTA hotline about the alleged service headaches you've endured over the past several years or at the very least head down to 567 and schedule an appointment to speak with the head of Bus Operations. I'm sure in a perfect world you could accomplish that. 

[Sam92]

5 hours ago, strictures said:

 

I've said what works, more buses!  It worked when they added them for the Fullerton & Belmont L station rebuilds, then the Clark bus ran excellently, no long waits for that entire time.  

That was nearly 2 decades ago before we had the budget issues we have now, the city didn't have this persistence on demonizing anything on 4 wheels (the REAL reason Clark is fouled up so again talk to CDOT) and turning ARTERIAL ROADS into bike paths. There's gotta be better ways to enforce safety than blindly throwing this road diet crap around and snagging buses up in traffic in the process especially along such key corridors. You also still ignored the other attempts to fix Clark and your claims of it not being a priority are false 😒

[strictures]

1 hour ago, Sam92 said:

That was nearly 2 decades ago before we had the budget issues we have now, the city didn't have this persistence on demonizing anything on 4 wheels (the REAL reason Clark is fouled up so again talk to CDOT) and turning ARTERIAL ROADS into bike paths. There's gotta be better ways to enforce safety than blindly throwing this road diet crap around and snagging buses up in traffic in the process especially along such key corridors. You also still ignored the other attempts to fix Clark and your claims of it not being a priority are false

From the way the CTA operates Clark, it's painfully obvious it's not a priority.

You obviously don't ride the Clark bus regularly, if at all!

[Mr.NewFlyer1279]

8 hours ago, strictures said:

Clark doesn't need short turns, it had them years ago & that didn't work.

they get short turned if such run is late, as of recent supervision managers have been on the supervisors ssa working downtown or the east end to prioritize the 22 Clark when it comes to turning runs around to meet schedule and have service run in such direction, you also gotta realize traffic has a lot to do with buses being late and/or operators taking a late lunch which will kick the bus off the street for such time (when it comes to operators keeping their bus for fallback due to being late), i have the run paddles for the 22 Clark and i can say the headways between buses aren’t bad at all during rush hour, you must be riding clark middle of the night or something that’s when they’ll be 17-19 mins apart, here’s some runs thru out the day (weekdays) as you can see the times between buses ISN’T bad at all. 

[MetroShadow]

15 hours ago, strictures said:

What a truly ignorant response! What's wrong with you, Clark is just 250 feet from my house. Many of the stores I go to are on Clark! I take Clark to get to other bus routes. It doesn't pay for me to go to the Red Line, because the transfer time means it takes just as long as staying on the Clark bus the entire way! Plus the Red Line is now a 24/7 homeless shelter & filled with the homeless fighting with each other, screaming loudly about useless crap & smoking up the cars!

Stay on topic. Or at least let’s separate the people from the problems. 

[strictures]

8 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

Stay on topic. Or at least let’s separate the people from the problems. 

I was on topic!

[strictures]

12 hours ago, Mr.NewFlyer1279 said:

they get short turned if such run is late, as of recent supervision managers have been on the supervisors ssa working downtown or the east end to prioritize the 22 Clark when it comes to turning runs around to meet schedule and have service run in such direction, you also gotta realize traffic has a lot to do with buses being late and/or operators taking a late lunch which will kick the bus off the street for such time (when it comes to operators keeping their bus for fallback due to being late), i have the run paddles for the 22 Clark and i can say the headways between buses aren’t bad at all during rush hour, you must be riding clark middle of the night or something that’s when they’ll be 17-19 mins apart, here’s some runs thru out the day (weekdays) as you can see the times between buses ISN’T bad at all. 

What the schedules show & what actually happens to those runs are totally different. & I only ride it from maybe 6 AM to 8PM.

I just love all of you who never ride Clark are telling me how great it is, when the facts are the exact opposite!

[Mr.NewFlyer1279]

15 minutes ago, strictures said:

What the schedules show & what actually happens to those runs are totally different. & I only ride it from maybe 6 AM to 8PM

i mean i clearly stated that the schedule and what actually goes on on the street is different right? i operate the 22 Clark so ima tell you exactly how it is LOL

let’s stick to the topic from here on out as @garmon757 once upon a time said. 

[Policeman]

17 minutes ago, strictures said:

What the schedules show & what actually happens to those runs are totally different. & I only ride it from maybe 6 AM to 8PM.

I just love all of you who never ride Clark are telling me how great it is, when the facts are the exact opposite!

or we can stop bitching about how “shitty” the 22 is and find other options to get around the city 🤷‍♂️ 

[Sam92]

15 hours ago, strictures said:

From the way the CTA operates Clark, it's painfully obvious it's not a priority.

You obviously don't ride the Clark bus regularly, if at all!

Again from last decade you blatantly ignore all attempts to fix the issue. Also this isn't a problem unique to the 22. Multiple lines are just as bad if not worse. Be grateful you weren't on the south east side dealing with the J14 🙄

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, strictures said:

What the schedules show & what actually happens to those runs are totally different. & I only ride it from maybe 6 AM to 8PM.

I just love all of you who never ride Clark are telling me how great it is, when the facts are the exact opposite!

I know exactly what to expect when I want to ride the 22.  The best solution is to not ride the 22.  I find the nearest east west route and ride the Red Line ir one of the Lake Shore Expresses.

[strictures]

8 hours ago, Policeman said:

or we can stop bitching about how “shitty” the 22 is and find other options to get around the city  

I have no other options!

[artthouwill]

17 minutes ago, strictures said:

I have no other options!

You do have at least one other option.  It's Pace Paratransit.  I gave you grace for possibly bot being able to walk long distances to the nearest east west bus routes to connect with Lake Shore Expresses.   You seem unwilling to ride the Red Line at anytime. So the choices are to use Pace Paratransit or grin and bear the 22.  Allow extra travel time.   Or do Uber/Lyft.