Two Evanstonians complained about Purple Line train frequency and other local transit-related issues at the CTA 2025 budget hearing held Nov. 7 at CTA headquarters in downtown Chicago.
At the two-hour meeting, CTA officials provided an overview of the budget proposal, following which attendees made public comments. The budget proposal has some projects relevant to the suburbs, but nothing Evanston-related.
During the hearing, Evanston transit advocate Michael Kroll and Evanston Township High School sophomore Olin Wilson-Thomas both complained about infrequent service on the Purple Line. Kroll, who describes himself on the Instagram app Threads as an “Urbanist trying to improve the suburbs one bike lane or bus route at the time” and the “the CTA Purple Line’s biggest critic,” argued that CTA’s suburban bus service deserves more investment, pointing to the reduction in bus service since 2018. Wilson-Thomas joined several commenters from Chicago in expressing concerns about private security guards CTA has hired, arguing that they haven’t been used effectively.
CTA president Dorval Carter was present at the meeting, though he did not speak. Most members of the Chicago Transit Board, CTA’s governing board, attended the meeting either in-person or virtually. None of them responded to any public comment.
The transit board is expected to approve the budget during its Nov. 13 meeting. Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the CTA, Metra and Pace, is expected to review the budget in December, but that step is usually a formality.
‘Significant drop in quality’
CTA provides transit service in Chicago and 15 suburbs. Seven out of nine Purple Line L stations are in Evanston. During the last 15 years, the CTA has reduced its bus routes in the suburbs as part of a broader push to reduce overlap between CTA and Pace buses, and Evanston has been no exception. The transit agency operates Route 93 California/Dodge, Route 97/Skokie, Route 201 Central/Ridge, and the rush hour only Route 206/Evanston Circulator.
Kroll told CTA officials that since moving to Evanston a year ago, he’s noticed a “significant drop in quality of both rail and bus service.”
“The Purple Line is still the lowest-performing line in terms of amount of scheduled service provided,” he said. “It is regularly seeing days of providing less than 80% of scheduled services. Some days, it’s even running fewer trains than the Yellow Line, in spite of having more runs in the schedule.”
On its performance dashboard, the CTA posts how many scheduled trains actually run. During September, the most recent month posted, an average of 93% of the scheduled trains showed up.
The dashboard showed that the average dropped on Sundays.
Kroll’s figures are in line with the analysis by the Commuters Take Action advocacy group.
Kroll also complained about transfer issues at Howard, where it isn’t unusual for Purple or Yellow Line trains to pull out of the station just as Red Line trains are pulling in, thus inconveniencing suburban commuters. He pointed out that at the Fullerton Avenue platform, Belmont Red/Brown/Purple Line trains tend to wait for passengers arriving on other lines.
“Combined with the overly long headways leads to me spending far too much time waiting at Howard trying to [travel] just the last few miles on my trip,” he said.
In addition, Kroll complained about slow zones, where trains slow down and stop due to track conditions, which he said has become a more frequent issue on the Purple Line in recent months.
He also argued that bus service frequency and on-time performance are issues for both CTA and Pace buses serving Evanston, singling out Route 206.
“That 2018 [CTA/Pace North Shore Coordination Plan Phase I changes] came at the cost of the 206 service, which has fallen even further since then, now only operating one hour in the morning and one to two hours in the afternoon,” he said. “Service starts far too late and ends far too early to be of use during peak service.”
Kroll dismissed the current Route 206 service as “more akin to a school bus for ETHS students with those paltry hours.”
“I honestly prefer Pace take over operations, because it’s clear CTA doesn’t want to anymore,” he said.
Quality of rides
Wilson-Thomas agreed with Kroll on the Purple Line service issues.
“It has become practically unridable during off-peak hours due to infrequent service and inaccurate arrival times [shown on tracker apps],” he said. “Most of the time, if I’m going south, I will end up biking or walking to Howard instead of dealing with the headache that has unfortunately become the Purple Line. “
One of the major recurring themes in the public comment section of the meeting was that CTA’s contracted security guards were ineffective. Several speakers urged the transit agency to shift the money toward social service providers and transit ambassadors.
“CTA vehicles, trains especially, have become free from any accountability whatsoever,” Wilson-Thomas said. “People know they can do whatever they want on them and no one will stop them.”
According to the CTA, guards are assigned “strategically” on Red and Blue Line routes.
Wilson-Thomas said he would like to see security guards patrol the train cars “where the panhandling happens, that’s where the blunts get lit,” referring to people smoking marijuana.
“They should also move away from private contractors and deploy in-house security guards and transit ambassadors,” Wilson-Thomas said. “Those private security guard contracts worth tens of millions are not a productive use of CTA funding.”
Nevertheless, he concluded his remarks on a hopeful note. “I have deep gratitude and respect for employees who work hard to keep the system running each day, and I believe CTA can and will improve,” Wilson-Thomas said. “I just hope it takes public feedback into consideration in doing so.”
Evanstonians upset at CTA over transit service, security at budget hearing is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.