CTA riders will not have to pay more in fares next year, but they will see an increase in rail service during rush hour, according to the transit agency's proposed 2015 budget released early Monday.
The freezing of fares is good news for riders who last year endured an increase in the cost of unlimited ride passes and the price of rides from O'Hare Airport, from $2.25 to $5.
The CTA is proposing a $1.44 billion operating budget in 2015 that is about 4 percent higher than this year's $1.38 billion operating budget and depends on ridership gains.
In a statement, CTA President Forrest Claypool credited management reforms for paring down the $308 million deficit he inherited when he took over leadership of the agency in 2011. The Tribune reported this month that Claypool has fired about 900 employees during his tenure, more than 8 percent of the agency's total positions.
The CTA board has to approve the final budget, which pays for one of the largest increases in rail service since the agency's 2012 plan to make buses and trains less crowded by adding service to 48 bus routes and nearly every rail route.
The controversial 2012 decrowding plan included cuts to about a dozen partial or full CTA bus routes. No cuts or increases to bus service were listed in the proposed 2015 budget plan.
"Current systemwide bus service has adequate capacity to absorb a slight increase in ridership," CTA spokesman Brian Steele said in an e-mail to RedEye.
By year's end, the CTA expects to log 518.9 million rides, a 2 percent decrease from the 532.2 million trips in 2013. The agency expects to record 284 million bus rides, a 5.4 percent decrease versus 2013 and 234.9 million train rides, a 2.5 percent increase.
The agency projects 522.5 million rides in 2015.
"This spending plan not only maintains vital transit service in neighborhoods across the city, it continues unprecedented investment to modernize the system to benefit riders today while building a strong foundation for the future," Mayor Emanuel said in a statement about the proposal released over the weekend.
The increase in rush-hour rail trips comes as more riders have been shifting from bus to train. About 54 percent of the CTA rides are on bus while 46 percent are on rail. In 2008, 62 percent of rides were on bus while 38 percent were on rail.
Some of the rail service changes mentioned in the proposed 2015 budget already have gone into effect. The CTA said it began adding two morning and two evening rush-hour trips to the Red Line; one evening weekday rush-hour trip to the Purple Line; and one morning weekday rush-hour trip to the Brown Line in late September.
In November, the CTA plans to extend early-morning and late-night Sunday Brown Line service between the Kimball stop in Albany Park into the Loop.
For more than 50 years, the CTA has operated Sunday late-night and early-morning Brown Line shuttle service from the Kimball stop that ended at the Belmont stop in Lakeview, forcing riders who want to go downtown to switch to the Red Line.
The CTA has said in a news release it will add extra Saturday service on the Orange Line next month. Next year, the CTA plans to add two rush-hour trips each on the Blue and Orange lines.
This year, rail ridership is up 4.8 percent compared with 2013 while bus ridership is down 9.2 percent, according to CTA data through July. The CTA has blamed declining bus ridership this year on the polar vortex and the completion of the southern Red Line project last year that saw buses replace trains.
Southern Red Line service is up and running this year, eliminating the need of shuttle bus service that padded CTA bus ridership numbers last year.
Still, bus ridership has been declining year over year for more than a year and a half, according to CTA data. The CTA said there has been a nationwide shift from bus to rail ridership.
On the rail side, riders will see a continuation of projects next year including a four-year, $492 million upgrade of the O'Hare branch of the Blue Line and connecting subway; a $203 million modernization of the Wilson Red Line stop in Uptown; and a $240 million rehab of the 95th Street Red Line station in the Roseland area.
The CTA also anticipates next year completing preliminary studies on the effect the long-awaited extension of the Red Line to 130th Street would have on surrounding neighborhoods and the modernization of the northern end of the Red Line that would include upgrading four stations and constructing a controversial flyover near the Belmont stop in Lakeview.
Bus projects include the addition of new 40-foot diesel Nova buses, replacing buses more than a decade old. The CTA also is expected next year to complete the implementation of its new software to track the location of every in-service CTA bus in real-time to improve bus bunching and gaps in service, two areas that the CTA has struggled with this year.
A public hearing about the budget is set for 6 p.m. Nov. 17 at CTA headquarters, 567 W. Lake St.