CTA Announces New Rail Service Schedules to Start April 20 (Chicago, IL) – The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) today outlined its new spring rail service schedules and plans for increasing rail capacity to meet the anticipated seasonal growth in ridership typically experienced during the spring and summer due to special events, seasonal tourism and riders utilizing service to bypass traffic during construction season. The spring rail schedule, which goes into effect Sunday, April 20, will have some immediate improvements, and riders should expect to see shorter wait times for trains—particularly on the weekends.
With the third year of the Kennedy Expressway Reconstruction project starting Tuesday, March 18, travelers are being encouraged to plan ahead and consider alternate transportation options. The Blue Line O’Hare branch runs parallel to the Kennedy Expressway, and riders will soon see an increase in service to provide cost-effective and reliable service to downtown and O’Hare Airport.
“Over the last three years, CTA has added service to the Blue Line to improve its reliability and we are excited to add even more service in 2025,” said Acting President Nora Leerhsen. “This investment makes the Blue Line an even better transportation alternative for those affected by the reconstruction of the Kennedy Expressway. We are eager to welcome new riders to our system and support existing riders with more frequent service.”
The CTA has continued an aggressive training schedule for rail operators, which supported the return to pre-COVID scheduled service levels in Fall 2024 and continued improvements to rail service in 2025. Specific rail service improvements coming this Spring include:
- Blue Line O’Hare Branch will have two extra trips added each weekday and six extra trips added on Saturdays. Sundays will see five additional trips.
- The Blue Line Forest Park Branch will have 30 extra trips added each weekday,17 extra trips added on Saturdays, and two extra trips added on Sundays.
- Yellow Line early morning weekday service will better align with the Red Line early morning weekday service . The first northbound Yellow Line train will depart Howard at 4:40 a.m., and the southbound service from Dempster-Skokie will start at 4:55 a.m.
Like in the previous two years of the Kennedy Expressway Reconstruction project, CTA anticipates an uptick in riders switching to the Blue Line during this reconstruction project to avoid construction traffic, and as a result has added more scheduled trips on the O’Hare Branch of the Blue Line.
Improved headways on the O’Hare Branch are primarily in the weekday morning and afternoon hours, and Saturday and Sunday mornings. Other headway improvements can also be seen daily in the late evenings and early owl service.
Blue Line trains on the Forest Park Branch will be scheduled to arrive every seven and a half minutes between 6:30 p.m. and midnight on weekdays and between 9 p.m. and midnight on Saturday. This is a significant improvement with trains currently scheduled to arrive every 15 minutes.
The initial spring 2025 service schedules will be available in early April on CTA’s website (transitchicago.com/
CTA Announces New Rail Service Schedules to Start April 20
