More than 50 people protested right in front of CTA headquarters on Friday evening, calling out the transit agency and demanding more service, better reliability, and new leadership.
“Chicagoans deserve better, transit people deserve to be able to get to their work, their appointments and their loved ones on time and reliable,” Fabio Gottlicher, an organizer with Commuters Take Action said.
Commuters Take Action organized the demonstration on the same day of the CTA board meeting.
“It’s terrible, it’s a lot worse than it has historically been,” said organizer Caroline Pavlecic.
“We as a group are calling for Dorval Carter’s reign to be over,” said organizer Brandon McFadden.
The group advocating for riders say rail service has been cut by 24% since 2020. Bus service down by 13%. Robert Thomas has been with the CTA since 2016.
“We all really need to come together and really voice what’s going on,” said retired CTA bus operator Aundra Thompson.
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The CTA announced last week service was reduced on some lines due to the reconstruction project on the blue line. Prior to the protest, CTA president Dorval Carter addressed the board when asked about challenges the agency is currently from service and workforce.
“The customers sometimes take out their frustrations on the bus operators because they ghosted or the train is running behind, but the reality is CTA is short of workers,” said Thompson. “They’re not short by a couple workers, they’re short by a thousand workers and they’re having a hard time filling those positions because this job is stressful.”
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“I know how important it is to get our services back and we’re going to get our services back,” said Carter. “Let me be clear about that—it’s going to take some time.”
As for protestors, they said they want to see an overhaul of the CTA.
“Dorval Carter got to go, he came in here with Rahm Emanuel and he should have left with Rahm Emanuel,” Thompson said. “He needs to go along with all his managers, and Brandon Johnson should act right now to make that happen.”
