President’s Report
December 4, 2008

SECTION TITLE: Slow Zone Elimination

Eliminating CTA Slow Zones
183,000+ ft. removed since Oct. 2007
Percent of slow zone feet remaining:
- October 2007: 22.3 percent (263,526 feet)
- November 2008: 6.8 percent (80,374 feet)

Slow Zones by Miles Per Hour
CTA is faster and safer

Feel of Slow Zone: January 2008
15 mph: 84,579 feet 
25 mph: 44,009 feet 
35 mph: 66,454 feet

Feet of Slow Zone: October 2008
15 mph: 39,187 feet (63 percent reduction)
25 mph: 20,275 feet (54 percent reduction)
35 mph: 31,581 feet (41 percent reduction)


SECTION TITLE: Ridership

YEAR-TO-DATE Through November (preliminary)
- 2008 has been a historic year
- System up 25.4 million (5.5%)
- Bus up 18.7 million (6.5%)
- Rail up 6.7 million (3.8%)

November Ridership (preliminary) 
- Latest month shows continuing growth
- System up 2.2 million (5.3%)
- Bus up 1.2 million (4.5%)
- Rail up 1.0 million (6.8%)

Preliminary Nov. Ridership by Time
- Ridership has been growing on all days of the week, but off-peak and weekends were the strongest in November

(Chart shows growth as follows:)
Weekday Rush:
- Bus 1.7%
- Rail 2.5%
- Total 2.1%

Weekday Off-Peak
- Bus 6.7%
- Rail 8.5%
- Total 7.4%

Weekends
- Bus 8.5%
- Rail 13.8%
- Total 10.3%

Ridership Growth Across the Area
- Growth has been strongest in corridors served by rail, including nearby and feeding bus routes
- West and near-northwest sides did very well on crosstown bus routes
- O’Hare was the only significant market loss in 2008

Map: CHANGE IN RIDERSHIP: BUS/RAIL COMBINED
2008 year-to-date vs 2007
Average Weekday Through Fall
(Shows areas with blue and red to indicate geographic areas of ridership growth and loss)


RIDERSHIP GROWTH BY FARE GROUP
- Growth driven by full fare riders, new customers and existing customers riding more often

January-October 2007 v 2008: Millions of Rides
Full Fares: 15.7
Reduced and New Free: 6.5
Other Fares: 1.3
Other Free: 1.4

RIDERSHIP GROWTH BY FARE GROUP
- 1- and 7-day passes saw large increases
- Chicago Card Plus largest individual Growth

Ridership Change by Pass Group, year-to-date, Jan-October, 2007 v 2008 (in millions of rides)
Passes: 10.9
Chicago Card Plus: 17.1
Chicago Card: -11.2
Transit Cards & Cash: -1.2

Reliability Improvement Drives Ridership
- Bus routes with largest improvement in reduction of “big gaps” had largest ridership increases
- Routes that did not improve in reliability increased in ridership by only 2.8%

Ridership increase: 
- Routes with big gap reductions of 5% or more: 12.3%
- Other routes: 5.4%

Improvement in Reliability Drives Ridership
Example: #66 Chicago Avenue
- Big Gaps cut in half -- ridership up 15-20%
- Schedules aggressively re-written using GPS data to provide adequate running-time on the route
- Operations focused on better management at the terminals
(Chart shows big gaps and ridership increases and decreases over 2007 and 2008)

TOP TEN BUS ROUTES
- 8 Halsted: gained 784,273 rides (15% increase); route had reliability improvements
- 22 Clark: gained 774,585 rides (13% increase); route had reliability and service improvements, was 3-track alternative
- 151 Sheridan: gained 723,910 rides (13% increase); route had reliability improvements, was 3-track alternative
- 66 Chicago: gained 714,120 rides (12% increase); route had reliability and service improvements
- 147 Outer Drive Express: gained 684,985 rides (17% increase); route had reliability and service improvements, was 3-track alternative
- 49/X 49 Western: gained 590,718 rides (7% increase); route had reliability improvements
- 36 Broadway: gained 536,064 rides (12% increase); route had reliability improvements, was 3-track alternative
- 9/X9 Ashland: gained 534,623 rides (6% increase); route had reliability improvements
- 79 79th St: gained 429,880 rides (5% increase); route had reliability improvements
- 72 North Ave: gained 407,790 rides (9% increase)

Change YTD Rail Ridership by Line
- Highest since 1968
Percentage chagne from prior year:
Blue Line: 6.0%
Brown Line: 2.8%
Green Line: 4.9%
Loop Stations: 5.8%
Orange Line: 1.8%
Pink Line: 12.3%
Purple Line: 7.9%
Red Line: 2.7%
Yellow Line: 19.8%


Change YTD Rail Ridership by Line
CTA up 28 million
Change from prior year by millions of rides
Blue Line 1.9
Brown Line 0.3
Green Line 0.5
Loop Stations 1.1
Orange Line 0.1
Pink Line 0.5
Purple Line 0.2
Red Line 1.6
Yellow Line 0.1


PINK LINE (Cermak Branch) 
- Faster rides bring riders
(Chart shows January-October ridership decrease from 2.2 million rides in 1999 to 1.7 million in 2003 during construction, then increases in service up to 3.8 million in 2008, noting up 13% from 2007 and Pink Line service began summer 2006, increasing frequencies)

O’Hare Blue Line Branch
- Slow zones and track re-construction stalled ridership growth in 2007 and into early 2008
- Ridership bounced back in early 2008 once major portions of slow zones were taken off
  - Slow zones, Nov 2007: 35%
  - Slow zones, today: 3%
- Speeds increased by 19%
- Headway Reliability improved by 15%
- Ridership:
- UP 9% over a year ago 
- UP 2% over pre-slow zone period
(Chart shows ridership increasing in average weekday rides through 2006 and declining into 2007, increasing again in 2008)
(Chart shows ridership down at substantial margins through 2007, then generally fewer margins through July of 2008, where each month showed higher ridership, all as compared to 2006)

Three Track Effects
- Overall ridership on the North Side has increased, despite 3-track and slow zones 
- Rail ridership is down during construction, but the bus system has more than picked up its share

Chart shows North Side AM Rush ridership on bus, rail, and combined from 2004-2008

Bus
2004: 21.1
2005: 20.6
2006: 22.1
2007: 25.4
2008: 26.6

Rail
2004: 37.6
2005: 40.4
2006: 40.6
2007: 38.4
2008: 38.4

Bus+Rail:
2004: 58.7
2005: 61.0
2006: 62.7
2007: 63.9
2008: 65.1


SECTION TITLE: Three Track Update

3-Track Time Line

NORTHBOUND:
- 3-Track Start (April 2, 2007)
- Fullerton track 3 & 4 in service (January 25, 2008)
- Belmont track 3 & 4 in service (March 30, 2008)

SOUTHBOUND:
- Trains share 1 track at Belmont/Fullerton (March 30, 2008)
- 3-track complete at Fullerton (Nov 22, 2008)
- 3-Track COMPLETE (Dec 31, 2008)

Fullerton Station
(Photo shows Fullerton with all four tracks open)

Ultrasonic and Track Geometry Testing
Track Geometry Testing
- First Tested in 2006/2007
- Currently in 2nd of 5-year contract for annual testing
(Photo of track testing vehicle)

SECTION TITLE: Elevators and Escalators
Percent of Time Elevators Operating
- Better analysis brings positive results
(Chart demonstrates general upward trend in % of time elevators operating)
Note: CTA has 128 elevators at 74 locations

Percent of Time Escalators Operating
- Old equipment challenge
- Focus on preventative maintenance
(Chart demonstrates general upward trend in % of time elevators operating)
Note: CTA has 154 escalators at 77 locations

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