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Chicago Transit Authority bus services

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Chicago Transit Authority bus services
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Chicago Transit Authority bus services are provided throughout Chicago, Illinois and the surrounding suburbs, operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). As of January 2025, the CTA has 1,966 buses that operate 127 routes.[1] In 2024, the CTA bus system had a ridership of 181,733,800, or about 594,700 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2025.

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Gallery of CTA bus services: two local services (one diesel, one electric), the Union Station Transit Center, and Loop Link bus lanes

Routes running 24 hours a day, seven days a week are:

  • The N4 (between 95th/​Dan Ryan (Red) and Washington/State only),
  • N9 (between 95th/​Dan Ryan (Red) and North/Clark only),
  • N20 (between Washington/State and Austin),
  • N22 (between Howard and Harrison),
  • N34 (between 95th/​Dan Ryan (Red) and 131st/Ellis),
  • N49 (between 79th and Berwyn),
  • N53 (between Pulaski (Orange) and Irving Park only),
  • N55 (between Museum of Science and Industry and 55th/St. Louis only),
  • N60 (between Washington/State and 54th/​Cermak (Pink)),
  • N62 (between Washington/State and Midway),
  • N63 (between Midway  (Orange) and 63rd/Stony Island),
  • N66 (between Chicago/Austin and Washington/State),
  • N77 (between Harlem and Halsted only),
  • N79 (between Western and Lakefront only),
  • N81 (between Jefferson Park (Blue) and Wilson/Marine Drive),
  • N87 (between Western and 87th (Red) only).
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Current routes

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Former routes

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Fleet

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A trolley bus serving route 85-Central in 1968

In 1953, the CTA placed an order for Flxible buses after the latter's absorption of the Fageol Twin Coach Company.

Until 1973, CTA's fleet included a large number of electric trolley buses – or "trolley coaches", as they were commonly known at the time.[5] In the 1950s, the fleet of around 700 trolley coaches was the largest such fleet in the U.S., and represented about one-quarter of CTA's total number of surface-transit vehicles (motor bus, trolley bus and, until 1958, streetcar). Possibly influenced by the 1967 Chicago blizzard, during which CTA trolley buses were unable to maneuver around abandoned automobiles without dewiring, CTA decided to discontinue trolley bus service. Trolley bus service was phased out in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and trolley buses ran for the last time on March 25, 1973.[5][6]

CTA buses were known as the "green limousine" or the "big green" — buses were one or more shades of green from the CTA's establishment until the end of the 1980s. With the delivery of the TMC RTS buses in 1991, a more patriotic color scheme was adopted, and the green scheme was fully phased out by 1996. A notable color scheme was the "Bicentennial" of about 1974 to 1976.[7]

CTA bought very few buses between the mid-1970s and the end of the 1980s. During this time, purchases were only made in 1979 (20 MAN/AM General SG 220 articulated buses), 1982-83 (200 Flyer D901 buses and 125 additional MAN articulateds), and 1985 (362 MAN Americana standard-length buses). Another aspect of this period was that with the exception of the 1979 and 1983 MAN orders, none of those buses had air-conditioning, a budget saving move by the CTA. The 1972-76 fleet of GM "New Look" buses, 1870 total, which were originally air-conditioned (although there were problems with the air-conditioning systems, eventually being disabled and sliding windows installed in the buses), composed the majority of vehicles in service into the early 1990s.

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CTA Nova LFS on Central Ave in 2004

In 1995, the CTA placed an experimental order of their first 65 low floor transit buses from New Flyer Industries, the D40LF. Also, that same year, the CTA received its last order of high floor buses from Flxible Corporation, shortly before the manufacturer folded. In 1998, the CTA placed an order for 484 new low floor transit buses from Canadian bus-building firm Nova Bus. This executed move billed the CTA as Nova's American launch customer for the latter's signature product, the LFS series. This was also done to meet the "Buy American" requirements for buses in the United States transit bus market, since General Motors ceased bus production and Flxible went out of business. Lastly, these buses replaced the ones that were built in 1983 and 1985 as these buses both lack air conditioning, aging, and not ADA compliant.

Today,[when?] CTA's fleet is mostly dominated by the New Flyer D40LF which replaced buses that were built in 1991 and 1995. In 2014, CTA ordered 400 new buses from Nova. The number increased to 425 after it exercised an option. The CTA exercised another option for an additional twenty-five buses, from Nova Bus. Nova Bus delivered an additional 600 new buses which replaced the remainder of the older Nova buses that were delivered between 2000 and 2002, in addition to starting the retirement of New Flyer D40LF buses delivered between 2006 and 2009.[citation needed]

In 2014, the CTA received their first electric buses from New Flyer, making the CTA the first major U.S. transit agency to use the new wave of electric buses as part of a regular service.[8]

Active fleet

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Notes:

Bus garages

  • Forest Glen Garage, 5419 W. Armstrong Avenue, (Elston/Bryn Mawr)
  • North Park Garage, 3112 W. Foster Avenue, (Foster/Albany)
  • Chicago Garage, 642 N. Pulaski Road, (Chicago/Pulaski)
  • Kedzie Garage, 358 S. Kedzie Avenue, (Van Buren/Kedzie)
  • 74th Garage, 1815 W. 74th Street, (74th/Wood)
  • 77th Garage, 210 W. 79th Street, (79th/Wentworth)
  • 103rd Garage, 1702 E. 103rd Street, (103rd/Stony Island)
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References

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