Strengthening Transit Through Community PartnershipsNew ridership numbers for the Chicago Transit Authority’s ‘L’ stations show some interesting changes over the past 17 years. The increases in ridership at some stations have been obvious, but the decreases at other stations are a little surprising.
Last year the CTA’s ‘L’ had its highest-ever total recorded ridership. From November 1998 to November 2015, the earliest and latest years for which complete weekday ridership data is available on the Regional Transit Authority’s Mapping and Statistics data warehouse, known as RTAMS, ‘L’ ridership increased by 43 percent.
The Paulina Brown Line station has seen a 66 percent increase since 1998. The Center for Neighborhood Technology published a study last year showing an 11-percent increase in population within a half mile of the stop from 2000 to 2011. A new TOD building with 36 units, currently under construction next door, will definitely help ridership.