CHICAGO — The Chicago Transit Authority will add 24-hour service on a third rail line and look to increase frequencies across its rail system, the CTA’s acting president said this week in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.
Acting President Nora Leerhsen told the newspaper the agency is looking to turn the Orange Line — which operates between the downtown Loop and Midway Airport — into a 24-hour operation to provide all-hours service to the airport. Currently, the Orange Line shuts down for about 2 ½ hours in the early morning on weekdays, three hours on Saturdays, and 3½ hours on Sundays. The Red and Blue lines are the only 24-hour L routes.
Leerhsen said those changes and others are possible because of the state legislature’s transit bill that will provide an estimated $1.5 billion in new funding [see “Illinois legislature passes bill …,” Trains.com, Oct. 31, 2025].
Increased Orange Line service is “one of the first steps we’re going to take in 2026 with this additional money, as well as looking to increase frequency throughout the day,” she said. The goal is to have eight-minute headways throughout the day, she said. The Red, Blue, and Brown lines currently operate on headways as low as 4 minutes during peak periods; frequencies on other lines vary greatly but rarely are the headways less than 10 minutes.
The CTA will also look to expand its Frequent Bus Network — which has buses scheduled every 10 minutes or less from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. — from 20 to 30 routes, Leerhsen said. It will also increase deep cleaning of buses and L stations by 50%.
Imagine not having to schedule your life around when the train is running….. 24/7/365 is wonderful for transit —- or should I say, it used to be.
Yes, aviation runs around the clock — but do people still ride transit in the wee hours? The world isn’t as safe as it was decades ago. Back then I would think nothing of riding the New York or Boston subway at any hour I found myself needing to. That was then and this is now.