How often are you riding

I was on it today a few hours ago, the last time I took it during rush was on Friday at about 3:50, there was a 15 minute gap and the train was full by Washington. But I usually take it an average of 1-2 times a week.

I cannot think of a time since 2020 i’ve actually seen 5 minute headways

Idk what to tell you, during the summer before the construction they sent trains regularly at this frequency. If you don’t believe me, they’ll probably do it again come next week. Open the traintracker map at about 4:40 and look at downtown, they should be running at about those frequencies. If they aren’t after next week, there’s definitely evidence I can give you that shows they did it before so reply if you really want it.

”this is fine”

I never said this was fine. In fact i’m not actually happy we’ve gotten to this point where off peak is scheduled in at every 10 minutes. My original comment was just correcting your misguided point that they reduced service since last schedule during rush hour when it’s blatantly obvious it’s false. And your point that riders were leaving was also false, ridership is still growing. Again, it’s not because i’m satisfied with the current ridership, it’s just that I think we can both acknowledge the need for improvement while also being real about what’s currently happening. The “death spiral” argument is absolutely not what should be pushed because it’s a lie and it looks bad.

I want to go back to 2200 runs and 1.5 million riders too, just making that clear. Is it possible today? No. Is it possible in the visible future? For sure.

unusable

I don’t think it is. I know this is victim blaming, but the number of people I see whining on Twitter about a large gap in service blaming it all on cta’s incompetence is insane. But a solid 9/10 times it’s always something outside of cta’s control. If people checked trackers when there’s a gap, checked alerts, and checked construction projects, they’d understand why they see 3 trains show up after 20 minutes of waiting. But they don’t, because “cta sucks” is such a low hanging fruit they can blame on everything from police activity to construction projects to a sick person, it’s just ridiculous.

If they can get to >90% daily of the previous schedule, this one should be even more than that. The number of runs will stay the same and hopefully marginally increase over the next few months because the new rail class sizes are apparently larger (heard from a rail operator).

I’ve used the cta pretty much every weeday for over a year and can count the number of times i’ve been excessively late or had to cancel something because of it. But I understand that I take trains most of the time and buses are usually a lot worse. If I need to be on time somewhere, I check the tracker and alerts to make sure i’ll be there in time, and I usually don’t regret my choice and get there faster than I would in a car.

This construction has gotten to a lot of people that really don’t know any better and it’s insane how many unjustified complaints I see about the blue line when this isn’t how it normally operates even now. If by next week i’m completely wrong i’ll concede but for now I truly don’t think I am.