CTA Daily Boarding Totals for Bus and Rail Services Since 2001

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) systemwide daily boarding totals for bus and rail services, dating back to 2001. The data includes day-type classifications for weekdays, Saturdays, and Sundays/holidays. It is published by data.cityofchicago.org and was last updated on March 24, 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term ridership trends using service_date and total_rides.
• Compare modal split between bus and rail services using bus and rail_boardings columns.
• Forecast daily ridership by day_type (weekday, Saturday, Sunday/holiday).
• Calculate systemwide efficiency metrics from total_rides and service_date.

Strengths

• Data spans over two decades, starting from 2001.
• Provides separate boarding counts for bus and rail modes.
• Includes a day_type classification for temporal analysis.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

data.cityofchicago.org

Collection Method

Likely collected from CTA fare collection and operational systems.

Time Range

2001 to present (implied by 'dating back to 2001').

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-24 22:57:36; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Chicago, Illinois, USA (implied by CTA).