In-person and Online: Chicago Transit Authority #681

Presenter: Chicago Transit Authority

In March 2026, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) changed its official ridership reporting methodology and restated its 2025 ridership total, adding 19 million additional rides. At same time, the CTA added a breakout of “Paid” and “Underpaid” rides at the bus and rail mode total levels on the summary page of its public ridership report to provide more transparency on fare evasion.

The methodology change was driven by a change in cash farebox hardware, which necessitated a change in estimation of rides not recorded by fare collection systems. A new methodology for bus combining Automatic Passenger Counter (APC) data with fare collection data, as well as a stratified survey of security footage for rail, allow for greater accuracy, timeliness, and granularity in estimation of these unrecorded boardings.

Scott Wainwright (Director, Ridership Reporting and Analysis), Paul Murray (Manager, Ridership Analysis and Reporting) and Kevin Li (Senior Analyst) will discuss the background, methodology, and results of this change. They will discuss the data sources involved, methodological choices made and tradeoffs considered, and the patterns of how both the change in ridership and underpaid boardings are distributed through the system.

This event will be in person, but you can also tune in via livestream. Doors open at 6pm. The livestream and announcements will start around 6:30pm CDT.

In-person: i.c.stars, 750 N Orleans, Suite 500 (5th floor), Chicago IL.

For more information on our in-person events, please see our COVID Policy.

RSVP In-person attendees should RSVP beforehand. As occupancy limits permit, walk-ins will be allowed to enter.

There will be food! We will be serving Costa Rican empanadas, chicken casado and rice from Irazu!