The Chicago Transit Authority has recently released a plan, CTA Crowding Reduction Plan, to restructure bus and rail service throughout its service area. As part of CTA’s plan, it will eliminate the 201 Night Route (Central to Howard along Ridge and Chicago Avenues) that services Evanston in the early morning. 

Working in concert with Northwestern University’s Transportation Center, the CTA is comprehensively restructuring its routes and schedules based on changing ridership patterns.  In addition, the CTA is eliminating routes that duplicate existing service or that have extremely low ridership.  This plan adds service to some areas and increases service where demand has outstripped the traditional allocation of buses and trains. There is no net cost to CTA.

The 201 Night Route is a gap filler route that runs from 1 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. on weekends to make up for the Purple Line being not being in service at that time. According to CTA, the average daily weekday rides on this night route is 46, which is about 4-6 people on each bus run.  

The CTA will be holding a public hearing on this plan at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 4, 2012 at CTA headquarters, 567 W. Lake St., Chicago. The CTA Board will take action on this plan at its September 12, 2012 meeting. Approved services changes will take effect December 16, 2012. The public can comment on the plan at www.transitchicago.com/feedback.