Chicago Transit Authority bus services are provided throughout Chicago, Illinois, and the surrounding suburbs, operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), one of the three service boards of the Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA). , the CTA has 1,966 buses that operate 127 routes. In , the CTA bus system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .
History
Streetcar services
The first street railway service began in 1859 along State Street. At the time, the service was operated using horsecars. Within the next few decades, additional horsecar services, which were operated by multiple companies, entered operation. Throughout the 1880s, these lines were converted to cable cars. Between the 1890s and the 1900s, cable cars were replaced with electric streetcars.
In 1914, the streetcar companies operating in Chicago were consolidated into the Chicago Surface Lines. In 1947, the consolidated company was acquired by the newly created Chicago Transit Authority.
Within the next decade after the acquisition, the CTA oversaw the removal of streetcar lines in favor of motor buses. On June 21, 1958, the last streetcar service, the Clark-Wentworth route, was removed.
Trolleybus services
In 1953, the CTA placed an order for Flxible buses after the latter's absorption of the Fageol Twin Coach Company.
Until 1973, CTA's fleet included a large number of electric trolley buses – or "trolley coaches", as they were commonly known at the time.Sebree, Mac; and Ward, Paul (1974). The Trolley Coach in North America, pp. 49–60. Los Angeles: Interurbans. LCCN 74-20367. In the 1950s, the fleet of around 700 trolley coaches was the largest such fleet in the U.S., and represented about one-quarter of CTA's total number of surface-transit vehicles (motor bus, trolley bus and, until 1958, streetcar).Murray, Alan (2000). World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia, p. 79. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. .
Possibly influenced by the 1967 Chicago blizzard, during which CTA trolley buses were unable to maneuver around abandoned automobiles without dewiring, CTA decided to discontinue trolley bus service. Trolley bus service was phased out in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and trolley buses ran for the last time on March 25, 1973.
Motor bus services before the CTA
The Chicago Motor Bus Company was formed in December 1913. On June 19, 1916, the Lincoln Park Board granted the bus company a franchise to run bus services in the North Side. On March 25, 1917, the company began operation on the first motor bus service in Chicago. The first bus route, which used 11 double-decker buses, ran primarily along Sheridan Road and Lake Shore Drive from Devon Avenue and Sheridan Road to Adams Street and State Street. This route was named Route 51 Sheridan Road.
Two other bus companies were established in Chicago: the Chicago Stage Company and the Depot Motor Bus Lines. In the early 1920s, the three bus companies merged into the Chicago Motor Coach Company. In 1924, the newly consolidated company became a subsidiary of The Omnibus Corporation.
In late 1922, the South Side Board and the Illinois Commerce Commission permitted the bus company to run of bus services to parks in the South Side. Buses would run along Michigan Avenue to access the Chicago Loop. On April 15, 1923, the first bus service in the South Side entered operation as Route 1 Drexel and Hyde Park Boulevards. The rest of the network in the South Side became operational by October 1923. The first bus services in the West Side began a year later on March 16, 1924, as the following routes: Route 26 Jackson Boulevard and Route 31 Washington Boulevard. Both routes ran from the Chicago Loop to Austin Boulevard.
Although the newly formed Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) purchased both the Chicago Surface Lines and the Chicago Rapid Transit Company on September 30, 1947, the CTA purchased the Chicago Motor Coach Company on September 30, 1952, for $16.6 million. The CTA promptly prepended the number 1 to several existing route numbers to avoid numbering conflicts with other routes. For example, Route 51 was renumbered to 151.
Bus services under the CTA CTA buses were known as the "green limousine" or the "big green" — buses were one or more shades of green from the CTA's establishment until the end of the 1980s. With the delivery of the TMC RTS buses in 1991, a more patriotic color scheme was adopted, and the green scheme was fully phased out by 1996. A notable color scheme was the "Bicentennial" of about 1974 to 1976.
CTA bought very few buses between the mid-1970s and the end of the 1980s. During this time, purchases were only made in 1979 (20 MAN/AM General SG 220 articulated buses), 1982-83 (200 Flyer D901 buses and 125 additional MAN articulateds), and 1985 (362 MAN Americana standard-length buses). Another aspect of this period was that with the exception of the 1979 and 1983 MAN orders, none of those buses had air-conditioning, a budget saving move by the CTA. The 1972-76 fleet of GM "New Look" buses, 1870 total, which were originally air-conditioned (although there were problems with the air-conditioning systems, eventually being disabled and sliding windows installed in the buses), composed the majority of vehicles in service into the early 1990s.
In 1995, the CTA placed an experimental order of their first 65 low floor transit buses from New Flyer Industries, the D40LF. Also, that same year, the CTA received its last order of high floor buses from Flxible Corporation, shortly before the manufacturer folded. In 1998, the CTA placed an order for 484 new low floor transit buses from Canadian bus-building firm Nova Bus. This executed move billed the CTA as Nova's American launch customer for the latter's signature product, the LFS series. This was also done to meet the "Buy American" requirements for buses in the United States transit bus market, since General Motors ceased bus production and Flxible went out of business. Lastly, these buses replaced the ones that were built in 1983 and 1985 due to their age as well as their lack of air conditioning and ADA compliance.
In the 2010s, bus projects that sought to implement some features of bus rapid transit were conducted. The Jeffery Jump opened in November 2012, and the Loop Link opened in December 2015.
Fleet As of 2026, CTA's fleet is mostly dominated by the New Flyer D40LF which replaced buses that were built in 1991 and 1995. In 2014, CTA ordered 400 new buses from Nova. The number increased to 425 after it exercised an option. The CTA exercised another option for an additional twenty-five buses, from Nova Bus. Nova Bus delivered an additional 600 new buses which replaced the remainder of the older Nova buses that were delivered between 2000 and 2002, in addition to starting the retirement of New Flyer D40LF buses delivered between 2006 and 2009.
In 2014, the CTA received their first electric buses from New Flyer, making the CTA the first major U.S. transit agency to use the new wave of electric buses as part of a regular service.
Active fleet YearManufacturer& ModelLengthPhotoEngine TypeNumbersAssigned GaragesNotes2006–2009New Flyer D40LFDiesel1000–2029(1,030 buses)74th, 77th, 103rd, Chicago, Forest Glen, Kedzie, North ParkMany units are currently being retired.2008–2009New Flyer DE60LFDiesel-ElectricHybrid4000–4207(208 buses)103rd, Kedzie, North Park2012–2013New Flyer DE60LFR4300–4332(33 buses)103rd, North ParkNew Flyer D60LFRDiesel4333–4399(67 buses)North Park2014New Flyer XE40Electric700–701(2 buses)77th2014–2019NovaBus LFSDiesel7900–8349(450 buses)74th, 77th, 103rd, Chicago, Forest Glen, Kedzie2019–2022Proterra Catalyst BE40/ZX5Electric600–624(25 buses)74th, Chicago2022–2025NovaBus LFSDiesel8350–8949(600 buses)74th, 77th, 103rd, Chicago, Forest Glen, Kedzie, North Park Notes:
Source: Chicago Transit Authority Presentation on Alternative Fuels, April 20th, 2009, p. 4 (accessed 1 July 2009), unless otherwise indicated. Some individual numbers may no longer be in service. See Chicago Transit and Railfan for historic rosters.
Bus garages
Forest Glen Garage, 5419 W. Armstrong Avenue, (Elston/Bryn Mawr) North Park Garage, 3112 W. Foster Avenue, (Foster/Albany) Chicago Garage, 642 N. Pulaski Road, (Chicago/Pulaski) Kedzie Garage, 358 S. Kedzie Avenue, (Van Buren/Kedzie) 74th Garage, 1815 W. 74th Street, (74th/Wood) 77th Garage, 210 W. 79th Street, (79th/Wentworth) 103rd Garage, 1702 E. 103rd Street, (103rd/Stony Island)
Current routes