CTA outlines Yellow Line safety investments, ridership trends and extension hurdles at Skokie board meeting

CTA Chief Planning and Innovation Officer Molly Poppy told the Skokie Village Board on June 15 that the Yellow Line carried about 442,000 rides in 2025, down from approximately 832,000 in 2019, and outlined steps the agency is taking to improve safety and reliability.

"The yellow line does do about 442,000 rides every year," Poppy said, placing the line at roughly 53% of its pre-pandemic ridership and explaining the CTA compares current figures to 2019 as a baseline.

Why it matters: Skokie depends on the Yellow Line for commuter and event service into Chicago. Poppy described a multi-pronged approach to safety — expanding policing hours, adding crisis-intervention and community-violence outreach staff, improving faregates and signage, and station revitalizations — and identified infrastructure projects planned or underway.

The CTA highlighted recent and planned work: a grade-crossing renewal at Nile Center Road completed in 2023, a slated Crawford grade-crossing replacement later in the year, and station "refresh and renew" upgrades at Oakton and Dempster. Poppy said some projects were made possible by funding through SB 2111 and the Northern Illinois transit authority (NIDA).

On the April service disruption, Poppy said the incident was not a derailment but resulted from an operator moving without signal clearance, which led to a switch problem and extended service disruption. "It was an improper operation," she said, and CTA has provided additional training and management oversight in the affected area.

Trustees pressed the CTA on the feasibility of extending the Yellow Line to Old Orchard and on reopening an infill Crawford station. Poppy said extensions and infill projects require many factors — available land, nearby land use and development potential, federal approvals and lengthy planning — and noted rail extensions can take years or decades to complete. She said the agency is revisiting prior studies and also exploring near-term service and bus improvements to grow ridership.

Trustee Lisa Levy asked whether an extension to Old Orchard could raise ridership; Poppy said CTA is "dusting off" a prior study and weighing current constraints, while recommending incremental improvements to bus connections and service hours as near-term steps.

Poppy told the board CTA is also focusing on grade-crossing timing and broader station activations — from tactile edge replacements to live events at Howard — to make stations safer and more inviting and to drive ridership recovery.

The presentation prompted questions about communication during past extended outages; the CTA said it works with village staff on service substitutions (additional bus runs) and committed to improved coordination with Skokie for future incidents.

What’s next: CTA said it will continue planning studies, consider infill stations in coordination with Metra and Cook County, and pursue infrastructure work funded through regional grants and NIDA allocations.