Sunday service coming to Dodge Avenue bus route this August
The Chicago Transit Board (the CTA’s governing body) approved adding Sunday service on Bus Route 93 California/Dodge at its June 11 meeting.
This year’s CTA budget included funding for improving and expanding bus routes to fill service gaps and meet what the transit agency considers an area of higher demand.
During the Wednesday meeting, the board approved several changes. For Route 93, which primarily serves the Dodge Avenue corridor in Evanston, the CTA will add Sunday service starting Aug. 17.
By winter, the route will be extended from its current Chicago terminal at the Kimball Brown Line L station to Logan Square Blue Line L station, filling in the service gap on the section of California Avenue between Lawrence Avenue and Addison Street (and giving Evanstonians a one-seat ride from downtown Evanston to Logan Square).
While the CTA has the funding to cover the changes for the rest of 2025, board directors and CTA executives are well aware of the uncertain financial picture for 2026.
Acting president Nora Leerhsen said the Regional Transportation Authority, which has the final say over CTA, Metra and Pace budgets and sets the basic parameters for budget planning, is asking the three agencies to develop two budgets – one that assumes the Illinois General Assembly will come through with just enough funding to avert the transportation fiscal cliff, and one which assumes that it doesn’t.
The doomsday plan CTA presented to the RTA in March suggested that, in the latter scenario, Route 93 could be one of routes on the chopping block.
Route 93 improvements
The route primarily follows a street that’s known as California Avenue in Chicago and Dodge Avenue in Evanston. The route takes Dodge as far north as Emerson Street, then takes Emerson to reach downtown Evanston, terminating at Davis Purple Line L station.
While Evanston is served by several CTA and Pace bus routes, only five of them operate on Sundays — CTA Route 97/Skokie and Pace Route 215, which serve Howard Street, Pace Route 208, which serves portions of Golf Road and Church Street; and Pace’s Pulse Dempster express service and its companion Route 250, which primarily serve Dempster Street. Adding Sunday service to Dodge Avenue would provide a north-south option away from the lakeshore.
Route 93’s Sunday hours will be the same as its current Saturday hours, with the first buses departing at 7 a.m., and the last buses departing at 8:15 p.m.
Molly Poppe, CTA’s chief innovation officer, said regarding route improvements her department recommends service upgrades based on several factors. They want to make the service more frequent and consistent, fill service gaps, improve connections to other bus and train services; and try to tap into “new mobility patterns.”
She said both the Sunday service and route changes are projected to bring in around 1,000 new daily riders and cost around $2.2 million a year. Poppe clarified later during the meeting that the number would not include extra fare revenue. Assuming every new rider pays a standard bus fare of $2.25, it would generate at least $2,250 a day or at least around an additional $82,250 a year.
Poppe also detailed several smaller changes that didn’t require board approval — mostly improvements to evening and late night “owl service.” CTA bus routes 157 Streeterville/Taylor, which, among other things, connects Northwestern Hospital and Northwestern’s Streeterville campus to Chicago’s West Side neighborhoods, will run two hours longer, from 7:15 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
CTA Board member Roberto Requejo said that he didn’t want the prospect of cuts next year to overshadow the improvements CTA is making this year.
“[We want to] make sure we’re sending the message that we’re not making cuts this year,” he said.
Board member Michelle Lee also expressed support for the improvements.
“I’m excited, always, to see extended bus routes, especially on weekends,” she said.
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