Ridership on Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) operations fell 3% during 2014, driven by an 8% decline in bus ridership, CTA's largest clientele, and overshadowing a gain in rail ridership of 3.9% measured against 2013 totals.

Overall, CTA 2014 ridership was affected by the “continuing long-term migration by riders to rail from bus transportation, a trend seen nationwide among many transit agencies,” the CTA said Friday, March 6, 2015, in a news release.

CTA’s rail ridership notched its highest total since the authority began tracking annual ridership in 1961.

CTA attributed severe winter weather in 2015, popularly and (by meteorlogical standards) inaccurately as the “polar vortex,” as a primary reason for the decline in bus ridership). Along with other variables, including the length of the school year for public school students, CTA, in a statement, cited the drop as a “historically severe and unusual decline in ridership.”

Systemwide, CTA rides in 2014 totaled 514.5 million, with 276.3 million taken by bus and 238.1 million taken by rail.