The security plan calls for the addition of dozens more officers strategically deployed to areas of need, and it comes after a string of violent incidents on CTA.
In the Loop, transit riders greeted the news with mixed opinions.
It would definitely make my husband and I feel much more secure, much safer," CTA rider Dawn Cimino said. "A lot has been happening."
CTA and CPD are calling the plan a "security surge," which adds dozens of police and private security to the nation's third largest public transit system, starting Friday.
"There definitely does need to be some kind of security presence that people can turn to when people are acting erratically or anti-socially on the train," CTA rider Imran Choudhry said.
The plan expands a voluntary program that lets officers sign up to patrol CTA on their days off, increasing the average of 77 officers in the program per day to 120. The plan also calls for more private K-9 security units, raising the average of 172 per day to 188.
Earlier this week, CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling spoke with the ABC7 I-Team about CTA safety.
"We need to find a way to keep people who are offending on the CTA, who are acting out violently against other people," Snelling said. "We need to find a way to keep those people away from CTA."
But some are skeptical that this is truly window dressing. Keith Hill is the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241, the union that represents CTA workers, which for years has been calling for systemic changes to security.
"I've heard this several times," Hill said. "I'll believe it when I see it. Do I think it's enough? No."
Friday's changes come the same day that was set as a deadline by the federal government for CTA to enhance security.
ABC7 is working to learn if the new security surge plan beginning Friday is a result of that new safety plan submitted to the Federal Transit Authority.