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We all know how much money the CTA doesn't have, but they won't let us forget that it is about 110 million. Now Chicagoist struggled through accounting classes in college, but that seems like a lot of money. Mayor Daley and CTA president Ron Huberman are on their second trip to Springfield in search of a bailout, and they are throwing out every possible worst case scenario they could come up with.
Though Huberman has already cut 12.5 million from the CTA budget, without a little cash from the great state of Illinois, Captain Ron* is threatening service cuts and increased fares. Even though the CTA is still a bargain, fares were raised just last year by $0.25, and what exactly do service cuts entail? What do you get if you decrease service on the blue line? We hesitate to venture a guess.
We like to hate on the CTA, but they did just purchase a ton of low-emission New Flyer buses to replace aging TMC buses (we have no clue what brand is the Mercedes of Buses), and they claim to have seven more Brown Line trains running during rush hour in the Belmont/Fullerton area.
Also, we witnessed a medical emergency when a woman had a seizure on our train to Midway yesterday. Though we aren't sure why we stopped in the middle of nowhere for about 10 minutes until the conductor had checked on the passenger, but by the time we arrived at the next stop, the Fire Department was waiting on the platform.
So, c'mon Illinois, help our transit system out.
*(+2 blog points for referencing a bad Kurt Russell movie)
Image via thirdrail
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The Brown Line has been very good around Fullerton lately, even during rush hour. This track switching pain only comes into play on the after work ride home.
um, actually, Mercedes is the Mercedes of buses.
i went from wicker park to uptown today in less than 45 minutes.
i really hope they get their funding straight cause the cta is doing the best it can post-kruesi.
how about they teach their dumb bus drivers how to drive and stop crashing into cars and pedestrians, then people wouldnt sue the CTA for millions. would save tons of money in the long run.
I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories, so consider this a mental excercise.
Yesterday I rode the Blue Line for the first time in a couple of months (I've been biking) and noticed that somebody had used bright green spray paint to write the word "express" next to survey-looking notations all along the tunnels from Division to Clark & Lake. What if all these service interruptions and track work are to cover work on the O'Hare Express without making it blatant? What if Daley and company are getting ready to gut the Blue Line so tourists can make it to the pretty downtown without having to deal with all the homeless folks and the dirty west side people? What if they think the Milwaukee Bus makes the O'Hare Blue Line redundant, and when Block 37's done the Blue Line becomes a dedicated, $9 route?
Captain Ron is a highly underrated movie. Funny as hell.
PS - Drink heavily whilst watching
I won't insert a long commentary (I'm speaking in relative terms, of course). But I thought (cuz you all know how helpful I am and all) I'd say Mr. Huberman isn't just threatening cuts. It's either transit gets funded, or runs out of money before the end of the year and shuts down.
Last year, the RTA asked CTA, Metra, and Pace to submit balanced budgets to maintain existing service levels at current fares, accounting for likely operating expenses through 2007--with the expectation that the State would fund those budgets properly (which can only happen with action by the legislature--otherwise, they'd have been implementing cuts as early as January 1 to have gotten through the year on preexisting funding).
So, they basically are coming up with their contingency plans. I think what we're going to end up seeing proposed will make the 2005 doomsay look more like child's play.
Thankfully, it seems to finally be on legislator's minds. I mean, do we fund regional transit properly so the system can be clean, safe, efficient, and effective? Or do we let it rot to the point of uselessness and throw in our hat as a world city?
That's a pretty cool image, I must say.