2008 CTA Budget: "Doomsday" Was An Understatement

By Margaret Lyons in News on Oct 12, 2007 7:08PM

Ron Huberman et al handed down the proposed 2008 CTA budget, and it ain't pretty. At all.

The "Back to Basics" budget, as the CTA is calling it, is a two-fold plan: Phase one goes into effect Nov 4, phase two in January. Both phases suck ass.

Huberman says in his intro letter,

What this document does not do is tell the story of the hundreds of thousands of CTA riders and employees who will be put through great hardship due to the service cuts, fare increases and lay-offs described in these pages. It is important for our riders to know that all of us at the CTA do not want to see this budget become a reality. We remain hopeful that the Illinois General Assembly will pass a long-term funding solution that will solve the region's transit issues.

The service cuts are severe:

Here's the list of cut routes.

The other big issue? Fares are gonna go way, way up.

And finally, the CTA will lay off 600 employees in November and 1,799 employees in January. In total, that's the elimination of 82 bus routes, the termination of 2,436 employees, and a whole bunch of money.