Chicagoist: CTA Faces City Council, Higher Fares In 2009?

Tower18

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:51:15 -0600

Even if they could, they shouldn't. If you want to put exit turnstiles at O'Hare and Midway and charge an extra $1 or something there, go for it...but fare zones are set up for commuting, not for primary transit needs. Plus, it would obviously penalize those who live in far out neighborhoods (the less-wealthy, as opposed to DC) while making commutes cheaper for those in Lincoln Park and such that don't need any help paying their fare. The DC Metro's system of fare collection shouldn't be a model for anyone. What a disaster. Anything that requires me to look at a chart, look at my watch, and then do math, just to figure out if I have enough money to make the trip is not a good system.

mikely1

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:35:41 -0600

Ralph, unlike the D.C. Metro (which has a ton of turnstyle thingies at every station) the CTA is really not set up to accomodate 80 people trying to swipe out of Belmont every three minutes. That's why the CTA will never be able to charge by distance travelled. I can't think of any transit system as old as the CTA that does that.

Scooter Libbby

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:53:29 -0600

The real Ralph Wiggum is an idiot & the one here wants to emulate him. NYC doesn't zone fares either! Neither does LA! In fact LA subways have no turnstiles at all! To zone fares requires a totally different station design, which the CTA doesn't have & never will! It requires a much larger exit area so all the people exiting can get through at the same speed they do so now. Otherwise they will jam up & get hurt in the crush of large numbers getting off in the Loop & major stations.

MK

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:55:44 -0600

"When The CTA finally figures out that my taking the train from Chinatown to O'Hare shouldn't cost the exact same price as my taking the train from Fullerton to Diversey, I'll start having some sympathy for their plight." If you are saying that there should be a strict distance based fare system on the CTA that would cost more for greater distances, that is a truly nutty idea. We had a discussion about this on CTA Tattler beginning near the middle of this thread: http://www.ctatattler.com/2008/08/sour-economy-co.html Of course, there might be some cases where it does make sense to charge higher prices. And travelling to or from O'Hare might be an example. But distance should have nothing to do with it.

ophmarketing

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:17:05 -0600

I agree, Ralph. Are we the only major metro system that DOESN'T have fare zones?

BlueFairlane

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:18:26 -0600

It's nice to see the council take a stand on this Block 37 thing $213 million into it. Too bad they didn't have any say in this at the beginning.

Not_another_username

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:20:45 -0600

Pssst--RalphWiggum hates poor people. Pass it on.

RalphWiggum

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:00:38 -0600

When The CTA finally figures out that my taking the train from Chinatown to O'Hare shouldn't cost the exact same price as my taking the train from Fullerton to Diversey, I'll start having some sympathy for their plight.

YoknapatawphaTourismBoard

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:58:27 -0600

Peasants demand more cake! More cake in 08!

Ward Up

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:45:45 -0600

I saw the hilarious story on Fox News at Nine about Huberman trying to boost his police pension in an appearance, with his lawyer, before the pension board. He was trying to use his OEMC years and his CTA years as part "public safety," and thus, incredibly, to count them as CPD years. That way, he get a huge CPD pension that he clearly does NOT deserve. If you were ever on the fence about whether or not Huberman is a lizard, you should have no doubt now.