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In a refrain which is growing tiresome yet still just as worrisome, it seems the CTA is once again threatening service cuts ahead of an RTA vote. The vote, happening Thursday, would cut $61 million worth of services to make up for a drop in sales-tax revenue. If approved, overall cuts would breakdown to $35 million for the CTA, $19 million for Metra, and $7 million for PACE. CTA President Richard Rodriguez has warned that cuts would result in about a five percent reduction in service for every $10 million lost. There's no indication which specific services the CTA would be cut, but officials have said whole bus routes could be lost in addition to overall reduction in service. PACE will look to reduce services on routes with low ridership, focusing on late nights, early mornings, and weekends. As for Metra, officials for that agency seemed to be downright sunny in comparison, saying the cuts wouldn't result in lost services as the agency did not fill some vacant job posts and have held tight on spending. [Tribune]
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NYT article detailing how the city will spend all of the money from the parking meter lease by 2010.
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They should cut some service. I live in Elgin right now, and I have seen the 15 Pace Buses in the past 3 weeks with a grand total of 2 riders on them. What is the point of those buses? If they need to run anything run vans and put the buses on heavily used routes. I use public transit on a regular basis and I am convinced the CTA, Pace and Metra are well run money wasting machines.
Playing devil's advocate here... the argument is made that these are a public utility and to a certain extent should be allowed/funded to run routes at only n% of capacity (where n
Another point, you may have observed the buses near the beginning or end of their routes. I used to ride the Pace twice a day for about 15 months. The bus I took started out full in the morning but by the time I got off was nearly empty.
Hmm for some reason it didn't like that. Should have said "where n is much less than 100). Of course even with that mission there is still a vast amount of waste and inefficiency in the system."
Christ, people. Can we get past one doomsday before we start in with the next one? I can only muster up so much outrage at one time.
b..but.. the olympics!!
Don't worry. The Olympics will not only fix everything that is wrong with this city, but will result in a chicken in every pot, a hybrid in every garage, and forgiveness of your last three parking tickets (meter violations not included).
Let the bullshit shine ...
I'd like to send the CTA a copy of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and ask them to read it. These doomsday scenarios are so tired.
Sometimes the wolf is there, however.
Every major transit agency in the US, and scores of minor ones, are facing similar situations. Not to excuse the CTA's many mistakes, of course.