Results tagged “rta”

With the CTA facing a budget gap in the hundreds of millions of dollars and another potential CTA fare hike looming, everyone involved is looking for ways to save some cash. The Regional Transportation Authority has now suggested tweaking the free rides for seniors program implemented by then-governor Rod Blagojevich. Instead of giving free rides to all seniors, the RTA has suggested providing free rides to low-income seniors who make below a suggested threshold of $22,000 a year. The RTA cited a study by the University of Illinois in Chicago which estimated the CTA lost between $38 million and $112 million from the new program. According to the RTA, setting the new limit would account for a boost of around $37 million for the CTA.

With all the talk of fare hikes, doomsdays, and state funding shortfalls we've heard about our public transportation system since the beginning of the year, well, there's going to be even more talk over the next several days. Starting tomorrow and running until next Tuesday, September 1, the RTA will conduct 13 hearings to help them set next year's budget. WBBM 780 has more on the meetings as well as a break-down of the schedule.

As expected, the Regional Transportation Authority board agreed this week to slash public funding for Chicago-area transit services by $67 million over the next six months. The nine board members in attendance voted unanimously for the cuts, in the hopes that they will bring the transit agencies' growing budget deficits in line with lower tax revenues.

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]

Cell phones and the CTA. For now, this relationship serves only one purpose: to annoy the hell out of us when people of trains and buses decided to TALK WAY TOO LOUD on their cell phones in transit. Inside voices, folks, and chances are the conversation can wait 10 minutes. But now the RTA is looking into a relationship between the two that might actually prove useful. The Tribune is reporting that the RTA hopes to one day in the very near future - as opposed to the BladeRunner future - putting in a system that allows riders to swipe their fare by cell phone rather than fare card. While the RTA is already developing a new "smart card," they're looking into a recent trial that San Francisco's BART system tried. Joseph Moriarty, the RTA's principal analyst, said, "I think it's one of the most promising technologies out there. More people carry a cell phone than carry credit or debit cards." Check out the Trib's story for more info, including what the phones in SF needed in order to correctly operate.

Eight legislators saw the best and worst of the city's transit on a tour led by the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee to show the need for a multi-billion dollar program to upgrade and maintain the transit system on Friday.

The suburban bus arm of the Regional Transportation Authority, Pace, is expected to announce Thursday a plan to add express buses along I-55, traveling from the southwest suburbs all the way to downtown. With plans to begin no later than early 2010, the buses will depart from Bolingbrook and utilize the left shoulder along I-55 to bypass traffic jams (note to self: if car stalls on the Stevenson, pull over to the ). The new bus service will essentially mimic the rail service that goes down the middle of the Kennedy and Eisenhower Expressways, but obviously at a fraction of the cost compared to a brand new rail line. The RTA is looking at adding similar service in the future along the Kennedy. Turns out the CTA was planning on speeding up the city buses as well by starting a test of bus-only lanes along four routes, but those plans were tabled after Chicago lost $153 million in federal transportation funds -- how Daley managed to let a big money grab through his fingers, we still don't know. [Trib]

Some CTA news has come across the wire in the last few days. First, the truly surreal. It seems our fair transit system was honored with "Most Improved Metro" at the 2009 Metro Awards, and international awards ceremony held in London. The category aims to award the "metro who has gone the extra mile in improving their metro network in the past year." So, um, the Grand Red Line station doesn't count? The website goes on to say:

It's not just cracks in CTA buses that have our public transit overlords worried today. Once again, even in the face of record ridership and fare increases, there's another big ol' pesky budget hole to fill. The Chicago Tribune has RTA Chief Jim Reilly and Executive Director Steve Schlickman looking at the RTA having a $58 Million hole, and the CTA with $87 million to make up.

With a new transit doomsday prophecy, the area's transit systems are trying to figure out exactly how they'll manage to find the funding to stay running. At a CTA board meeting yesterday, chief financial officer Dennis Anosike revealed the alarming news that the CTA's budget deficit was at $87 million, much larger than had previously been thought. When added to the ginormous shortfall in tax revenue the RTA already outlined this week, the CTA now finds itself over $240 million in the red. Well, shit. And with everyone out of cash and looking for more, the infighting has begun as the CTA and RTA clashed over where the money would come from and who knew what when.

We mentioned yesterday the newest round of Transit Doom and how the RTA doesn't intend to do much about it with state funds, but instead asking the individual agencies to maneuver their way through it on their own. And because of that, the CTA may have to look to cut jobs to save money. According to the Chi-Town Daily News, the CTA's board will consider an ordinance authorizing job cuts at their meeting tomorrow. It'd be part of an effort to meet the agency's $1.3 billion operating budget for 2009.

In what has become a rite of passage for Chicagoans, like that first glorious spring thaw or the annual Cubs collapse, it's time again for another CTA Doomsday warning. This time, the culprit seems to be the economy and according to the Trib's Jon Hilkevitch, "The new numbers are so bleak that the "doomsday" service cuts and fare increases threatened more than a year ago appear mild in comparison to the sweeping measures that would be needed to fill gaping budget holes the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace are facing." Yikes. The CTA, Metra, and PACE are all facing huge tax revenue shortfalls which mean huge funding reductions for both 2008 and 2009.

Governor Blagojevich is currently putting together a plan that, if passed, would force all transit agencies that hike fares in 2009 and 2010 to institute a salary freeze. Yes, the same Governor Blagojevich who played chicken with the CTA during last year's doomsday threats just so he could implement free rides for seniors, a program that is costing the CTA a nice bundle of money. Still, in Blago's defense, his plan only affects nonunion employees - union salaries are determined by collective bargaining agreements - and is mainly aimed at executives, many of whom actually saw a pay increase in 2008.

Salaries for dozens of transit executives continued to rise in 2008 after state bailout money started to flow, records show. The Chicago Sun-Times Watchdogs column reported Monday that the number of Pace executives who make more than $100,000 a year increased from 13 in 2006 to 20 this year.

Continue reading "Blago Continues Making Friends in Transit"

Metra and Google have partnered to bring us a trip planner that allows residents to plan trips involving Metra's commuter trains now, a great tool for those of us who aren't too familiar with what train to take to which suburb. While the planner incorporates CTA buses and trains, its drawback is the absence of Pace information. It offers the same info as the RTA's trip planner, but with the world going Google crazy, Metra is happy to get the plug at no cost.

CTA head Ron Huberman and other local transit officials faced the City Council today and faced criticism on potential fare hikes and the debacle that is the Block 37 project. On the subject of a fare increase, Huberman said:

Ultra-low diesel, which is what we use on our buses, has increased 80 percent. Next year, we will be spending $50 million more for the same quantity of fuel than we spent the prior year. Electrical costs are coming in over 25 percent higher than they were the prior year. That means that we will be spending $7 million more just for electricity,” Huberman said.

Continue reading "CTA Faces City Council, Higher Fares In 2009?"

As Hizzonner continues his whirlwind tour of Beijing, the Trib* took us along for his little train-ride the other day. As it turns out, if you spend $7.7 billion on a transit system, it A) looks nice, B) operates well, and C) would be lovely to have in case an Olympic games somehow ends up in our neck of the woods. Oh, and if we want one, we're gonna have to pony up. Who knew.

A new report from the RTA says the CTA isn't doing enough emergency response drills, there's "debris" everywhere, operators aren't following safety protocols, tracks are severely deteriorated, and certain signal mechanisms have fallen into "disrepair." The CTA says they're on it, mostly.