Chicago Tribune Getting Around Column: CTA to Detail Severe Cuts
By Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune
Oct. 8–The Chicago Transit Authority this week will unveil a new and more severe round of service cuts and fare hikes to take place Jan. 1 unless the stalemate over state transit funding is broken.
The latest CTA “doomsday” scenario comes atop announced service reductions, fare increases and employee layoffs already scheduled for Nov. 4, when 39 bus routes would be eliminated and fares boosted to as high as $3 per ride.
It’s a sure sign that, at a time when mass transit in the Chicago region should be in a vigorous expansion mode to combat choking traffic congestion and the failure to meet federal standards on controlling hazardous air pollutants in all six metro-area counties, the Regional Transportation Authority system is moving in the wrong direction.
On Wednesday, CTA President Ron Huberman will present two 2008 budget alternatives to the transit agency’s board. One proposed budget is contingent on new funding; the other, under the no-new-funding scenario, slashes more service and increases fares well beyond the Nov. 4 contingency plan.
Early this year, RTA officials ordered the CTA, Metra and Pace to pass 2007 budgets based on the risky assumption that the state would approve $226 million in new operating subsidies for transit. It was a questionable move at the time by the RTA, which is responsible for providing financial oversight.
Today, the RTA’s gamble looks much, much worse. Relatively mild service cuts and fare hikes that would have taken place earlier this year to balance transit agency budgets–if indeed such measures were really necessary to convince state lawmakers of the pending transit meltdown–will pale in comparison to what may lie ahead.
Others share the blame with the RTA, however. When disagreement in the legislature over funding sources blocked passage of any new money for transit over the summer, Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) was first to call on the CTA to postpone service cuts and fare hikes set for Sept. 16, in order to buy time for a deal.
Subsequently, Gov. Rod Blagojevich came up with a plan to get the CTA and Pace through their 2007 budget crises by advancing money to the transit agencies that they are counting on in 2008, a move that critics denounced as nothing more than a “payday loan.”
The only possible bright spot is that there is still time for a funding solution as a record overtime session in the General Assembly drags on this week.
But with the first of two CTA doomsdays less than a month away, the cost of delay in passing legislation to help the transit agencies has raised the stakes dramatically. It digs a deeper hole that, without any state help, would launch a dismantling of the mass transit system, beginning with much higher fares and deeper service cuts next year.
Huberman said the changes in 2008 will be “much more severe” than anything riders have seen.
Meanwhile, Pace, the suburban bus agency, also is planning to boost fares and suspend some routes if the funding bottleneck is not eased.
The Pace contingency plan would increase para-transit fares to a standard $3 charge, up from $2.25 in Chicago and $2.50 in DuPage, Lake, McHenry and Will Counties.
More than 65 Pace feeder routes to commuter train stations are slated for elimination, and 122 weekend routes could be cut, Pace officials said.
The House Mass Transit Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. Tuesday on the need for long-term funding for mass transit operations and capital improvements. The hearing will be held at Harold Washington Community College, Lake Street and Wabash Avenue in Chicago, on the 11th floor.
Contact Getting Around at jhilkevitch@tribune.com or c/o the Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Read recent columns at www.chicagotribune.com
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