Progress in Springfield
Tuesday's hearing of the House Mass Transit Committee was a good airing of the issues. You can see the AP story here. Speaker Madigan and his chief counsel, Robert Uhe, asked questions for about 90 minutes, and then members of the Committee weighed in as well. The testimony highlighted the following points:
- The 1983 RTA Act authors only planned for the funding solution to last 5-6 years.
- Metra, Pace, and CTA all agreed that more funding is needed for regional transit.
- One consequence of CTA's structural deficit is a significantly underfunded pension plan. In the 1980s and 1990s, in order to keep from reducing service, CTA and its unions agreed to reduce or defer pension contributions. CTA's pension was only 46% funded in January 2004 and is project to run out of funds by 2014. The fund's actuaries project that CTA needs an additional $200 million per year to avoid much more dramatic service or fare changes in the next 5 to 10 years.
- CTA's fares have increased over 95% since 1983, faster than the rate of inflation. Metra fares have increased just 20%. If CTA had received sufficient funding to hold fares to a 20% increase, today's fare would be just $1.10, and ridership would be 70 million trips higher.
- The RTA system was set up from the start to require most of the "discretionary" funding to go to CTA, making the term "discretionary" a complete misnomer (not to mention patronizing).
- The City of Chicago contributes roughly $30 million each year to CTA's operating budget in cash and in-kind contributions (mostly police services), and has contributed over $800 million to CTA's capital budget since 1989.
posted by Carole Brown | 4/27/2005 10:00:00 AM
46 Comments:
Hey Carole, how many times a month do you ride the CTA?
You said"If CTA had received sufficient funding to hold fares to a 20% increase, today's fare would be just $1.10, and ridership would be 70 million trips higher."
Gee, and if service were actually at the level that your company claims, I might actually ride more often. It takes me the same amount of time to WALK from Michigan & Wacker to Union Station as it does to wait for a 123 and ride. So much for a route that's posted to run every 5-7 minutes...
And how about the fact that I watch FOUR TO FIVE busses running Route 122 in the time that it takes for a single 123 to show up? And this is on either end of the route, morning and night, on a consistent basis?
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RE: "how many times a month do you ride CTA?"
Thanks for asking, xlprq. Depending on my professional travel schedule, I take the bus several times a month, the #3 or #4 to work, and any number of Michigan Avenue routes for errands.
RE: Jenn's comments on the #122 and #123:
I am sorry you have experienced poor service. I have asked the supervisor overseeing the #123 to monitor this situation closely. Please let me know if the problem continues.
The #123 does experience different traffic patterns than the #122, but you may be interested to learn that the level of service on the street is roughly equivalent. The Feb. 2005 ridership on the #122 was 768, for the #123 ridership was 742.
Carole said:
"The Feb. 2005 ridership on the #122 was 768, for the #123 ridership was 742."
So then WHY are there so many more units on the streets running 122 than there are 123s? And why aren't the supervisors making adjustments?
Ms. Brown:
Does the CTA have any lobbying operations in Springfield to help further prompt lawmakers for funding reform?
Carol, How in good conscience can you say you care about transit riders if you don't ride transit to and from work? Why don't you ride the CTA to and from work? Is it because it is inconvenient? Untimely? Unsafe?
http://kjo84.typepad.com/cta_tattler/2005/04/lets_invade_cta.html
I board the blue line to head to the loop every morning at the Chicago stop, and often I have to wait for one or two trains to pass before one comes that is not packed to the brim with people. This is during the presumably high-service rush hour schedule. If the planned Sunday schedule goes into effect, I can guarantee you that this stop, used by many, will be rendered useless in the morning, as no one will else be able to fit on the train by the time it gets there. This would probably spread northward and effect the popular Division and Damen stops as well.
This obviously makes obsolete one of the prime reasons to live in my neighborhood, as well as the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods, which is the access to the loop. Removing this attribute from these neighborhoods will undoubtedly have negative repercussions on the real estate markets there, which have sucked up tens of millions of dollars in investment in recent years. Have you considered partnering with real estate developers in your bid to convince the state to bail out the CTA? Perhaps if the developers explained that there would be less construction, which means less jobs and less property tax income for the state from fewer pricy condos being built, then our legislators would take us seriously.
Unmikely, as I said above, I ride the #3 or the #4 to work when my crazy travel schedule for my other "full-time" job permits. Actually, the most convenient bus for me is the #1 because it takes me directly to my office, but the #x3 and the #x4 are much more frequent.
Unmikely, you don't happen to wear a yellow gortex jacket everyday, do
you?
Thanks for doing the blog. It's an interesting way for head of public agency to interact with the public. I hope you don't feel compelled to respond to each and every post as this seems to have the potential to take off. It's a more job to listen really than to react to each concern although the responses below have been excellent. That you so much.
I sympathize with you Carole, however people in Chicago DO travel to other cities where we notice that their public transportation systems don't:
• have iron work/tempered glass/heated&lit bus rest areas
• have aboard thier busses scrolling message boards announcing time of day and the name of the next stop
• have aboard thier busses audio systems to play prerecorded public service announcements to warn us of unattended packages, riders who "sneak aboard" and more.
• have three completely separate methods to pay your fare on every bus.
• have within downtown underground train stops, audio systems with celebrity voiceovers announcing those very stops and nearby events/points of interest.
All of these things are great and even appreciated by your ridership. However Carole, what Chicagoans who travel do notice about other cities and thier systems of public transportation:
• trains and busses run on time
• fares are 25 to 75¢ cheaper than in Chicago
• system capacities are generally greater and better upgraded
Neither side of this argument wholly outweighs the other. However the public is wise and sees clearly this disparity. A balance must be struck between the largesse that has existed and the more operationally self-sufficient and tightly-run ship that we all know the CTA can and must become. Other cities have managed to foster more self-sufficient, less glitz, more grit, functionally and fiscally superior public transportation systems. The people of Chicago deserve the same.
Carole, the more you and other officials of the Authority deny mismanagement of funding, the higher up within the organization the axe will almost certainly fall. When will you and other officials begin discussing constuctively what new steps neccessary to begin the process of reducing overhead costs and improving service?
FYI ... "unmikely" is a login name and password that were posted on the CTA Tattler web site recently. This was done so that anyone who wants to ask Carol a question can do so without having to sign up for their own Blogger account.
username: unmikely
password: bloggo
Thank you for blogging.
Will you please post the appraisal that says you are selling the Wilson Yards land at market price?
The Reader is reporting (4/29) that if the CTA got a fair price for this stratigically located land, that up to half of the CTA's current deficit could be wiped out.
The public paid for this appraisal. Will you please publish it here on your blog?
Thank you again.
Hi Carole,
This is another person using the "unmikely" account...
I agree with Thurston's assessment of the morning Blue Line commute. I ride the Blue every day from the Damen stop, and the trains are VERY crowded at this extremely popular Bucktown/Wicker Park stop. With the reduced service, it will be impossible to get to and the Loop from Damen, Division, Chicago, and Grand. This will have a devastating effect on these neighborhoods, and will reverse the recent encomic resurgence of the neighborhoods along the Blue Line. Don't cut service on this route! I've lived elsewhere in the City, and the Brown and Red lines will also be a problem during rush hour! Isn't there some way to cut service without affecting the crucial rush hour commutes?!?
Yet another person using the unmikely account.
How many ChicagoCards have been sold? I read recently (Trib or Sun Times) the CTA was 'contractually obligated' to sell 300,000, but in reality had only sold 30,000. I'd like to know if these numbers are correct, and to what entity the CTA is 'obligated' to sell 10 times the number sold.
Thank you in advance.
"We are committed to making sure that each ride you take is on-time, clean, safe and friendly, and will strive towards excellence in serving you."
This quote is right off your website. I am a rider of the CTA and I would say you at less than 50% on the five items listed in that statement. For one, the "on-time" comment is far from true. On time means that if you post the train will arrive at 11:38 it shows up at 11:38 not 11:44. If you think that is on time, you need to pick up a watch. Buses are never on time (well i guess that is a hard thing to say since you do not post any times when a bus will show up. So, a person can stand/sit outside for over 30 min and a bus or 4 will show up.) Clean? Have you been in or on the "L" platforms, ever? These platforms are disgusting, if you feel that is clean, I would love to see your homes. The "L" is not clean, far from, the platforms are dark and dirty. The only one that I have seen that you care about is the O'Hare platform. I have ridden transit around Europe (much older then ours) and they are clean and on time. I know you are going to say "But that is Europe, we are in the US" We that is a bunch of bull. You can learn from what they have perfected. Czech Republic subway was underwater in 2002 and I was just there in November and it is all running and clean. The only time I can remember that you would have had to deal with flooding is when the river flooded the city in 1992. So, why can't you get the system clean? Are you lazy? Spending money on redoing platforms but they don't look any better. I got off the Logan Square platform, It has potential to be cleaned up and brightened so you don't feel like you are in a dungeon. But, again you will say "We have no money" Well if you had the money you still would not fix it. I feel you really do not care what the CTA looks like or if it runs on time. I have the feeling that you feel that the people of Chicago should be happy we have a transit system. Well, maybe the State or the City should take the system away from you.
I know you are getting a lot of emails about people complaining about the system and the cuts. Instead of complaining about it the whole email, I will give you some suggestions. I would hope you look into every suggestion you get from the public, since we fund you.
I will start with the busses.
1. There is way to many stops on a single bus run. Stopping at every intersection is stupid. How about removing all the little stops off the bus lines. Example: Your map of the 66 Chicago bus shows you stop at major intersections. I have ridden that bus and it stops at a lot small streets. When it gets to the Blue line at Milwaukee, it stops before the intersection, at the blue line, and after the intersection. I would have to ask why? Remove 2 of those stops and you cut down time the bus stops. The bus should stop at the Blue line only.
2. Post the times the bus will be at the stop you are waiting. I know traffic is not in your control, I have a simple fix for that. You have the ability to calculate the time it takes for a bus to go from one stop to the next during the heaviest times of traffic. Calculate those times, if the bus shows up early to the stop, it waits until the time it is scheduled to leave. That will solve 2 problems you have, one being the buses never on time and two it fixes the doubling up of the buses. If they stay on schedule then they will never double up.
3. If you follow #2 you can schedule the buses to meet the train schedule and a person could ride a certain bus (marked on schedule to match train schedule i.e. 66 bus at Ashland, if you get on at 9:00 it will meet the Blue line at Chicago at 9:15) and get off bus go down into subway and get on train. Now that would be something.
4. Have something to hold onto if you have to stand.
Moving on to Rail.
1. First, I would love to know how you can possibly not be on time with the rail. You control 100% of the line, no other train to stop you, no cars to prevent you from going. How can it not run on posted times? So, my first suggestion is to just show up on time. Not hard to do. On all platforms have a clock that counts down for when the next train is going to show up.
2. Actually clean the platforms. Improve the lighting and the quality in the platforms. They are like being in a dungeon, especially in the Downtown area. You fixed up the free transfer between Red and Blue at Jackson, But it is filthy now.
3. Have the train stop at the same spot every time. Mark it on the platform where the doors will open. O'Hare tram does it why is it so hard for you?
4. I have heard you are looking into newer trains. Well, if you do move the doors to the front and back. Make the space big enough to stand if you wish. Have something to hold on if you need to stand in the walkway.
I hope you look into ways to improve the service and not just cut the service and raise rates, If you wish the public to continue supporting you. You are asking for public money, so remember that is our tax dollars make our money worth what we are paying for.
I'm glad you are doing this blog. I have one MAJOR issue with the CTA.
Who on earth is doing your L car advertising? I'm talking about the horizontal ad spaces inside the cars- much of the time they are blank, and when there are ads, they are usually public service ads, so presumably you are not getting 'market' prices for them.
I can't imagine that advertisers wouldn't love to have such a captive audience. Either you are pricing the ads too high, or somebody isn't even trying.
There is no reason why those ad spaces shouldn't be full at all times, mostly with commercial ads. I have no problem with setting aside some space for public service type ads, but c'mon. There is money to be had there.
Carole, thanks for this site. It takes courage to have a blog like this up. I have some real problem with things done in the past at the CTA with regards to Victor Reyes and the contracts. I do however have a suggestion for you. Why don’t you put in LCD TVs in the rail cars. Many elevators downtown have these TV monitors that display general information like the Time, the temperature, different events in the building etc. 7-11 stores also use this technology, they give out lottery numbers, weather, news headlines etc.
The CTA could provide information like different station closures, prices of passes for students, seniors. Information on CTA services for disabled riders. Short little promos about tourism for the people coming or going to O’Hare. You could also have the people at the City’s Municipal TV channel produce abbreviated versions of their shows like Crimewatch with Peter Karl and the other shows that Bob Wallace does. You could also give out all the city’s special events information. The term in the business is Digital Signage and I think its worth looking into.
here's a radical idea....
roll back fare prices to 1.10 (including a tranfsfer) for one month and see how many more riders you get using the system vs. the current situation. if rider numbers go up then that means more money in the long run for CTA, right.
here's a radical idea....
roll back fare prices to 1.10 (including a tranfsfer) for one month and see how many more riders you get using the system vs. the current situation. if rider numbers go up then that means more money in the long run for CTA, right.
Carole -
You should resign.
I got off the CTA bus one day last week to get to my car only to find it with a flat tire. This fine young gentlemen (ENRIQUE OROZCO JR)pulled over in his gray jeep and identified himself as a CTA employee. He was kind enough to change my flat tire in the rain and was quite impressed that he allowed me to sit inside my vehicle while he changed it. I felt so bad because he soiled his white shirt and he refused to take my money I offered for his dry cleaning. Although CTA is going through a financial crisis, with more people like Mr. Orozco, good things are bound to happen. Thank you CTA.
Knowing that I have to rely on the L to take me home from work tonight makes me sick. I am just waiting for it to fall off the tracks and all the cars are so old and GROSS. The L is an embarrasment to the city of Chicago. Have you ever rode the train in DC or even Detroit?? Our L looks like it belongs in a very small city in 1979. The fare increase is a slap in the face to people who depend on public transit. And you owe me for all my back problems from leaning on the plexi-glass partions and having the driver slam on the breaks. I want to move!
I think it was a great idea to create this blog.
That said, regarding the fare increases or service cuts that have been discussed in the papers. A friend of minde said that those were "not realistic," and that most likely these are really a "bargaining chip" for the CTA to use to bring the state to the table with a higher offer in compromise.
My question is, this the case, or are the cuts and fare increases what we can really expect, if no more funding is forthcoming from the feds and/or the state?
I ride the 147 in the morning, and service is fairly good. I've been using CTA off and on for the last 10 years I've lived in Chicago. Many of the drivers are very courteous, but some are downright rude, and even nasty. Does the CTA provide any training for the drivers/operators and other employees in customer service?
Hi, one thing I never hear anyone talking about is the percentage of the CTA's operating budget that is contributed by the city of Chicago from its general revenues. I have heard that this amount comes to less than half of one percent of the operating costs, yet the city and its residents receive tremendous benefits from the CTA's operations.
Are other transit systems getting better support from their host communities? Why is this tiny tiny percentage never mentioned in press accounts of the budget crisis?
Only an individual who has to rely solely on public transportation can fully understand the need for public transportation.
Ms. Brown, please park your vehicle for a month or more, and then let us know your experience with public transportation. Thank you very much.
Ms. Brown, thanks for setting up a blog. That takes courage given the heat on the CTA. I also loved your Gore-Tex jacket comment.
With all due respect, it's time for you and Kreusi to resign. You should resign for your quote in Crain's about taking the cab to work because it's the fastest way. Even if your schedule is hectic, this type of statement does not inspire public confidence in the CTA. Kreusi should go for his gross mismanagement of the Brown Line renovation.
Maybe this is not such a good time for the CTA to subsidize real estate developments by contributing CTA land. Maybe this is a time for the CTA to marshall its resources, take care of itself, and do what's best for the CTA.
As Chair of the Board, aren't you responsible for stewardship of the CTA's assets?
Will you release to the public the appraisal the CTA had done at public expense which shows that the CTA land at the WIlson Yard is being sold to developers at market price? Some of my neighbors and I would very much like to look it over.
Thanks again.
It'll never happen Hugh. It's about as likely as Carole using the CTA as her sole means of getting around the city. It's laughable that she uses CTA fewer times in a month than I do in a week. Who ARE these people and why do we put up with this?
we just got a
the state is talking about $9 billion in new roads.
can't chicago politicians strike a deal that includes a portion of that to mass transit?
I would imagine that about 4-5% of illinois's trips are made on CTA. that pans out to $400 million in funds to expand rail service, ridership and revenues.
the CTA can also enact fare zones like Metra or London's Underground.
Another option would be to enact a toll for drivers coming into the city (ala London) that goes into a "clean air tax". This tax can go to anything from expanding and bettering transit and money for green technologies/parks. While London charges about $10 to drivers, Chicago wouldn't have to charge more then a $1 a trip.
Surpisingly, this tax enacted in London has not hurt the city, but helped reduce car congestion and pollution and increased rail transit into and within the city.
I think that it's silly that people want the CTA to add silly things like LCD TVs when there isn't money to run the trains or buses.
Here's an idea: I watch people sell unsuspecting Cubs fans parking spots below the CTA tracks for $25-30 every Cubs home game. Isn't that technically CTA property? If you rented just 6 spaces at $25 for every Cubs home game (81 games) you would make $12,150.
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Hello Carole, I continue to hear info about slashing service and raising fares. Today I stood on North Ave. and central for 42 minutes waiting for a bus going east bound. Four buses showed up at once. Then on my return trip I waited 37 minutes for a bus at North and Pulaski going west 5 buses arrived at once. There were 2 supervisors on duty talking about what they were going to eat for lunch. So I guess my question is how are we the cta riders suppose to function if the service is any slower than this?
Carole said:
"The #123 does experience different traffic patterns than the #122, but you may be interested to learn that the level of service on the street is roughly equivalent. The Feb. 2005 ridership on the #122 was 768, for the #123 ridership was 742."
So are you making the assumption that those 742/768 riders are on the bus every single day and in both directions? Or is this the total number of fares collected over the span of a month?
And just how recent are these numbers, because ridership has definitely dropped with the warmer weather. In December, these busses are standing room only and packed within 5 minutes of their arrival at Union Station. Today there was actually room to sit. Whether this is solely a matter of outside temperatures and lack of precipitation or a comment on the fact that we can walk faster than the bus can get us to our offices is unknown. (In my case it's primarily a speed issue. Why sit at a bus stop for 15 minutes when I can be halfway to my office in that time?)
Unmikely, you don't happen to wear a yellow gortex jacket everyday, do
you?
Best line ever!
Carole, thank you for creating this blog.
I have great concerns about the service cuts that have been proposed. I take the Red Line every day from Loyola to downtown, and I cannot believe how crowded the trains are during rush hours. If the schedules are cut, how will the rush hour riders be accomodated? There is barely enough room now to accomodate everyone with a full schedule. Is the CTA's position just "too bad"? I have not heard anything creative from the CTA or anyone else on how this is all going to work for the rush hour riders depending on public transportation to get to work.
Thank you for creating this blog.
A few years ago CTA made a big point of promoting its mission statement along the lines of:
CTA's mission is to provide Quality, Affordable, Public Transportation that Links People, Jobs and Communities in a manner that is Clean, Safe, On Time and Friendly.
CTA is often criticized for not being friendly in its dealings with the public and your willingness to do this, have a blog and respond to comments from the public directly makes me feel like CTA is listening when I feel that this funding crisis is threatening the rest of CTA's mission.
I don't see how CTA can provide Quality or Affordable service without help from the Illinois State Legislature. When CTA was created, the funding package assumed that CTA would receive Federal Operating Assistance from the Federal Government to the tune of 80 million dollars a year.
In his lust for Star Wars Reagan cut that assistance from CTA and every other Transit system in the country assuming that the States would pick up the tab. This would have been in the late 80's or early 90's.
But Illinois did not do this. Unlike many of the East Coast States and California the Illinois State Legislature did nothing to change CTA's funding formula, instead it forced CTA to cut service and raise fares in the 90's. This benefitted no one and added to the congestion which we all face today.
I do not know about you, but I think that the congestion we face on the streets and on the highways is much, much worse than it was 15 years ago, and this is a direct result of Reagan's policies and the State legislators failure to pick up the ball.
Here we are 15 - 18 years later, and as Reagan would say "Here we go again" it looks like they are going to sit on their hands and not do enough for transit, while Bush tries to scare us all into thinking that problems abroad and profits at home are more important than the day to day needs of everyday working Americans.
What I cannot understand, what galls me, is after decades of Republican control of the Govenor's office that it is the Democrats who are standing in the way of making things right for CTA. I certainly would not stand in the way of a critical need downstate - why can they not act on a critical need here?
From what I could figure out from what was on the website, the staff and the Transit Board made the only contingency plans possible given the funding now available, but if the legislature does not act, I believe it will be an act of public disservice unique in the history of Illinois.
Chicago is a grid system. CTA's service quality depends on a certain level of service for its customers to be able to make their journeys. Without that level of service quality the whole system falls apart and CTA faces the very real prospect of driving customers off the system.
I do not feel that CTA's customers should tolerate that. If it were not for the need to be on time for work the legislators should be faced with crowds calmly waiting at bus stops and train stations for the service to arrive. Sadly this won't happen and eventually people will buy cars further increasing congestion and pollution in what is already an ozone non-attainment zone.
Frankly, I am surprised that the EPA will allow the State of Illinois to allow CTA to cut this much service given that Cook County is in non-attainment. Perhaps there is no regulation against it. Perhaps it is only because we have a Republican Federal Administration. I am not a lawyer.
The second problem is of course with affordable service. I have a harder time with that one because CTA has been such a bargain over the years. With no Fare increases for 12 years and even then not keeping up with the price of inflation it is hard to argue that CTA fares could not go up, particularly given the recent increases in the price of fuel which have to impact CTA just as they affect drivers.
At the same time there is a social justice argument that senior citizens and the working poor need CTA to function and I do not want to undermine those who are already struggling to survive.
I think this is where I have the biggest problem with the idea of service cuts. Instead of shrinking service CTA should be expanding service, linking people who live in the city to where the jobs are whether that is in Chicag or in the suburbs. CTA is not an agency of the City of Chicago, it is an independent state agency that serves the City and a large number of suburbs.
I feel strongly that it should serve those suburbs more completely, especially to major employer sites just or not far outside the city limits where bus service stops for no reason other than the fact that streetcars once stopped there.
We should also consider whether it makes sense to look at employment patterns and cultivate relationships with new suburban partners that need the employees that Chicago has and CTA can deliver.
In the mean time, what the State Legislature must address is that CTA does not have either an equitable or stable source of funding.
Its funding source is inequitable because suburban residents make great use of CTA yet CTA gets little or no benefits of suburban sales taxes despite the large share of Chicago city residents that shop in the suburbs. Perhaps we Chicago residents should boycott suburban shopping completely, but this is unrealistic. It is the distribution that is unfair.
A second level of inequity is that Metra is allowed to undercut CTA fares within the City limits. This has to stop. Metra should not be allowed to charge less than the CTA cash fare for a one way ticket for any ride that originates or terminates within the City of Chicago. Period. Over the years Metra has been quietly undercharging for services within the city and overcharging their suburban customers to do so. Yet they do not complain.
Another inequity that stems from the funding inequities is I am afraid, at least a perceived, if not an actual racial bias. Why is it that the majority of predominantly white male suburban riders get to commute into the city on double-decker air-conditioned express commuter trains, some of which have bar cars, while two-thirds of CTA's customers the majority of which are female and many minority must uses buses which have a much lower travel time, require transfers to finish trips, and in general have much lower service quality?
The answer is to be found easily in the disparity in funding between CTA and Metra over the last 15 or more years. When Reagan discontinued Federal Operating Assistance to CTA, CTA was receiveing $80 million a year in operations dollars THAT WAS NOT REPLACED.
That is a lot of service. $150 Million dollars worth of bus operator and rail operator salaries without an equitable funding split!
So if you have had the feeling that CTA has been getting a raw deal over the last two decades. Surprise. You are right.
The Chairman Can't fix it. The President of CTA can't fix it.
This kind of problem can Only be fixed by State Legislators who created the mess in the first place.
Oh, who had control of the State Legislature back then?
Republicans. So why can't it be fixed now.
Why can't we find a stable funding source for CTA that does not whipsaw up and down with the economy like an out of control elevator or the parachute ride at Riverview?
Is it even a good idea to use a sales tax as the basis for transit funding?
By itself no. For exactly that reason. As the economy plunges, transit fares are forced to go up just when family budgets are tightest due to lost jobs and job searches are limited due to service cuts. What are we as a society, stupid?
Nobody likes real estate taxes, but that would be a more stable source.
A better model is used in New York State where they have a Real Estate Mortgage Tax of 1%.
48% goes to the municipality in which the mortgage originates. 50% to the Transit Authorities that provide service through a formula. 2% to an agency that distrubutes the funding. It has broad ongoing support because the municipalities got a new revenue source. In a region like this one, anyone who stays in their house for a long time never pays it.
The tax tends to be paid disproportionately by those who move in and out of the region quickly because of corporate job climbing or because of a one time move into the region and so becomes a kind of user fee.
Those who refinance do feel it, but it is low enough that it does not discourage refinancing when good drops in rates are seen. And in times of real recession where major buildings change hands or are refinanced, think Sears Tower, it can be a major source of income. However, by itself, it may not be enough to fund transit operations in the region.
If you add the business software tax to the mix, with lower rates on all three, then you have a diversified portfolio of funding sources which are less of a burden to each of the funding sources than they might hacve been, are more stable in the long run, and are more equitable without unduly penalyzing metra and pace. Care would have to be made that the higher real estate values in the suburban areas did not create the smae problems for Chicago that sales taxes did.
But for any of this to work, continued support for CTA from anyone who uses CTA is needed because often the legislators "suggest" to CTA I have been toldwhat routes they, car drivers all, think are dulicative and uneeded.
To paraphrase what was said in WWII:"They came for the #16 and I said nothing because I did not ride it, they came for the #44 and I said nothing because I said nothing because it was not my route, then they came for my route - and there was no one left to complain with me."
Thanks again to Ms. Brown for this opportunity to speak out. I hope I do not sound like I am ranting. But I am pretty upset after riding all these years, and after voting for these people all these years, that they would let it come to this.
This is the kind of thing that makes me reconsider very carefully who I will be voting for next time around.
Peter
The Peter Files Blog - Home of the International School of Weblog Repair and other parodies, satires and puns which this post is not
Carole,
Are you ever going to reply to any of the posts? Hello, are you out there?
While Peter may be saying that Metra shouldn't charge less than the CTA cash fare for a one way ticket for any ride that originates or terminates within the City of Chicago, in fact it does not. If you look at the Metra fare chart at http://metrarail.com/Data/fares-2002-chart.html the lowest Metra fare is $1.85. Also, Metra doesn't issue transfers. Also, what is the problem if it did, since none of the sales tax collected in the city goes to Metra, even though the Electric (north of Kensington) is a city service.
Hi there
Courageous to do a blog for the CTA, its a great idea but of course, you can always improve. My questions are this, what is the purpose of supervisors to sit in expensive Ford Explorers at various stops on the southside and is it true that the CTA sold land that is presently a shopping mall on North Avenue for $1 to developers?
My ideas for improvements, reduce the service during the day like RTA does, the Red Line time is brutal that can be better and improve the customer service at the stations as it pertains to children riding. Especially on the Clark/Lake station, very rude employees that work there.
To the most recent poster:
The CTA sold the land to the city for $3.3 million. The city then "sold" it to Daley's lifelong friend Mike Marchese for $1.
>A few years ago CTA made a big point of promoting its mission statement along the lines of:
>CTA's mission is to provide Quality, Affordable, Public Transportation that Links People, Jobs and Communities in a manner that is Clean, Safe, On Time and Friendly.
I don't see anything in the CTA mission statement about donut shops or drug stores or housing or shopping malls or real estate development.
>xlprq asked...
>Hey Carole, how many times a month do you ride the CTA?
Dear Ask Carole,
Do you have a Chicago Card Plus?
If so, could you please go to your Chicago card website and cut & paste your recent ride history here? Thank you.
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Carole, Are there any upcoming bids for the use of homeland security funds recently allocated by the Federal Government? If so, who would be the CTA contact for that bid process? If not, have there already been awards of contracts for cyber security or physical security utilizing the recent distribution of funds?
--Thanks. Security Minded
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