Board meeting update / contingency plan details

Today the Board formally heard President Huberman’s recommended contingency plan for service and fare changes should CTA not receive any additional funding. I recommend reading all the way through his presentation to see the various options before the Board and to get an updated snapshot of CTA’s fiscal predicament. This presentation is similar to what will be presented at our upcoming public hearings.

The Board also unanimously passed a resolution urging state lawmakers to ensure that all who benefit from transit, including the business community, pay their fair share towards shoring up transit funding.

Contingency plans

By now, many of you probably have heard about CTA President Ron Huberman’s proposed contingency administrative cuts, service reductions and fare increases. More info can be found at the bottom of this page. These comply with the RTA’s directive that CTA submit a contingency plan to balance our budget deficit of $110 million without additional state funding. The timing of his proposal is not insignificant—he waited as long as he could before proposing them to allow for (1) appropriate planning to take place at CTA should the changes need to be implemented, (2) enough time for riders to offer feedback at our public hearings, (3) and enough time for the Board to consider all suggestions when it votes in June on a plan to submit to the RTA.

In addition to service and fare changes, I am pleased that Ron is recommending cutting $5.6 million in administrative costs in addition to the $12.5 million he cut earlier this month.

I know none of this is welcome news, but please know that Ron and I have been down in Springfield frequently over the last few weeks—and we will continue to go down so long as they’re in session—working with our state elected officials towards finding a way to shore up our funding and avoid these changes. Mayor Daley was with us on our trip last week, and many other transit advocates have joined us in helping make sure that our elected officials understand how important transit is to the region.

I encourage you to provide feedback here and to let the Board know what other suggestions you have as we prepare to submit our contingency plan to the RTA. Everything you submit will be compiled and given to each Board member for their review.

I remain optimistic that we can avoid all of these changes.

PUBLIC HEARINGS

Tuesday, June 5, 6:30 p.m.
Sherman Park Fieldhouse
1301 W. 52nd Street
Chicago, IL

Wednesday, June 6, 6:30 p.m.
Michelle’s Ballroom
2800 W. Belmont Avenue
Chicago, IL

Monday, June 11, 6:30 p.m.
University of Illinois at Chicago
Student Center East
750 S. Halsted, Room 302
Chicago, IL

Wednesday, June 13, 9:00 a.m.
CTA Headquarters
567 W. Lake, Chicago, IL

In addition, you can submit public comment to the Board by email at ctaboard@transitchicago.com or writing to the following address: Chicago Transit Authority, P.O. Box 7567, Chicago, IL 60680, Attention: Gregory Longhini, Assistant Secretary, Chicago Transit Board. All written comments are due by June 11, 2007 so we can be sure we see everything before we make finalize our contingency plans.

Tales from the legislative front

Efforts continue to advocate in Springfield for increased transit funding. Transit officials, Chicago Aldermen, and organizations such as the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Metropolis 2020 have held a number of events in recent days to highlight the importance of transit:

Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30th) told the Defender Tuesday evening that City Council must continue to work with CTA in finding common ground with the state legislators. "We got our point across," Reboyras said. "I believe that they understand that we are there to look for a long-term fix instead of a short-term one. We didn't ask them for a quick fix."

“Some combination of service cuts, layoffs, fare hikes and the continuing diversion of capital investments is the only way to meet this crisis without new funding.”—Steve Schlickman, RTA Executive Director

Metropolis 2020: The Chicago region incurs economic damage every day it fails to improve its transit system. Its people pay unnecessarily high costs to get to work and school, losing countless hours of family and personal time to highway congestion and transit slow zones. As long as we avoid fixing the system, we are inviting the deterioration of the quality of life in suburbs and city alike – a decline that will hurt us all deeply in the global competition for quality jobs and good workers.

Additionally, Rep. Julie Hamos has continued hearings and discussions on the future of transit funding.

On other fronts, I’ve been extremely busy with business travel for the past few weeks, and I regret not responding directly to some of the comments on previous posts. To address a few issues, I am looking into concerns about switching at Howard, and at overall travel times through the three-tracking corridor. With 3-tracking underway, any delays, especially on routes serving the Belmont and Fullerton stations, are clearly problematic. With regard to the suspension on certain articulated buses, this is a serious issue that CTA is addressing with the manufacturer of these buses -- it must be fixed. And thanks to those of you, such as Johan, who passed on a specific complaint about an employee. I forward those (as well as commendations) to the appropriate CTA staff to take action.