Traffic and transit

As the General Assembly and Governor continue to consider regional mass transit funding, I wanted to point your attention to the Texas Transportation Institute's just-released 2007 Urban Mobility Report. It's a detailed and lengthy report, but the conclusion--that the Chicago area is one of the most traffic-choked in the country, and getting worse--will come as no surprise. Transit takes hundreds of thousands of cars off the road every day. If ever we needed a reminder, this study shows that we are all stakeholders in our mass transit system, whether we are transit customers or drivers.

Hat tip to Jon Hilkevitch at the Tribune.

November 4th

With good news comes some sobering news.

First, the good news: on Friday, at my urging, the RTA Board voted to accept Governor’s Blagojevich’s offer to advance to the RTA funds otherwise available in 2008 to avoid CTA’s scheduled fare increases and service reductions until at least November 4^th. So, the service cuts and fare increases have been postponed. I am glad that my fellow RTA Board members gave Springfield these next few weeks to come up with a sustainable, long-term funding package for regional transit. CTA customers are paramount in my mind, so while receiving this funding in advance isn’t fiscally prudent, it was clearly the right thing to do so our customers don’t suffer as pawns in complicated Springfield politics.

Now the sobering news: the Governor’s proposal is a short term arrangement that will only carry CTA through November 4^th—that’s only 48 days away. While we have averted Sunday’s cuts and fare increases, Metra, Pace and CTA have exposed themselves to potentially an even greater problem in the coming weeks as we try to (1) help Springfield craft a long-term, sustainable funding package before November 4^th and (2) fill in our looming 2008 operating deficit which just grew by more than $24 million.

The RTA Board members, President Huberman and I have now placed our confidence in legislative leaders and the Governor to find a legislative solution that will finally place our regional transit system on a sustainable path. Rest assured that we continue to work our elected leaders in Springfield. We have been in constant dialogue with Senate leaders and remain optimistic that the Senate will consider a bill as early as this week. The Fall Veto Session is scheduled for October 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th. I again encourage you to call or write your State Senator and Representative to let them know how important transit is to you. You can find their addresses and phone numbers at CTA's website.

Thank you for your continued concern and patience, and please continue to keep up the drumbeat in support.

Friday Update

This week we’ve been operating on two related tracks here at CTA.

On one we’re working feverishly with our transit supporters in the Illinois General Assembly to get a transit bill passed (the march continues). On Tuesday the Illinois House took up Senate Bill 572 (dealing with regional governance, transit funding and CTA pension and healthcare reform). Unfortunately, the bill didn’t receive the 71 supermajority votes it needed to move over to the Senate for that bodies’ consideration. Since then, President Huberman and I have been talking to elected officials all week about the prospects of SB 572 passing out of the House, and I feel confident it will get the votes. I’m also hearing that the Illinois Senate might introduce its own transit bill early next week.

Lost in the discussion about SB 572 is the fact that the bill does not address CTA’s glaring capital needs (which are growing worse as we’re forced to borrow what little we can from our depleted capital budget to pay for operating expenses). So, even if Springfield passes operating reform legislation, it will still need to address our unfunded capital need—currently at $5.8 Billion.

On the second track, CTA staff continues to do the necessary planning for the service cuts and fare increase, including posting the new (and hopefully temporary) signage detailing what CTA customers can expect when they first step on the system on September 16th. President Huberman and I regret that you, our customers, are in such a position.

Some of you have asked about what 2008 will look like if Springfield doesn’t act soon. We’re in the process of coming up with preliminary budget numbers now that we will share with you and other members of the public this fall as we develop the budget we’ll submit to the RTA. I can tell you this now, though: without funding relief there will be deeper and more extensive service cuts and higher fare increases.

Please know that I and my colleagues at CTA remain hard at work on getting Springfield to implement a sustainable funding package for regional transit. Our region still has time to act, but it’s getting very, very close. Our friends at www.savechicagolandtransit.com still make it simple for you to help.

As I hope I’ve made clear, no matter what CTA’s funding situation looks like, I will hold our staff to the highest service standards. To that end, I will post soon with some detailed explanation about how the Purple Line will work for southbound riders if no funding comes through, the status of our slow zone remediation project, and other service-related questions/concerns you have raised here. Please keep them coming as I check the blog daily.