This week, there has been a lot written about the recent Legislative Leaders’ meeting attended by Mayor Daley, including the Republican Minority Leader Frank Watson’s assertion in that meeting that CTA has not raised fares adequately over the years. The Senate Minority Leader believes that CTA could address most of its structural deficit through a 10 to 15 percent increase in fares. As most of our CTA customers and the readers of this blog already know, CTA is in its present woeful fiscal condition because we have faced a structural deficit since the early 1980’s caused in part by insufficient State funding. This funding has trailed the rate of inflation, short-changing CTA over $1 billion in operating dollars.
As you also already know, CTA’s structural deficit was confirmed repeatedly by the Auditor General in his voluminous audit of the RTA, CTA, Metra and PACE last year. Moreover, the Auditor General acknowledged in his report that it would be impossible for CTA to overcome its funding deficit through cost-savings (service cuts) and revenue enhancements (fare increases).
CTA customers have paid for this imbalanced funding through frequent fare increases. CTA has raised its in 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 2004, and 2006. In fact, since 1985, CTA’s fares have increased 95 percent, exceeding the rate of inflation and causing us to lose millions of rides as a result.
Maybe the Senate Minority Leader has forgotten this. Maybe he doesn’t believe the facts (how do you not believe the Auditor General?). Maybe that is why he is advocating requiring another 10 to 15 percent fare increase as part of any transit solution. I’d like to remind you, just in case you’re swayed by the Minority Leader’s rhetoric, that CTA’s structural deficit cannot be and should not be solved on the backs of our riders.
Before any of you write: “Wait, Carole isn’t that what you are doing now with the January 20 Fare Increases and Service Cuts?”, please know that unfortunately, cutting service and raising fares is the only way that we can balance our budget right now. But I know it is not a solution. This structural problem can only be overcome by comprehensive, long-term legislative changes to our pension and healthcare obligations and by a permanent, sustainable increase in operating funding.
73 Comments:
Agreed. CTA problems need to be resolved first - and should not be held hostage by pols looking to get their friends rich off of casinos, again at taxpayer expense.
I have another suggestion for the CTA. Close the defined benefit plan to new hires and instead enroll them in a defined contribution plan. Does not effect current employees...
Lastly, during the next 3-track phase, why not run 1 NB & 1 SB track using the new (east) platforms at each station. That way the old platform and two tracks can be rebuilt at once saving some time. It's probably easier to work in a larger space anyway.
bustracker bump.
Carole:
Why the silent treatment about bus tracker?
anon 12:24,
my guess is that once both NB tracks are online, then the NB side can return to full capacity (of course it may not run at full capacity b/c the SB track 1 or 2 will be out of service).
However, I think they may have more flexibility to run trains more frequently during (future) 3-tracking (with both NB tracks open) because they will be able to stage trains at alternate locations (such as at the Pink Line's 54th yard). This would probably help with evening/outbound rush hour train traffic, as riders are trying to leave downtown to go north.
Trains could be staged at an alternate yard earlier in the day (or mid-day). Then at rush hour, a reduced number of trains could leave Kimball (as is being done now), with the staged trains entering service at Washington/Wells (from 54th yard).
Thus, the evening rush-hour capacity NB could be restored. However, this would not solve the morning rush hour problem.
Also, I'm not sure if what I said above would 100% work (since now Purple Line Express trains are also running on Brown Line tracks in the Loop - there may no longer be that much capacity as there used to be).
cta rider,
I think CTA is already doing what you're saying, using Midway yard to store a few trains midday. That's why occasionally a Brown line train goes out of service at Clark/Lake, then deadheads back around the loop.
Stillwaiting, your political strategy is brilliant. Rolling out a multi-million dollar pet project of Frank Kruesi just as hundreds of union workers are contemplating layoff notices at Christmas would really put the pressure on the state.
I'd rather they spent the money not on telling me that my bus is late, but on strategies like signal priority and better real-time spacing of buses.
As far as fares go, the question is whether or not public transit is an income subsidy or a strategy to reduce traffic congestion and pollution. As an income subsidy, transit is inefficient, but it's also incredibly small relative to the EITC and other more effective measures.
The reality is that every other major city is trying to subsidize transit MORE to create more incentives to use it and better allocate the significant fixed costs of a transit system. Until the Chicago-area figures that out (San Francisco is trying to ELIMINATE fares), our transit system will continue to look like a second- or third-class citizen compared to the rest of the world.
I'd rather they spent the money not on telling me that my bus is late, but on strategies like signal priority and better real-time spacing of buses.
And yet, people come on here all the time to find out what's up with the bus tracker, so obviously some people would like to have it. The money mostly has already been spent. Perhaps you think it's excellent political strategy to spend money, and not provide the service the money was spent for. We all think you're completely wrong. We want our bus tracker.
bxv,
Bus Tracker is not just about letting customers know when the bus is coming. It will also provide this data to supervisors so they can help reduce bus bunching and delays. So, yes, ideally Bus Tracker will help reduce delays and not just tell you that there is one.
I would hope the rollout of this project is not being held hostage by the funding situation. As temperatures drop I really hate the idea of waiting 20 minutes for my bus when an alternative route could save time and prevent frost bite. For me, Bus Tracker isn't just about knowing if the bus is late, it's about allowing me to make informed decisions about my travel patterns. Supervisors will be able to use that same information to make informed decisions like short-turning buses if necessary to eliminate bunching.
Yes, and during this time the city of Chicago has also not increased the legally-mandated pittance it must contribute to the CTA's budget. But of course there in no mention of that in this post or on any advertising I've seen on buses and trains. The state bears most responsibility, but the city is not blameless. Daley and the Chicago City Council should not be getting a free pass.
Hell, the city hasn't raised its contribution. Neither has Evanston, Oak Park, Rosemont, or any of the other municipalities that get service. I'm not convinced the city should be paying.
What I see as the long-term problem is the separation between those who pay and those who execute. The CTA Board is a Daley board. He gets to make the decisions. But he doesn't have to pay the price.
So he can have Kruesi farm contracts to jag-offs and put mafiosi on the payroll for the better part of a decade, ignoring the responsibility to manage properly, and then blast the legislature for not "doing their job" in funding transit.
I want transit funding, but people need to remember that the CTA was poorly run for so long because of the way Daley ran it. I see signs that's changing, but the very fact of change is a demonstration that it could have been done before under Kruesi.
bxv,
I'm with them on bustracker, but I like the fact that you bring up signal priority, which gives me the chance to post this, which I just found in the Google-cache of the July CMAP meeting notes:
Per John Lamantia of the CTA:
The first deployment will be on South Western Avenue with possible deployment at 57thStreet, 59thStreet, 61stStreet, 63rdStreet and 65thStreet. The second deployment will be on North Western Avenue, possibly at Armitage Avenue, Lyndale Street, Logan Boulevard, Schubert Avenue, and Diversey Avenue.
...
The city will be ready for an on-street test in fall 2008.
Hopefully in a year, we won't be here asking why the CTA hasn't started its signal priority project yet. At least we have a date for it!
Providing better service for the money is not a bad political strategy.
The bus tracker would do more to transform public transit than just about anything the CTA could do for that amount of money. For most people, the bus would no longer be a probabilistic experience. People's actual (and perceived) waiting times would decrease as almost as much as if you doubled the frequency of the buses. That's huge. The reduced aggravation alone would eliminate a great deal of hostility that public transit users feel when riding the CTA.
And as others have pointed out, the system would also improve bus bunching - another endless source of consternation among riders.
But in any event, the premise of your post is just wrong. The CTA's political troubles do not lie with the agency's popularity among its workers. I'm all for supporting CTA staff; the great majority of them do a great job. But the source of the CTA's political problems are: (1) suburban folks don't think they have a stake in it; and (2) too small a fraction of Chicago residents rely upon the CTA for the city's politicians to offer more than half-hearted advocacy for public transit.
Changing the minds of the suburban folks is hard; it's probably more feasible to focus them on the prospect of Metra ticket prices sky rocketing.
But increasing the constituency for public transit within Chicago (and nearby suburbs even) is absolutely doable - and it involves providing better, smarter service, and implementing cost-effective innovations like bus tracker that will make public transit more attractive to more people.
Stillwaiting said "For most people, the bus would no longer be a probabilistic experience."
This should read "For most people with ready internet access at home and work and/or a web-enabled cellphone."
I believe the CTA said that about 5% of customers on the Madison 20 were using bus tracker. Of course, that includes everyone at CTA headquarters and their control room two blocks from the route.
I like bus tracker, don't get me wrong. But giving supervisors bus tracker as its currently configured will not empower them to fix the problems except at the margins -- there just aren't enough supervisors, and most research shows that corrective action tends to be counterproductive at CTA's level of supervision and traffic congestion. (Express runs and short-turns create bunching elsewhere, and w/o realtime data from the passenger counters supervisors can't know if the next bus following a short-term is already packed).
For better or worse, Bus Tracker is a legacy of the previous administration's "press release quick fix" strategy to divert attention from much tougher management problems. Eventually Huberman will figure that out, because he's that good, and he'll dig into the deeper more systemic problems. I'm hoping he already has.
Express runs don't always create bunching elswhere, though that can be a consequence.
I agree with you that Huberman will force people to think things through and dig deeper. They've already started to use more express runs since Huberman took over. I've heard from a couple people about express runs on the el/subway, and I didn't hear about that very often pre-Hube. My guess is that they'll learn to use the express runs in intelligent ways. There may be a learning period first.
GIANT NEWS FOR BUSTRACKER FANS!!!
They finally
...
...
fixed the weird link on their main web page, where there was one link to bus tracker behind the "C", and another behind the "TA Bus Tracker".
In the spirit of Kremlinology, this must mean something, but what? Is this the Huberman team finally taking control from Kruesi's webmaster? Is it important that instead of putting the link behind the entire 3-word phrase, they've now linked "Bus Tracker", and left "CTA" in plain text?
I think this is big!
"This should read 'For most people with ready internet access at home and work and/or a web-enabled cellphone.'"
First of all, that's a lot of people.
The vast majority of people have internet access at home, and Most people have cell phones. Combine that with the number of people who are leaving a job with computer access to catch the bus, and you have a significant majority of the CTA's passengers.
The bus tracker program also entails listing the bus tracker information at bus stops. Not as good as getting the information before you've left for the bus stop, but still a dramatic improvement over the status quo.
I'm shocked - shocked! - to learn that, given that the bus tracker is only used on one bus route (and not even on the express versions of that bus), that only a small portion of that route's riders use it. Most people still don't know what the thing is - even on the #20 bus.
Even when the thing goes system-wide and thus becomes more familiar to people, though, it would be bizarre if a majority of riders used bus tracker. It's mainly useful at times other than rush hour. During rush hour, the #20 bus runs, like, every 10 seconds. And the vast majority of the rides are going to be taken during rush hour.
While this technology would be a vast improvement, this is not exactly revolutionary stuff we're talking about here. Plenty of other places have systems like this - and have for years. But I suppose a certain segment of the population will always be skeptical of change, however promising.
BXV:
Did you just get transported here from the mid-1990's? What world do you live in if you think that most people don't have internet access?
>Most people still don't know what
>the thing is - even on the #20
>bus.
Not to mention that since they f-ed up and forgot to include the X20 with the 20, the current bus tracker is basically worthless during the portion of the day when 80% of people ride, since you can still arrive at your stop only to see that a bus has just pulled away -- and that bus is 5-10 minutes faster in getting you where you want to go than the local bus shown on the tracker that you're waiting for.
Carole,
Where's the criticism of Daley? He has had much, much more to do with the state of the CTA than Watson. Watson never said the CTA had "lost its constituency" as Daley did. Watson didn't keep Kruesi on long past his shelf life when almost everyone despised ol' Yellow GoreTex. Watson did not run off to Paris for a joyride on a rental bike the week before a deadline.
Republicans can be blamed for many wrongs, but CTA funding failures are for the most part on Daley, Blago, Jones, and Madigan. I know it's the easy way to find a Republican boogeyman but put the blame where it is due, even if it makes Daley turn eight shades of purple and shout at you.
Anonymous who's right above me,
Have you ever worked somewhere where your boss was an utter idiot, always making stupid mistakes?
Did you go around shouting to the press and anyone who can hear "my boss is an idiot!" ??
Carole was appointed by Daley. She could decide to resign, I guess. But she is really not likely to tell the press her boss is an idiot.
Fortunately, you and I can. One big problem is that he didn't get involved in the funding issue till much too late. The other is that he didn't do anything to improve CTA efficiency until this summer, so instead, CTA has the reputation that CPS did 10 years ago, as a place where old precinct captains go to die, while nephews of major donors (don't) work as consultants.
Anon 756:
If you think Daley is an idiot you obviously don't have very sharp perceptive skills. An idiot does not easilly get reelected five or six times times with over 70% of the vote. An idiot does not build a beutiful park in the city's downtown which draws a huge amount of tourists to the city. An idiot is not able to convince the city council to support the overwhelming majority of his vision. An idiot does not transform many declining neighborhoods into bustling areas with many new condo high-rises and retailers. You mention the CTA may be like what the chicago public schools used to be. Well, the reason why you can say "used to be" is because the person you call an idiot was able improve the system and get many needed reforms that had been unheard of at the time for an urban area.
There are many legitimate critisms one could make of Daley. He probably does have too much power and can be arrogant. He occasionally makes bad decisions. But he certainly is not an idiot. I think he is one of the best elected leaders that has ever existed anywhere in the country.
"one of the best elected leaders that has ever existed anywhere in the country"
Who knew Mayor Daley's staff worked on Saturdays?
He's had, like, 20 years to get the CTA working. Yeah, he's done a few good things. If you have a monkey bang away at a typewriter for a couple decades, it would be surprising if a clever sentence didn't come out every once in a while. Daley's accomplishments from his entire tenure might be impressive if he had gotten them through in one or two terms. But we're on, what, term #5 at the moment?
The guy has been around forever largely because: (1) his name is Daley; and (2) there have been huge structural problems in Chicago politics that make it hard to challenge accumulated power. He's a walking argument for executive term limits.
In five terms, a competent mayor would have gotten the CTA working efficiently and would have funded it better by now. The city still contributes basically nothing to the CTA operating budget, which is part of the reason the CTA is so susceptible of being held hostage to the whim of legislators from Carbondale.
What declining areas with high rise condos? You mean the gold coast and near north side? I think not.
The rest of the city outside of the north lakefront looks more blighted than it did in the 70s thanks to daley jr.
People, let's be reasonable. Mayor Daley is not the most perceptive person to run a major city, BUT he knows how to rely on good outside advisors (such as William Daley and other civic and business leaders) that help him to make major decisions and to select those department commissioners, superintendents, and sister agency heads who do moderate to excellent jobs and help get Mr. Daley re-elected. (Who knew that city employees were involved in a drug ring? But garbage is always picked up and we get new city libraries everywhere, so let's forget about it.) He also benefits from the devisive nature of Black electoral politics which deny any leader from accumulating too much power because every elected official wishes to have a part of any deal that is cut to benefit from contracts and power. This past election Daley was vulnerable, so out of nowhere came Mr. Walls, someone with no name recognition or executive experience to split the Black vote (which is a common tactic in local districts and seemed to work like a charm in a citywide race). Not to say that Ms. Brown could have won the election. She was underfunded, had no plausible strategy to win in place, and could never build momentum over the course of time. (The media helped, given they admire Mr. Daley.)
Why hasn't Daley done much to assist the CTA over the past 18 years of his mayoralty? I believe it is because the CTA's principal clientele are perceived to be the poor, the working class or the young (college students or high school students) and most of these groups don't vote in large numbers. Middle class commuters are not thought to be one issue voters, so they may give Daley a pass how he deals with public transit. Daley has known that public transit is underfunded but to have sought more funding would have cost him political capital for a clientele that he perceives doesn't vote anyway. Now as Daley wishes to seek a place in history and he recognizes that other world class cities have passable or well-run public transit systems, he feels that it is time to attempt to fund the system adequately.
That said, Ms. Brown, can you ask if the CTA can look into the placement of the #60 Blue Island bus stops near the small mall at Cicero Ave and 26th Street. The the westbound bus stop along 26th Street should be planned better to allow those who wish to shop a safer way to cross the street. Perhaps the town of Cicero and the CTA could design the stop with a speed hump or a walker operated red light and a small sidewalk or rubber surface. As it is now, if there is traffic, one has to wait until it dies down and the area that one steps onto is sometimes covered with plants or is bare soil. The eastbound bus stop seems to have disappeared and I had to walk to Kostner on Monday. This is a distance of three long blocks in the cold. I would suggest that the eastbound bus stop should consist of a sidewalk or rubber surface, a custom bus shelters for five or six people and one bench. Each direction's bus stop should have one or two "street-level" lights that would allow the area in the immediate vecinity to be safe for shoppers and make the area near the bus stop visible. To make the planning go better, I would suggest that the CTA consult with the residents of Little Village to have community organizations (the development corporation, the environmental justice organization, the chamber of commerce), churches, schools and other interested people approve the design. (I mean, if you want to benefit people, you need to ask if the design forgot something or what could also be added to the design to make it better.) The suggestions that I wrote seem to be no-brainers (as everyone should be ok with them) but in the "real world" people may have a different take.
Hi everyone,
It appeared today that the Blue Line by Metra's Gladstone Park stop may have had slow zones lifted. From a distance, I saw a Blue Line train to O'Hare appear to have been running at a high speed. Can anyone confirm if trains have returned to full speed now (or at least in this are)?
"Why hasn't Daley done much to assist the CTA over the past 18 years of his mayoralty? I believe it is because the CTA's principal clientele are perceived to be the poor, the working class or the young (college students or high school students) and most of these groups don't vote in large numbers. Middle class commuters are not thought to be one issue voters, so they may give Daley a pass how he deals with public transit. Daley has known that public transit is underfunded but to have sought more funding would have cost him political capital for a clientele that he perceives doesn't vote anyway."
What are you talking about? Daley doesn't care about votes. He has never needed to. He has always enjoyed extreme popularity that have caused no danger of anyone else defeating him. I'm curious what exactly your source is that he has not saught more funding for the CTA until the last few years. I certainly hope you are not just going by the fact that the news media did not report it much. The CTA never stated it was going to severely reduce service until the last few years. The media obviously is not going to report that the mayor was asking for more funding if there was nothing of short-term interest for them to do a story on. They don't report things that have only long-term releavance. Haven't you noticed that? Not to mention that worthwhile discussions between politicians usually take place behind the scenes anyway and the media wouldn't know about it even if they cared. And I'm sure if you look in the newspaper archives you will see that there were occasions when the mayor complained publicly about a lack of state funding, perhaps when the CTA imposed modest service cuts in 1997.
Even if Daley cared about votes, your analysis is flawed. You are only mentioning when people vote directly based on mass transit. But there are numerous effects of mass transit that people care enormously about that have a major influence on their opinion of the mayor. Many people base a decision whether to live in the city because of the CTA. Businesses do as well. It certainly is in Daley's interest to generate as much property, sales, and other taxes as possible. If the population and the business activity in the city were reduced by not having a good transit system it means there is less tax revenue to pay for all the services the mayor (and most residents) like and he will have to raise them even more than he normally suggests. There is no question that Daley's popularity is hurt if the CTA declines.
Carole, kudos to the CTA for opening up rehabbed stations, improving slow zones, and general progress!
I do wish to ask what the justification is for closing ANY station for 12 months. Southport closed in early April. They immediately took down some light standards, and it sat relatively untouched for months. Then they removed the old station house, poured foundations, put up the steel framing for the elevators, etc. From April to now, there's been long stretches with little to no work done. Decking was being installed a couple weeks ago which is the only sign of visible progress today.
My issue is this....the station is to be reopened in 4 months, and yet the bulk of the "heavy work", such as rebuilding the station house, finishing the decking, creating the stairs, elevators, etc etc are being left for the dead of winter! In the meantime, commuters and businesses are being significantly affected. Renovating any station is certainly not a 12-month project, and I would love to get some details as to why this is. Thanks.
Carole/Ron:
Thank you for working on the slow zones! My commute from downtown to Loyola has gone from 50 - 75 minutes to 35 - 40 minutes.
The only question I have, what is going on with the slow zone between Sheridan and Wilson? I see crews working on the tracks, and the slow zone seems to be removed one day to be replaced the next day.
From the CTA Tattler:
And scheduled for completion by Dec. 31:
* Red Line southbound from Wilson to Sheridan - 3,325 feet removed.
Nothing on Northbound that I could see
Why not fix the Northbound Sheridan/Wilson slow zone at the same time? Yes, I know money money. But won't it be more expensive to redeploy track workers months down the road to the Northbound track when it MUST be repaired or become a safety issue? Kill two birds with one stone and please fix South and North slow zone between Sheridan and Wilson.
Speed has increased between Grand and Clark/Division in the subway recently from the creeping 6mph, but it seems still much slower than the full speed it was a few years back. I thought trains were to run at 55mph in most sections. It didn't seem higher than 35mph tops. Are they not completed with the work and will increase speed to the full 55mph limit eventually?
While this is a decision made long ago, I just thought I'd add to the lovefest here with a compliment for the new Lincoln Ave alternate entrance at Addison on the Brown Line. More than 1/4 of the people exiting my train seemed to head that way. Little things like this can cut 5 minutes off someone's commute because they don't have to walk the opposite way to get off the platform and then go the long way around the block.
Anon 820:
Constructing a station is not like building a snowman. You need to first construct a foundation. Otherwise the station would just collapse when it is in use. If you notice anything that is being built you will see that this usually takes a long time. For example, the old parking lot and hot dog stand that used to be on the west side of Rush Street just south of Oak (or somewhere around there) have been demolished for over two years but there was not anything being built above ground until a couple of months ago. The last I checked there was still nothing that had risen on the building being constructed on the northeast corner on State and Lake even though the work has been going on for years. It is obviously normal for foundation work to take a long time and it does not mean that nothing is going on.
Daley demands stop to CTA doomsday 'merry-go-round'
December 6, 2007
Chicago Sun-Times
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Mayor Daley demanded today that the Illinois General Assembly stop the CTA "merry-go-round where we go from one doomsday to another" and approve long-term funding for mass transit by Dec. 31, with or without a capital plan tied to casino gambling.
"We can't hold riders of public transporation hostage. We cannot hold the [CTA] workers hostage..The lack of state funding that has caused the merry-go-round where we go from one doomsday to another needs to end," the mayor said.
Daley appealed once again for a solution to the transit crisis as a CTA union leader vowed to walk away from cost-saving concessions on pensions and health care if the New Year's Eve deadline is not met.
Rick Harris, president of the Amalgamated Transit Workers Unions Local 308, also renewed his threat of a possible job action to turn up the heat on Gov. Blagojevich and legislative leaders.
"After the first of the year, the health care part of our pensions will be completely bankrupt. We cannot afford to wait.We're not doing this to hurt the public. We're just trying to send a message to the Legislature that we are sick and tired of being used as scapegoats," he said.
Harris said the job action could come in the form of a daylong blue flu or employees could walk off the job for an hour, shutting the entire system down.
"We do not want to inconvenience the riding public. We will try to let them know what's happening so they can make [alternate] arrangements.I would never want to .get someone to work, then walk off the job and strand `em," he said.
CTA President Ron Huberman argued that a work stoppage in any form would be "illegal" and he would "not tolerate" it, even though he sympathizes with the unions.
"We cannot allow a job action to occur. People rely on the CTA to get to school, to get to work. It's a critical service," he said.
Pressed on whether he would take punitive action against those who walk off the job, Huberman said, 'It's too early to say. Let's hope we have some resolution in Springfield before then. At the moment, it's still all theoretical."
Huberman said he's more concerned about the union threat to walk away from concessions that would save the CTA $11 million a month.
"It means we need to go back to the table and begin the process of negotiating a contract all over again. We'd love to see that replicated. But, it's very difficult to say how it will work when we all will be sitting across the table from each other afresh in January. The CTA will have less money to work with. We will not have been able to exercise any of the savings we negotiated," he said.
Last week, Daley followed the lead of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and endorsed a plan by Gov. Blagojevich and House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) to redirect at least $385 million a year in state sales taxes on fuel to mass transit. The mayor said he was optimistic the plan would pass even though there was no agreement on a massive capital plan tied to casino gambling.
It didn't happen. The plan fell 14 votes short in the House and was never called for a vote in the Senate, where the demand for a statewide construction program was even stronger. While his plan was going down in flames, Blagojevich spent the night in Chicago attending a Blackhawks game at the United Center.
Twice in recent months, cash infusions engineered by Blagojevich have postponed the CTA's day of reckoning.
The CTA board has voted to eliminate 81 bus routes, lay off 2,400 employees and raise fares as high as $3.25 for rail passengers who pay cash and ride during peak periods unless there's a funding solution by Jan. 20.
Daley sounded the alarm once again today at a news conference at a senior citizen center at 2102 W. Ogden that stands to lose three of its five bus routes.
Eden Martin, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, put in a renewed plug for the regional sales tax increase and Chicago-only increase in the real estate transfer tax that Blagojevich has repeatedly vowed to veto.
"This is not one where we go to Springfield and say, `Bail us out.' This is one where the costs are going to be.covered through cost reductions, efficiencies, economies and taxes that we're willing to bear regionally," Martin said.
"If they don't do it, it's going to be a huge mess..The whole game is up for grabs."
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Daley is in Italy this week. Remember the CTA, along with most other Chicago problems, takes a back seat to the Olympics with him.
In Daley's world people drive or are driven. Thus he does not understand the CTA beyond a conceptual level. Now that Blago allowed Daley's telecom tax increase to fly he's speaking up a bit more but it may be too little, too late.
Carole,
I'm glad to hear a timeline from bustracker from the Huberman Trib interview (via the forums at chicagobus.org.) First garage up and running for the public in Feb. '08. Hurray!
I just want to mention that I think "terminal management" has the potential to be an UTTER DISASTER. Huberman says that to avoid bunching, buses may be held at the terminal so that leave a specified amount of time after the previous bus.
This is a silly idea, like the kind of stuff that comes from random bus patrons here who have never given a thought to bus operations.
The problem in bunching isn't that the following bus is too fast. It's that the lead bus has gotten behind, and the further he lags, the more customers arrive at corners in front of him slowing him down further, and so on.
The second bus catching up and "bunching" is just a symptom of the problem. The only solution is either to turn a bus going the other way in order to fill the gap in front of the slow bus, or to run the slow bus express for a stretch to catch up to its proper place.
Slowing down the follower bus will make the problem worse -- when a follower actually catches up and "bunches", it often can pass the leader at a corner and then begin to pick up passengers, and both buses go a little faster, helping the slow bus close the gap on the bus he should be behind.
Please, for god's sake, don't hold followers at terminals. Tell Huberman that's a fiasco-in-waiting.
Another odd this Huberman said in connection with Bustracker is that it wouldn't make sense to expand the thing until bus bunching is improved - since bus tracker won't help you if three buses are following right behind one another.
It's unfortunate that the head of the CTA doesn't grasp the point of real time arrival information. One of the major uses of this information is that, regardless of how irregular the buses are, you can find out in advance when the next one is coming and spend less time waiting in the cold at the bus stop.
That aspect of bus tracker is actually MORE helpful the more buses are bunched.
So yeah, it's great if the bus tracker technology helps the CTA reduce bus bunching, but the idea that you need to solve bus bunching before expanding bus tracker is just obtuse.
That he doesn't understand this simple benefit of the technology does at least explain why the thing has been put on the back burner ever since he started.
Anon 807:
I don't think Huberman was saying that every time a bus leaves a terminal late that the next bus would be held back. I just think he is talking about certain occasions when it is determined that spacing the busses out would cause a more reliable commute than having them leave at the same time. There is no doubt that sometimes (probably most of the time) when busses run late, bunching is good. But there is also times, especially when more than two busses are bunched or it is not a heavilly travelled route, when it would clearly make more sense for them to be spaced out. There is no doubt, however, that it should be done carefully and since Huberman states this is a pilot project that seems to be what is happening. You are correct that many people who complain about bunching do not think things through. I once suggested on this blog that bunching is often helpful and many people acted as if I said something bizarre. They apparently don't notice that their ride is faster and that they are not picking up or dropping off as many passengers as they would in a non-bunched bus. It's amazing how many people don't see what is around them.
Anon 504:
Do you expect that Daley should give up all his efforts to get the olympics just because of the CTA issues? What good would that do? Do you think that he could somehow be successful negotiating with the legislators if he had stayed here even though he obviously has not been successful until now? What difference would a week be? This certainly is not akin to Blogojevich bolting to go to a hockey game during the day of AN ACTUAL VOTE when he could have been trying to get people to support a bill.
It's Daley's continual bad decisions like this one, which is why the CTA is in such bad shape:
Ex-CTA president appointed chief lobbyist
December 6, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Nearly eight months after being forced out because he made too many enemies in Springfield, former CTA President Frank Kruesi will try to make friends for Chicago in Washington.
Mayor Daley has appointed his most trusted and longest serving government adviser to be the city’s new chief lobbyist in Washington, replacing longtime political operative Pete Halpin.
» Click to enlarge image Former CTA president Frank Kruesi (left) at a press conference in July 2006 with Mayor Daley. Daley appointed Kruesi as the city's new chief lobbyist in Washington.
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times)
Kruesi’s salary for coordinating Chicago’s federal legislative, regulatory and administrative agenda was still being negotiated. Halpin's annual salary was $143,000.
“Frank has broad experience at every level of government and has been a valuable member of my administration for many years,” Daley said in a press release distributed while he was on a Sister Cities trip to Milan, Italy.
“His job is to help make sure our relationship with the federal government is as productive as it can be toward helping to improve the quality of life for all Chicagoans.”
Kruesi, 57, could not be reached for comment. He spent 4.5 years as an assistant U.S. transportation secretary. Since leaving the CTA, he has been a visiting faculty member at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.
On April 19, Kruesi’s controversial, ten-year reign as president of the CTA came to a crashing halt.
Convinced that Kruesi had alienated key players in Springfield, Daley took that polarizing issue off the table in the quest for mass transit funding. He accepted Kruesi’s resignation and handed the reins to a more recent version: chief of staff Ron Huberman.
Huberman’s only transportation experience was the three years he spent driving a school bus while working his way through college. But, Daley argued that Huberman had what it takes to make the cost-cutting decisions lawmakers will demand in exchange for more funding.
Huberman proceeded to slash management spending and nail down cost-saving pension and health care concessions with CTA unions that legislative leaders had demanded. The threat of doomsday fare hikes and service cuts remains.
In September, Kruesi’s image took yet another blow. A blistering federal report blamed deferred and shoddy CTA maintenance and missing and falsified records for a 2006 Blue Line derailment. Daley called it a “disgrace,” but insisted that the systemic problems had been “corrected” under Huberman.
On the day he resigned, Kruesi insisted that his decision to step down had nothing to do with him becoming a lightning rod for lawmakers and riders fed up with derailments, mechanical breakdowns and service delays.
“It struck me as a good time to go because I’ve been doing this for a long time and also because we got through the winter well, the three-track operation [on the Brown Line] went well and really now, it’s up to the General Assembly,” he said then.
Kruesi and Daley have been a team for more than 30 years. In 1993, he was banished to Washington after a behind-the-scenes falling out with Daley, only to be welcomed back as CTA president four years later.
In 2003, he found himself in the mayor’s doghouse again — for trying to arrange a pension sweetener for himself, only to have Daley pull the plug.
Kruesi also fought behind the scenes with CTA board chairwoman Valerie Jarrett and with Jarrett’s successor, Carole Brown.
Thursday’s mayoral press release put the best possible face on Kruesi’s tumultuous tenure at the CTA.
It noted that CTA ridership increased, bus routes were modernized and the CTA’s workforce was reduced by 1,200 employees. The mayor also credited Kruesi with management efficiencies that saved the CTA $1 billion, modernizing the signal system for CTA subways and equipping buses with cameras and GPS systems.
Still, Kruesi’s personality makes him a curious choice for the job of Washington lobbyist.
As a Springfield operative said on the day Kruesi resigned as CTA president: “He’s a difficult human being. It’s an imperial kind of attitude…The next person is unlikely to be as abrasive as Frank. There’ll be a lot of contented smiles around the [capitol] building.”
I'm shocked, shocked!, that Yellow GoreTex has reemerged in Daley's administration. I'm sure he will be able to replicate the silver-tongued ways he had with Springfield legislators in Washington.
Daley announced the move through a press release while on what I'm sure is an incredibly important visit to Italy. Absolutely classic Daley.
Olympics are #1 with Daley. Everything else takes a back seat. Sure, the governor and legislative leaders get much of the blame but Daley should not skate by with yet another free pass.
Daley made a big mistake sending Kruesi to DC. If Springfield didn't like Kruesi, why should DC? The CTA and Daley and kiss good bye any Federal funds for public transportation with Kruesi in DC.
This is way off-topic here, but what's up with the holiday train schedules this year? In other years, they were posted online about 3-7 days before trips begin on each line. And they used to be available in the stations and there were signs in the stations. This year, the info is being posted like the day before the train starts on each route. And the Green Line schedules that were on the web site were totally screwed up for Friday (I think they were messed up for Thursday too). I wanted to catch the train at Roosevelt going downtown, but the schedule was missing all the times from 63rd to downtown.
I did catch it at Merchandise Mart and it looked as wonderful as it always has! Santa looked cold out there, but his elves were really friendly. That was the shortest trip I've had to Howard in a long time!
Daley is not an idiot. He's a crook. Carole should indeed resign if she is not comfortable with the notion of being linked to a crook.
The absolute craziest thing happened to me today.
As I entered the Damen Blue Line station, there was a customer assistant out of her booth, informing me that the train was running way behind. She had up-to-date information that the train was still at Jefferson Park, and that they were attempting to move it out of the way in order to get other trains towards the loop.
I was able to walk out, wait 10 minutes and get on a Milwaukee bus to downtown instead!
What kind of crazy sh!t is that!! Is Ron Huberman responsible for making CA's do something? Is he responsible for forcing the administration to get information about delays out? Is he bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together? I've never had that happen in 20 years of riding.
Ron Huberman rocks! I have also had things happen on the CTA lately that have blown me away. I've been riding for 7 years and things are finally starting to look up in the way of customer service and info on delays. NOW, if the damn legislature would stop holding Chicago transit riders hostage for a huge casino bill, things would really be headed in the right direction.
Huberman is SEXY HOT!!!
Is the 'voluminous audit' public?
12/13/07 Crains
CTA union leaders approve 24-hour walk-off
(AP) — Union leaders representing Chicago Transit Agency workers say they've approved a 24-hour job walk-off that would start Sunday night.
The shutdown would affect CTA service in the city and 40 suburbs through Monday.
The Amalgamated Transit Union wants to show the need for more funding and highlight its concerns about workers' pension funds and health insurance.
Union leaders insist the action is not a strike. But CTA president Ron Huberman says any job action at the CTA is illegal.
Anon 1040:
Your link did not work. Every recent article on Daley's son is about the fact that he is being deployed (probably to Iraq). I completely fail to see how anything in those articles could possibly generate an idea that he is a crook. What the hell are you talking about? For now, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume either you are reffering to something else (I don't even see a Sun-Times article about him) or that your post was sarcasm aimed at everyone on this blog who has made angry comments about Daley. Otherwise, my post would probably be the nastiest one that has ever been made on this blog. If you want to clarify what you are talking about you might take that as a warning.
Bus #7600 on route #145 needs new shocks. The ride was so bumpy that people were almost falling out of their seats. This is one of those "new" articulated buses. I hope that the buses Huberman wants to lease are made better otherwise its just good money paying for bad money.
...What the hell are you talking about? For now, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt..... Otherwise, my post would probably be the nastiest one that has ever been made on this blog. If you want to clarify what you are talking about you might take that as a warning.
12/14/2007 1:35 AM
Hey Anon 12/14/07 1:35 a.m. (great name by the way) -
You might want to refresh your browser before you jump on other posters that way. Channel 5 reported on the not-so-positive story about Patrick Daley on the 10pm news, and the Sun-Times had it as their cover story by midnight.
Good grief, its the holiday, can't we all just get along? At least the union cancelled its strike.
When you say "It's the holidays, why can't we all just get along? are you offering us money to keep the CTA solvent with existing service?
Or are you just saying, "why don't you all shut up so I can make believe that we all get along"?
Everything *I've* about Daley Jr is that he's a piece of work and his military "deployment" is a) to "groom" him to take over the mayors office and b) to get him out of town. Do a search on him and see how he's disliked in the army.
Cheer up, everyone. Madigan seems to have realized that he can get transit funding passed on a straight majority vote in Jan. without giving in on the casino bill.
Yeah, the CTA will have to renegotiate the pension issue with its unions, but I'd take that over the casino bill (and total screwing over of the RTA on capital funds) any day. After Dec. 31st, downstate legislators looking for pork won't be able to hold us hostage any more...
Fat boy from 308 screwed up the "job action" for the unions.
The International ATU screwed up the "job action" for the unions.
Hope the Internation will be able to do something for the 2400 people which will be terminated on January 20, 2008, because they did not allow the unions to do the job action.
what was the special, reserved bus that was sitting in the bus stop in front of the CTA offices on Jefferson last evening at 4:30? It wasn't a #56 Milwaukee bus because they weren't letting regular customers board, not even CTA employees who got off at 4:30. We had to wait for a bus that stopped in the middle of the street because it couldn't pull to the curb.
Someone told us it was for CTA managers going to a meeting. Is that true? Couldn't they take regular buses and trains like the rest of us?
I was browsing in Google Maps today and noticed that CTA bus stops were on there if you're zoomed in enough (example here). Very cool. I knew the L stops have been in there for a while, but both are now clickable and display timetables.
That must represent a collaboration with Google in order to get those locations and the schedules. Haven't heard or read anything about it from the horse's mouse---wondering if this is going to be integrated with Google Transit so you can do trip planning?
In any case, good to see our public agency sharing data in a useful fashion, keep it up.
Carole and Ron:
Besides the vacant building not removing the snow on its sidewalk,why can't the CTA at least remove the snow inside the bus shelter and around it on the south side of Addison at the Red Line stop? A little old lady also fell down there last night when trying to get on a bus in the snow (in the bus shelter). Its a lawsuit waiting to happen!
"Besides the vacant building not removing the snow on its sidewalk"
Huh?
Carole,
What is behind the big jump in ridership on several of CTA's express routes? The Western express is now more productive than the Western local, with 52 riders per hour. The Garfield Express shot nearly doubled in ridership in the last year, and is now nearly as productive as the local, with 45 riders per hour.
What happened? Are high schools located along these routes drawing more kids from the far reaches of the city? Did the addition of routes like the X9 and X54 suddenly make more people aware of the express routes, pushing riders onto X49 and X80 too? It's a pretty amazing change for routes that have been around for years like X49 and X80.
12/24 - going to work, at least trying to, took 90 minutes from Granville to the loop. Why? Interlocking problems at tower 18.
Brown/Purple line trains were backed up trying to reach the loop.
I'm not upset that there was a hardware failure. What I *AM* pissed about is that I transferred from a Red to a Brown at Belmont. No announcements, zero, zilch, were made until pulling out of Fullerton.
If an announcement had been made at Belmont or before leaving Fullerton, I could have boarded a Red line and made it to the loop.
So, now that the CTA is broadcasting messages, could we possibly work on getting timely messages out?
Carole,
Last week, a press release announced that track work was complete and slow zones had been removed from the Blue Line from Jefferson Park to Harlem.
Today, the CTA issued it's slow zone report dated 12/24. It shows slow zones betweeen Jefferson Park and Harlem.
What's up?
It is still slow zoned between there. At some points the train still actually makes a complete stop. Carole i thought the deadline for these to be completely gone was January 1st...Crews better get a move on or yet another deadline will be passed up.
Hmmm. The map has been changed and now shows the slow zones removed between Jeff Park and Harlem. Transit King or anyone else -- is it true?
Anon 1/01/2008 1:55 PM -
Has the map been "changed" or has a more current map been added to the list?
And based on his last post, I wouldn't ask transitking for clarification. He seems to think that a train coming to a complete stop can only be attributable to a slow zone. True transit royalty - or just any regular rider - can tell you there are several reasons that a train might come to a complete halt: signals, debris on the track (in the middle of the expressway), workers on the track (for some other reason such as track inspection), a delayed train in the station ahead because of a sick passenger, or just a train with a mechanical problem.
Published January 2 2008
Chicago Red Eye
You already may feel a disconnect with bus operators.
Occasional e-mails to "Going Public" relay tales of CTA bus operators who ignore riders as they board or zoom past potential passengers waving frantically for them to stop.
Brace yourself for yet another degree of CTA separation, but this time, for a very good reason.
This month, the transit agency will begin testing clear protective barriers--possibly made of acrylic--on two different series of buses in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the devices, according to transit agency spokeswoman Wanda Taylor. The precise design of those barriers is yet to be determined and may vary by bus model, Taylor said, but customer feedback will be solicited to make sure the barriers don't prevent necessary communication between operators and riders.
New buses arriving in February also will feature partial shields, Taylor added.
It's about time, according to two CTA bus operators who recently contacted "Going Public," each saying he was attacked by a rider within the last three months. The president of the union that represents bus operators has clamored for shields in the past, saying that assaults on bus operators are underreported to police because some operators see them as par for the course or doubt help would arrive in time.
The former was the case for Broadview resident and part-time CTA bus operator Corey Bell, 22. A few months ago, a rider on a No.60-Blue Island bus repeatedly asked Bell for directions and then jabbed him "in the side" with an object while remarking that he hoped he wasn't being misled because he carries "a gun everywhere," Bell said.
"I told a manager about it when I got off duty," Bell told "Going Public" about the incident. "I was just really scared. I didn't know what that guy would do to me if I tried to call for help with him near the bus."
Bell said he did, however, call police about an incident a year earlier, when Bell said a rider struck him in the face with a book bag before jumping off the bus. "Bus operators are vulnerable, and riders know that," Bell said.