Posted by Jimmy Greenfield - 2:43 p.m., May 24

New CTA president Ron Huberman has wasted little time trying to scare the bejeezus out of the people he was hired to serve.

The CTA would eliminate 63 bus routes and two rail lines, and raise fares to as much as $3.25 a ride on trains if no new state funding is provided, CTA President Ron Huberman said today.

The rest of the story, about how the CTA apparently needs $110 million from the state to avoid employing its doomsday plan, is here.

So let's look at what this really means.

If you take the train to and from work 50 weeks a year (allowing two weeks for vacation) and use a Chicago Card Plus you're paying $875 a year.

Under the doomsday plan, assuming you're commuting during rush hour, your CTA costs would rise to $1625 a year.

That's not chicken feed. That kind of bump would put a severe strain on a tremendous number of commuters, many of whom are still getting used to the CTA fare hike from just a few years ago.

This may never come to pass. But if it does there will be hell to pay. Or there would be hell to pay if Chicago had a mayor who was accountable in any way whatsoever.

Increasing fares and cutting service. Where is the logic? Doing this will do nothing but drive customers away from the CTA. With dwindling ridership, the CTA will be getting less and less money. Then the CTA will be crying again in a year because of no money. I mean really! Service is already bad on the CTA, do they expect people to keep paying more and more for worse & worse service?

The CTA remains excellent at ignoring the fact that train services is more cost effective than bus service because it requires fewer employees. The CTA management does little to hold the various unions accountable for disciplining or firing lazy employees -- so that operating budget is overinflated to account for 1000 - 2000 lazy employees.

It is unfortunate. This will ruin anyone new to the city who doesn't know his or her way around. It will deeply hurt those who can't afford a car or taxi. It will hurt a lot of things other than just the CTA.

It is a lose-lose situation really. They get their extra money and they will continue with the bad workers and lack-luster service. If they don't get the money we will lose lots of those bad workers but the lack-luster service gets even worse.

People who don't live by a transit agency are currently having to pick between 3 or 4 things: gas, electricity, food or medicine. Now those of us inside the city have the same ones plus transit. Joy.

this is a total joke....if they think people will pay the increase they are nuts...i for one would rather drive and pay to park somewhere...this is no longer a cheap alternative....really is a joke

I don't understand how the Mayor can do nothing about the CTA when he is trying to get the Olympics to Chicago. By what means are people supposed to get around? The CTA needs fixing now- if we can raise all this money for the Olympics, what about transportation relief for the people who live here? I have visited Barcelona and PAris, two cities where it is a pleasure to ride the subways. Not here! I dread my daily commute home - standing for an hour in overcrowded cars that stop for periods of time - I know it could be worse, almost anything can be, but it could also be better.

Public transportation should be privatized just like taxis.
Eliminate the CTA and let market competition take over. The quality will improve and regular CTA begging the state for money will be a thing of the past.
In fact the same should be done with the school system, especially in Chicago.

I leave for Yale in September. If the state can't find a way to improve mass transit in Chicago, I'll happily never return. nYc, boston should accept a Yale grad with open arms don't you think?

I'm truly shocked. Daley's continual disregard for public transit - while touting his "green" credentials - disgusts me. (Does anyone remember his plan from a year or so ago to make it EASIER for motor vehicles to move around downtown?)

What will it take? My suggestion: A massive letter campaign to the International Olympic Committee to pull Chicago from consideration for the 2012 games. Daley has promised the IOC that Chicago can come up with $500 million in case corporate donations fall short. I believe that half-billion would be far better spent in public transit.

This is ridiculous. Two years ago the CTA cries and cries to the state for 54 million or threats fair hikes and service cuts. The state gives them 54 million, and here we are two years later with higher fares and service cuts!! Now they are crying again for even more money. The CTA can't even run a bus or train route on time; how the heck are these same people supposed to run a billion dollar government black-hole?! What a complete Joke!!

You can't really lay this all on the mayor's doorstep. The state holds the purse strings, and Im not sure how much Rod really cares about the CTA considering all he talks about these days is health care. Not to mention he's probably in full CYA mode with the feds leaning on him.

This is ridiculous...as a former state employee, I am positive there is a lot of bureaucracy, waste, and political hiring that eats up a lot of $$ that could be used to actually run the CTA efficiently. I am a very frequent rider (my friends think I am twisted) and a lot about the CTA is OK. But that does not include the methods by which the top people -- who NEVER ride it (see previous news story) -- run it.

If they want to raise fares, I will drive everywhere I can't bike or walk, even though I hate driving in the city. Then they will have another problem of another sort.

Who's with me??!!!???

>>your CTA costs would rise to $1625 a year.

Driving a car would not be necessarily be cheaper, but this increase will cut the margin between the two big time.

Cheap
Tactics
Authorization

Downtown parking garages, start your engines.

I've been saying for years that the CTA needs to pare down the number of bus routes and the total number of buses -- except for rush hour, most buses are all but empty, anyway.

Where does it say that Chicagoans are entitled to have a bus stop a few feet from anywhere they might happen to be, at any time of the day or night? Too many buses!!

My favorite part of the story is this line:
"The agency's goal would be to shift more riders to off-peak hours."

My job's hours are 8:30-5:00. Can someone please tell my employer that I'll be late every day, since I can't travel until after 9:30 a.m.?

i think fares should be raised to $10 per ride.
it is totally worth it. especially the red line--which is always so fresh & clean smelling, is never delayed or crowded, & never breaks down. it is vastly superior to any 3rd world train system. i love it, and would gladly pay top dollar to ride it! on the other hand, the brown line is so terrible, i am glad they are finally spending millions to upgrade it. i hope this doomsday scenario happens--it's awesome. it's like being in a movie. thanks cta!

Doomsday, huh? Give me a break. We're the US entry for the 2016 Olympics. No CTA=No Olympics. Think Daley will let that happen? Of course not! The Olympics are his ultimate show piece, if we lose them because of the CTA he'll have to account for all his corruption, and you know that ain't happening!

If those new rates are implemented, CTA buses and trains MUST BE CLEAN.

We all know that Gasoline is more expensive than electricity. So how come trains (which hold more people) would be more expensive than buses?

Also, everyone knows that when a car accelerates from a stop the gas mileage suffers. So how about we lose a few Bus Stops (like the ones that are every block) and make people walk a block to get a bus. Trains Stations tend to be about 1/2 mile apart.

Further, I love watching CTA employees staning on corners writing down when buses come through. Why not make that automated and let those employees go. Also, how come, if they are hurting for money, they are shutting down CTA stations to pay over 600M to redo train lines? I know the Cabs love the station closings.

The CTA should get creative and look for other ways to either lower costs or increase revenues. Increase the cost for Advertisements on the buses and trains. Lower fuel consumption on buses. The less time a bus is idle the better off, so improve the flow of people on/off the bus.

Is it really that hard?

Driving to work will no longer be an alternative. Traffic is already awful, just imagine what an extra 50,000 cars on the road will do.

The state will pony up the money to bail out the CTA, and it'll be the same routine again and again.

We need to hope that the state bails us out and give the new president some time to cut the fat and bring the CTA out of the red.

He's proven already that he's willing to start eliminating costs, but he's got a long way to go.

The CTA needs to be re-privatized. Charge market rates for market quality service. The CTA is currently run like a social service for the city's homeless population. Raise fairs enough to rebuild the system to a standard whereas the vast middle class population wants to ride it. Slow dirty trains attract the type of customer who is a detriment to the system and have low service expectations.

What a joke. CTA employees have the MOST GENEROUS health plan in the U.S. Cut the ridiculous waste out of their health plan, make them shoulder some of the costs of it, take away CTA pensions and replace them with a 401(k) like private sector employees have. Instead of asking riders to pay a 63% fare increase, cut 63% of the fat out of the CTA budget.

They would seriously hike the prices that much when they are in the middle of a Brown Line overhaul and stations are closing left and right? I think that would about do it for me and the CTA, and maybe even this city.

It wasn't all that long ago that the United Steelworkers after years of ineffecincies and bloat found out that jobs could just "go away" and leave them with having to "flip burgers" to feed their families. The last remaining unions to learn this unfortunately are those who believe that governmental agencies can always just increase taxes to fund their own desires. My grandfather and his brothers were CTA employees and they also had other jobs to make sure that they had money to raise their families. If sanity isn't brought to the whole employment cost picture we will still be here looking for more money than is available.

Same old song and dance...cut service, raise fares and contintue to provide abysmal service. Not a day goes by that there isn't some issue with delayed trains, broken buses, etc. Much of the time its a coin flip if one will get to work on time.

And from the news story--"The agency's goal would be to shift more riders to off-peak hours. Under the plan, the CTA would run 422 fewer buses and 68 fewer trains during peak travel times each day, Huberman said."--Does Mr. Huberman expect the working man and woman to have their work hours changed to those off-peak hours? Guess I'm lucky in the fact that I could tele-commute if I have to.

King Richard has outsourced the operation of the Skyway, among other things...maybe it's time to find a Swiss or German or Japanese consortium to take over the operation and maintenance of the Chicago Transit Attempt.

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