Huberman: Changing corporate culture; building a "world class" system
Today, I continue with excerpts from my interview with CTA President Ron Huberman.
Q: What measures are you going to implement in order to change the corporate culture of the CTA, and foster an environment where employees must realize that customer service is priority #1?
"We need to inspire our work force to deliver the best product possible," said Huberman. "There must be clear guidelines and expectations. And the people who get the promotions are the people who deliver results."
Q: What steps does the CTA need to take in order to be considered a "world class" transit system, since it has been criticized by many as second class or worse? -- Question posted by Frank
"I don't disagree that we are not a 'world class' transit system," said Huberman. "But still I do think we do a very good job with a 100-year-old system."
He said the CTA has to figure out how to modernize the system in a way that makes sense. "Take a look at everything. Do we have the right rail cars? What does it cost per mile of track to upgrade? We have to balance all of this and find real value for our customer."
OK, that's sounds great, but how do you square that thinking with the fact that you're suggesting transferring $56.9 million in capital improvement funds to operations?
"Frankly, we're out of options," said Huberman. "I'm legally obligated to present a balanced budget and that's what we did. We took all capital projects that were not under contract already and converted those dollars to operating funds. This thing (the "contingency plan" submitted to the RTA) worries me terribly. But we're hopeful (that the Legislature will provide more funding). At the end of the day, people can't get from Point A to Point B."
Its true that Ron does ride the CTA to work, at least he did this morning. I was quite surprised to be standing right next to him on a very packed train. At least we know he feels the pinch first hand.
Posted by: Aaron | June 19, 2007 at 10:52 AM
Would it ever be possible to get funds from other sources? There is probably some law against this, but why wouldn't environmental groups or rich people with a strong civic duty want to help improve our public transportation - if you can give millions to get your name on a pavillion at Millenium Park, perhaps you would be interested in making major improvements to a downtown station while greatly improving the lives of people in the city and the global image of the city, I'd be happy to have your name slapped all over the place. Maybe an environmental group would be interested in funding lower fuel buses?
Anyone think this kind of thing would ever happen/work?
Posted by: Lauren | July 13, 2007 at 10:27 AM
Not a bad idea, Lauren. There would have be some stringent guidelines, however, to prevent problems, like running the entire joint.
But, hey, there are ads all over the buses & Ls as it is--both inside & out--so what's a few more? ("This on-time bus was brought to you by _______!" Well, that one part's a dream)
Posted by: Dee | July 13, 2007 at 02:15 PM
That's a nice idea, Lauren, but when you're looking at a deficit as vast as CTA's it's not quite worth spending time to chase such small beans. CTA needs $91.9 million just to maintain current service and fare levels through 2007, even after Huberman's $18.1M in administrative cuts. 2008 will require even more money.
A Boston bank recently terminated a deal that renamed a prime downtown station there for $160,000 a year (which suggests that the real market price is less than that). At that price, even selling off naming rights for every station on the Loop "L" would cover just 1.5% of that $91.9M. Put another way, $160K would run the CTA for about 81 minutes. Not bad, but there isn't enough money to run the current system past mid-October.
That said, increasing ancillary revenue from ads, concessions, parking lots, etc. should be a priority once the system is stabilized. A little less extreme than renaming, but still valuable publicity, would be "free rides this July 3 sponsored by XYZ." Downtown developers, in particular, should readily see the value in improving the transit service that delivers most of their customers -- it's disappointing that John Buck could spend over a billion dollars building "North Bridge" without thinking to add so much as a single light bulb to the Grand/State subway.
Posted by: pc | July 19, 2007 at 04:19 AM