CTA Tattler

some random thoughts on recent news:

I have no hopes that Doomsday I will not happen, unfortunately. I plan to tell my boss that I might be late a day or 2 next week. I take an express that is being cut, so I know the regular takes longer. However, it has occured to me that trying to fit all the people who take the X now will mean longer stops to load them, which I will not be able to judge until it happens.

I still have hopes that Doomsday II will be thwarted; I should send another letter myself. I don't know that I like the gambling bit, however. Didn't they say that about the lottery & the schools?
I just feel as though some massive political bamboozlement has taken place, since a casino is what our good mayor has wanted for a long time. How convienent...

And speaking of the mayor--"too little, too late, pally." Your support has never been more than lukewarm for us CTA riders. Who rubbed your nose in the consequences of minimized transit so that it stuck? Or are you just afraid of how the poor management looks to outsiders like the Olympics committee?

Maybe they wouldn't need the CTA to get around if the Olympics came here, as some others have said. But I should think, given what that Congressman is saying, that at the very least, it makes us look as though we have poor management, and couldn't handle the extra strain of the Games. Esp when you add in the recent problems with the marathon & the boxers. Well, I never wanted the OLympics in the 1st place.

I know why rallies are held in the middle of the day, during the week, but it sure does make it difficult for people to get there!

And oh, yes, I will be paying attention to who did what among my own elected officials. I can guarantee I WILL NOT be voting for Blagoytoy or Daley again.

Well, it's official: We're the national "poster child for neglct", according to the chairman of the US House Highways and Transit Subcommittee. From today's Tribune:

"Pointing to the transit crisis just days away, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) bashed Illinois as "the poster child for neglect" during a congressional field hearing downtown that examined the city's transportation needs if it hosts the Summer Games in nine years.

He said the political gridlock in Springfield that has pushed the Chicago Transit Authority toward next week's "doomsday" service cuts and fare increases complicates the Daley administration's efforts to prove it is prepared to be the Olympic host city.

DeFazio is chairman of the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee, which wields influence in the fierce competition among cities vying to win billions of dollars in federal grants and funding earmarks for coveted transportation projects.

"It seems that the state and the governor are walking away from a minimal responsibility to maintain an existing system, let alone dramatically enhance it," DeFazio said in response to testimony at the hearing about rusting CTA trains and buses, crumbling viaducts, and miles of streets and dozens of bridges in disrepair across the Chicago area."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-olytransit_weboct30,1,6534413.story?track=rss

We were better off under a convicted felon than we are under Blagojevich and Madigan. If we had any sense or guts we'd be hauling them out of their offices and shipping them off to Baghdad in a coating of tar and feathers.

This is as much Daley's fault as it is Madigan's and Blagojevich's. I take that back--it's much more Daley's fault. The problems with the CTA didn't start a few months or even a few years ago. They've been there for as long as he's been mayor and he has done nothing to address them except appoint his buddies to CTA jobs they weren't qualified to to. I do think Huberman is a step in the right direction, but it was a step taken far too late to do much immediate good.

Cheryl, you're just repeating the baloney that the CTA should be self-funding. The money comes from Springfield. Well, from us, via the Springfield crooks and liars. Audits didn't show that the CTA is run any worse than any other agency. We've had manufactured "funding crises" with public transportation funding for as long as I can remember. Your attempt to blame the problem on the CTA only further enables the Springfield traitors who divert our money to their own purposes instead of ours.

Davey, I see your point about making sure the blame is assigned where its deserved most. However, I have to say when I saw Daley finally pulled his typical "I'm DaMare" temper tantrum, "too little, too late" were the first words to pop into my head as well.

Save the soapbox spectacle Daley. You've neglected the CTA's issues for far too long to pull that schtick now.

This is going to suck

FYI you transit-card L riders. If you hop on a bus, get off at the next stop, then jump on a train you will save $0.75 during peak times and $0.25 on off-peak times.

Or you could just get the Chicago card... since they waived the fee all of 2 weeks after I purchased one.

Nick, I'm not sure you're seeing the whole picture of Doomsday. You won't be able to "hop on a bus, get off at the next stop, then jump on a train." The buses will be further apart, and by the time they're approaching an El station, they're going to be packed.

I predict that a lot of people are going to be hours and hours late. And not just transit riders. When all the transit riders that can use a car put that car on the road, the traffic on the freeways and streets will be horendeous. (And that traffic will further delay the buses left out there.)

My advice would be to allow 3 to 5 times the normal length of time for your Monday commutes.

Add in the time change, and I'm going to predict that the only people getting to work on time on Monday will be those who leave for work Sunday night.

It would be awful if the upshot of all this incompetence in Springfield is that in order to get the basic operating budget needs of the CTA (etc.) met, we have to give up on capital funding.

The casino/roads bill provides PEANUTS for mass transit capital improvement. Let's not forget that the CTA, Pace, and Metra need vast increases in capital funding just to adequately maintain existing infrastructure. And the rail systems will need to be expanded over the next decade or two to meet growing needs - doing that requires funding and planning NOW.

As I've posted elsewhere on this site, I am totally opting out of mass transit. It simply will not be worth the aggravation of finding a bus that won't be so over-packed. The L is out of the question too. Some co-workers and I have formed a van pool to get to and from work.

From:
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/CTA.doomsday.budget.2.479865.html
(10/31/07 - Halloween night)

"And there are indications Wednesday night that they are so close, that Gov. Rod Blagojevich, before leaving Thursday for Springfield, is leaning toward asking the CTA not to start implementing its contingency plan, even though it's not the solution he envisioned last month."

Another empty promises Trick or Treat?

I say "Fool me once-shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me."

The ONLY result of not following through now(other than being an illegal practice of not balancing the budget), would be that this would be perceived in the media, in Springfield, and in Chicago, of the CTA(and now Pace, too) crying "Wolf".

Just say NO.... to legislative delays
Just say NO.... to more "PayDay loans"

Do what needs to be done to responsibly balance the budget and still keep some/most services running.

The impact may be the same as not clearing side streets in a snowstorm... a blizzard of a political fallout for our governor and state legislators this time, but perhaps it will also be the turnaround into recognizing the true value that public transportation has in today's economy.

Any other response will cause the RTA, CTA, and Pace(and soon enough, Metra) to fall further into financial shambles with no political or otherwise relief in sight.