CTA Tattler

Special thanks to the Illinois state treasurer

A special thank you to Alexi Giannoulias for FINALLY taking down the HUGE banner on the side of the house on the southeast side of the Red Line Belmont platform at the far south end.

He's the Illinois state treasurer. And the huge sign with his name on it hung on the side of that house for more than a year. He was elected a year ago in November. (The sign hung so long that the rest of the siding around it was obviously faded from the sun.)

It's curious timing that the sign comes down now -- just a few days after Doomsday I was avoided. Maybe he doesn't want CTA riders to think that he has anything to do with the ineffective governor and state legislative leaders.

And to be fair, he doesn't.

Also, maybe he thinks he's getting enough publicity now that he's been named by Crain's to be  one the "40 Under 40" to watch.

Slow zone post update; Brown Line progress report

Some reader commenting on Monday's post about new 2008 Red Line slow zone work wondered when the CTA would finish the stretch between Sheridan and Wilson.

And, in fact, CTA President Ron Huberman called me last night because he said he read those comments. Huberman said he has regular CTA workers focusing on that stretch right now, and they should be done with the southbound portion by the end of the year. "I ride that stretch of the Red Line every day, so I am painfully aware of how slow it is," Huberman told me.

By "regular CTA workers," I mean these crews are not paid through funds from the FTA and RTA. Huberman earlier this year reallocated CTA resources to focus on slow zone work.

Sedgwick repairs done; Montrose and Addison to reopen. Months of construction at the Brown Line's Sedgwick station ended Monday with two new elevators and a longer platform as the results. Unlike other Brown Line stations, Sedgwick stayed open, although the entrance was moved to Hudson.

And within the next three weeks, the Montrose (Nov. 26) and Addison (Dec. 3) stations will reopen after yearlong shutdowns for reconstruction. They were closed Dec. 2, 2006. I have to give the CTA credit. They've stuck religiously to their announced schedule.

Next up for closures are the Damen and Irving Park stations.   

New slow zone work planned for Red Line in 2008

As the CTA works to finish its Red Line slow zone elimination project from Grand to Clark/Division, last week the board authorized a new project from Clark/Division to just north of North/Clybourn, plus a mile of track from Roosevelt to Lake.

This new 26.6 million project will replace deteriorating wooden rail ties with concrete ties. Funds for this work come from the Federal Transit Administration and the RTA. This cash is not available for operations.

The current slow zone work should be complete by mid-December. But one motorman always tells us the completion date is Dec. 2, at which time trains will run at 65 mph on straightaways and 25 mph on curves in the area. A CTA spokesperson could not confirm those speeds for me.

Meanwhile, on the O'Hare branch of the Blue Line, slow zone work between Jefferson Park and Harlem should be finished by the end of the year. The CTA in September completed work in the Blue Line tunnel in September.

Doomsday 2008 budget details from the CTA

Here's the CTA's story on their proposed 2008 budget, in their own words from the press release. Call it biased perhaps, but it is reality:

The proposed 2008 operating budget is $1.034 billion, which is $45 million lower than 2007. The CTA expects to generate $562 million in fares and other revenue and anticipates $472 million in public funding. In order to maintain service and fares at current levels, the CTA needs an additional $158 million in public funding for 2008. This is due to shortfalls in three areas:

• The CTA’s funding agency, the Regional Transportation Authority, reduced the CTA’s funding level by $14 million compared to the mark they provided in last year’s financial plan.
• The CTA’s public funding is growing at a much slower rate than related expenses. Public funding levels only increased by four percent over the past five years and trailed inflation, which increased by 11.3 percent in the same time period. By comparison, CTA has also experienced substantial cost increases in fuel, materials (due to a lack of capital funds) and security.
• Pension and health care reforms proposed by the CTA have not been approved by the General Assembly. Not having these reforms in place yet is estimated to cost the CTA more than $11 million each month. Without them, the CTA will incur increasingly higher costs for providing these benefits and the historic union agreement previously reached will expire.

. . . The CTA has grappled with a steep decline in inflation-adjusted funding levels. The CTA’s public funding for mainline bus and rail operations trailed inflation by approximately one percent every year. If funding since 1987 had kept even with inflation, the CTA would have received cumulatively $1.6 billion more to operate its buses and trains.

Help a student with school project

Amy left this comment earlier today. As a journalism school grad myself, I thought I would help her out by posting her comment more prominently:

Hello All. I have been researching this blog for a school project regarding the media and would greatly appreciate help from the readers of CTATattler. If you are available to answer a few questions please email me at newsproject07@gmail.com. (Typo fixed in email address.) Thank you for your help!!

-- Amy

Jan. 20 is the newest Doomsday

The CTA board Wednesday deemed Jan. 20 as the new day of Doom. Without additional state funding:

• 81 of 154 bus routes (pdf) will be eliminated.
• 2,400 employees will laid off.
• Three of the eight bus garages will be closed.

A new tiered fare system (pdf) will go into effect:

• $2.25 will be the lowest fare for a non-peak bus and rail ride for Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus customers.
• Rush hour fares for those card holders would be $2.25 for buses and $2.50 for the train.
• Cash fares would cost between $2.75 (bus and rail at non-peak times) and $3.25 for train fares at peak times.

Check back Friday for more on this. Unfortunately.

Terms of endearment

I'm sick of this Doomsday CRAP! We need some LOVE!

Overheard on a very quiet Red Line train stopped in the subway slow zone area waiting for signal clearance:

"Mommy -- I love you!" screamed the 4-year-old girl, to the delight of all passengers on the crowded train car.

Rallying to the cause despite "Doomsday fatigue"

Almost 200 concerned CTA riders braved an early November chill and a mighty wind to "save transit now!" --  and so went the chant from that crowd.

Brian Imus, director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, sounded the day's theme and one echoed here: "We must hold our politicians accountable for the mess they've gotten us into."

Another speaker reminded us that this is not just a Chicago problem.  "Make sure your friends who ride the Metra know that they are in this same boat too," said Rich Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. He warned of coming Metra fare hikes and slow zones.

Among the ordinary riders at the rally, one woman told me she's suffering from a bad case of "Doomsday fatigue -- it just seems like it been Doomsday scenarios  for months and months, and it just makes me tired," she sighed.

No doubt it's that same fatigue that kept turnout down. I can't help but think if Doomsday actually HAD arrived Monday, there would have been many hundreds more at the rally. Save Chicagoland Transit was a rally co-sponsor. Go there to write more letters to the state pols.

Guv calls for meeting of the minds. Blago invited the four legislative leaders to a meeting this morning, saying it's time to "seize the moment," reports the Tribune. Perhaps Rod is actually trying to follow through on a promise -- that is, to resolve the funding issue in 7 to 10 days. I'll believe it when I see it.

Huberman fears the "crying wolf" syndrome; transit rally Monday

CTA President Ron Huberman tells the Tribune he's concerned about losing credibility with riders for "crying wolf" twice now, only to pull back after Blago bail-outs.

"My worst fear about the Band-Aid funding is that people will not believe we continue to be in a bad fiscal position that forces us to cut service and raise fares," Huberman told the Trib.

I think that's a very real fear, and it's a big reason why many readers and I have encouraged the CTA to "just say no" to last second bailouts. Though I blame the governor for this mess, not Huberman.

And now our fabulous governor says a long-term solution will be hammered out within 7 to 10 days. But still, Huberman rightly proclaims that his staff will crunch the numbers this week and tell us before Thanksgiving what the next round of cuts will look like in January without that solution.

As always, stay tuned.

Transit rally Monday: Don't forget about the mass transit rally today at noon in the Thompson Center Plaza at Randolph and Clark.

The Feds bail out CTA, take heat off state -- for now

OK, this was one scenario I didn't predict:

FEDERAL funds to be used as a stopgap measure to avoid service cuts and fare increase.