CTA Tattler

http://m.transitchicago.com/news/default.aspx?Month=&Year=&Category=2&ArticleId=2316

cta has improved operations in the four years I have been using the system. Cleaner and more on time service in my humble opinion. Good for them to be recognized.

Which routes are going to be added to the bus tracker on April 20? Fingers crossed for the 134.

C'mon 136!

Any word on what is going on with the NABI buses they took off the streets? Are these new hybrid purchases meant to replace these, or even older buses? I would imagine this will replace the older buses...

It sure seems like we'll have a higher capacity fleet with more articulated buses than before.

The ridership increases are great! Anyone know what the increase of 5.8 million rides works out to percentage-wise?

Looks like they definitely got rid of the "Powerpoint person" you guys were always talking about. There was nary a graph or chart in that President's report.

Yup, I called it yesterday...I just read an article online that said the $113 million will replace the tracks on the Dan Ryan Red line branch, zip for Howard branch. Seriously, are they waiting until the Howard Branch literally falls apart or a major train derailment happens until they start rehabbing the tracks and walls on the far Northside? Unreal. I think the plan is to wait until its an near-emergency situation and then they can apply for New Start funds for a line rebuild. They did this to the Pink line. As little structure/track maintenance as possible for a few decades, then once line is in danger of being shut down, apply for federal New Start to rebuild.

Also, there are still several slow zones up north that kept been kept off the slow zone map for a very long time. Trains are creeping around Wilson, but according to CTA no slow zones per the map!

Ed,

I agree that it is stupid not to be rehabbing the northside redline north of Sheridan.

The slow zones around Wilson, are they northbound, southbound, north or south of the station? The slow zone map does show northbound slow zones north of Wilson.

I know what you're talking about, but can't remember since I ride the red line infrequently.

Red line "phantom" slow zones:

Northbound Red is slow (mostly well under 25-35mph) from a few hundred feet South of the slight jog at Montrose and up into Wilson Station. Then again slowness between Wilson and Lawrence. None of these are on the map.

Southbound is slow from Lawrence into Wilson, but trains can't get up to much speed in these two blocks anyways. Then again leaving Wilson until crossing over Montrose.

The bend at Montrose does have a permanent speed restiction I believe of 25mph, but this should clearly not be the reason to extend up to as far as Wilson and down to almost Buena. A 3-4 city block long slow zone for a bend that is maybe at best 150 feet of track is clearly excessive.

The slow zone on the northbound side heading into Wilson actually needs to be lengthened. As it now stands, the motorman can accelerate when an eight-car train is six cars through, and that's really no fun for the people in that seventh car that's just hitting that bend over Montrose. You've got inertia yanking you forward because of the motorman's sudden acceleration and pulling you sideways because of the slight turn, and I've seen elderly people and students alike go flying.

Northbound slow zones between Wilson and Lawrence are indeed on the map. I think you need to check again.

I hate to be a broken record, but...

As the following article from 2 months ago reminds us: the Operating deficit for 2009 was first made public in mid-February [ http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/autocorner/chi-getting-around-16-feb16,0,5244322.column ]. Putting aside whether they should have all seen it coming earlier, still, here we are two months later and basically they still have $54 million to fill. Some may say, "but it was $155 million back then, so they saved $100 million in those two months--that's good work." Not impressed. CTA is using mostly stimulus money--money that came on board about the same time; it probably takes about a week to figure out how to use money that drops into your lap. What ELSE has the CTA and RTA been doing for these two months?

How could CTA present that they'll come back NEXT month to tell us their plans? Didn't they say that last month? My concern is that there doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency anywhere on this? And maybe that's really a gripe at the media; I dunno.

$54 million is still 5% of their budget--missing money; it's more than what, you point out, they hope to gain from the fare increase this year--wiped-out.

How can we just sit here and accept and applaud that the RTA figures out some way to fill-in $56 from last year and that they may be able to solve that same amount for this year? Where does this magic money come from? It has to come from the future, right? That is, a loan, of some sort?

Which, in tough times, loaning and moving monies around to make sure you get through a tough year is fine and acceptable and probably good practice.

But only if the entire problem is just a down year or just a "rainy day." What if, instead, you're masking over a structural deficit? So you come "out of the fog" after the crisis is over only to find another one staring you in the face.

CTA cannot finance its pension program (that's not a judgement on pension programs; I'm all for them, if they're managed properly); CTA cannot afford healthcare costs; CTA cannot afford to be mandated to give away so many free rides; CTA clearly cannot afford to maintain the capital infrastructure that it has (the same infrastructure that has an overall "state-of-good-repair" price tab over $6 billion. That money's not coming, it never will, so how much are your going to spend to maintain its decrepency?); and lastly, CTA cannot afford to run buses at 2 in the morning on Clark Street and State Streets, a stone's throw from the Red Line, and CTA cannot afford to run service out to Westchester, to name just a few.

Wow, I'm a downer, aren't I?

Hey, I know how the CTA can save money. Why are Board members getting deferred compensation? Maybe Tattlerville has discussed this before, but it seems a little odd that individuals who are not actually employees of the agency would be eligible for any sort of retirement plan or deferred compensation. The $25K per annum each of them receives seems a bit much since they all have day jobs that pay pretty well.

According to the New York Newsday artice that the Google feed picked up:

"[Valerie] Jarrett is also still receiving compensation from the Chicago Transit Authority, where she was Mayor Richard Daley's hand-picked chairman from 1995 to 2003. She estimated $35,559 in deferred compensation as part of the CTA's supplemental retirement plan."

Martha,

I hate to defend the CTA's salery expenses. But, as far as I know, deferred compensation is nothing more than deferred compensation. Dick Cheney (who I am certainly not a huge fan of) was unfairly critisized by ideologues on the left for receiveing deferred compensation from Halliburton. These people were acting as if he was still on the payroll of the company and might therefore be unduly influenced by that (his time at Haliburton certainly may have influenced his decisions as Vice President, but not for this reason). In reality, he had simply decided to receive his compensation over a period of years instead of all at once. He wasn't being paid in the present but was just continuing to get paid for his past work. And he had an insurance policy that would have caused him to continue to receive this payment in the event that Haliburton went bankrupt. So this did not cause any incentive for him to favor the company in any policy decistions. I would guess that Jerritt has a similar arrangement.

Haliburton is a for profit company. CTA is a publicly-funded entity. The same rules of compensation should not apply, especially when it's someone who isn't even an employee. I know it's not a lot of money, but it's the principle. It would be one thing if the CTA Board were really fighting for the public good, but we know that's not happening since their official capacity is to act as rubber stamps for King Richie.

JMan,

They did not use any stimulus money to fill the $155 million budget hole. The stimulus money can only be applied to capital projects and this budget hole is an operating deficit. They mostly filled it with some changes in accounting and future projections of income.

I don't see what the issue is to receive deferred compensation. In a way, it helps the CTA keep down costs since inflation will make that salary seem cheaper as the years go on.

Chris,

please take a look at page 11 of the CTA Budget Report made to CTA Board this week, posted on their website: http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/board_presentations/BudgetPresentation_2009-04-07.pdf
Under the title of 2009 Gap: $155 M", third bullet: "Economic Stimulus Money: $75.2 M"

If, for example, you spend a bunch of money each year on screws and bolts and lubricants and you pay maintainers to occassionally put the bus up on a jack, look under the hood to make sure it doesn't need a big capital expense to make it safe and operable, and the Feds come along and say, "hey, you can capitalize that, because it's a type of rehabilitation and here's some stimulus money to do so," you're going to probably take them up on that and call it a capital expense.

The problem is: NEXT year, you still are going to buy those screws, bolts, lubricants and pay that maintainer to do what he does so well, but you won't have the $75 Million.

And THAT's my point; it's not sustainable. Furthermore, that maintainer gets a 3% COLA, and his pension is further in the hole because Carol Brown decided to not put money into it this year (negative compound interest) all so she can keep that bus (that you can't afford to maintain), on the street for one more year carrying 1 out of 5 people for free, so you can tell the world you didn't cut service--this year.

January 1st 2010 is only 8.5 months away.

"screws and bolts and lubricants," Oh, my!!!

Jman,

It doesn't need to be sustainable. The recession will get better and so will tax revenues for the CTA. You just need a stop-gap to get you through.

The Federal stimulus money is not directly affecting their budget. It is indirect. Because the money allows them to buy new buses, they are counting on the fact that they can spend less on maintenance (operating budget), fuel, etc. This is the type of thing that affects the budget, not as you suggest, nuts and bolts being put in a capital budget.