by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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The CTA has unveiled its proposed 1999 budget. At $1.03 billion, it is slightly lower than this year's budget. It does, however, include no additional service cuts or fare increases. Of the total budget, $796 million is for operations and $236 million for capital improvements. The capital budget will fund several new high tech initiatives. Some of these include:
Additionally, the CTA is spending $5 million on a customer service training program to get customer service assistants more familiar with the system and to improve their friendliness. The CTA also plans to experiment with putting fare card vending machines in currency exchanges and supermarkets. And the security budget is up $8.3 million and CTA president Frank Kruesi plans to launch a renewed assault on vandalism by promising that all graffiti and window etchings will be removed within 24 hours.
It's baaack...The CTA has included a few million to implement its roundly lambasted bus renumbering scheme. Hopefully this will be de-railed, so to speak. Other interesting items in this vein include the fact that while the CTA was chopping service this year, it added an additional $12 million to a contingency fund for legal damages. Also, despite the very poor condition of its physical plant, the CTA has been spending 25% of its capital budget on federally mandated ADA retrofits.
The CTA says that it needs an addition $138 million in state matching funds to qualify for the full authorized federal amounts to rebuild the Douglas L and for capacity expansion on the Ravenswood.
Also noted as part of the budget announcement, ridership is up 1.3 million this year as of August. The CTA points to this as proof they are doing a good job. Critics point to the booming Loop economy and the residential resurgence of many inner city neighborhoods as a better explanation. [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 10/13/98 and Chicago Tribune 10/13/98 ]
After reading an article in the Tribune, our greedy "friends" in CTA management discovered that their customer service employees had been transferring the balances of expired fare cards to new cards on request. They put a stop to that practice and now you are truly out of luck if your card expires. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 10/12/98 ]
A study conducted at the request of NW suburbs lobbying for an extension of the CTA's Blue Line to Schaumburg showed (surprise, surprise) a need for more transit in the northwest burbs. The study was conducted by Parsons Brinckerhoff. [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 10/14/98 ]
The mayor is planning to provide door to door "Dial-A-Ride" service for senior citizens. This would most likely be contracted out to a private sector provider instead of the CTA. CTA union contracts prohibit outsourcing. Currently this proposal is just in the conceptual phase. [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 10/15/98 ]
The Weekly Breakdown is a small Internet journal devoted to the trials and tribulations of being a regular rider of the Chicago Transit Authority. I would be happy to hear about and include your experiences. Just send mail to breakdown@urbanophile.com.
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