by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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It looks as though the RTA plan to spend $91 million on an experimental Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in Rosemont is in trouble. The project was put on hold by the RTA chairman after several board members questioned the deal. RTA board member and CTA board president Valerie Jarret expressed a desire to use the money to leverage additional federal grants for the existing systems. Raytheon claims that if the RTA procedes, its stand to receive about $200 million in royalties on future PRT system sales that will more than offset the original $91 million investment. [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 11/5/98 ] [ Just to repeat my opinion, I think investing in a PRT system is ludicrous when CTA service is cut to the bone and there is a massive maintenance backlog on all existing transit systems - AMR ]
On Wednesday 11/4 the CTA held a public hearing on its proposed 1999 budget. Only about 50 people attended. The meeting was not well advertised, something several speakers complained about. About 20 people gave statements and the meeting lasted less than two hours. CTA board president Valerie Jarret asked people to limit their statements to three minutes - as a courtesy to other attendees (or so she claimed). It seemed to me that the CTA people present were in a hurry to get this irksome federal requirement out of the way as soon as possible so they could all head home to dinner and implement the budget as is. But that is just my opinion.
The speakers were comprised of a handful of groups, including Pilsen residents, several speakers from some socialist group, and disabled activists. There were also some community group leaders, CTA union reps, and misc others, including yours truly.
The Pilsen contingent complained about severe cutbacks in their neighborhood. The best comment was from someone who wondered by property taxes were up 200-300% in their neighborhood at the same time they were seeing city services chopped.
The disabled advocates were extremely militant, as might be expected. They claimed the 25% of capital funds the CTA is spending on ADA compliance was a joke and that they experience numerous problems. Also decried was the plan to transfer certain paratransit service areas to PACE. One particularly notorious person screamed at the CTA board, calling them "ablist bigots". Another suggested the CTA should adopt a "zero tolerance" policy for busses without operating wheelchair lifts.
In case you are wondering, I delivered a particular poor statement on the CTA's lack of concern about suburban transit needs, particularly Evanston. I'm not a bad public speaker, but require extensive preparation, which I didn't have time for. I'd rate my speech as a D-. Basically I claimed that the CTA should be stripped of their 30% of the RTA sales tax in suburban Cook County because all they care about is the city. I will detail my reasons RSN on my forthcoming web page entitled "The CTA's War on Evanston".
If you are interested in seeing the CTA's budget, a summary is available online at: http://www.transitchicago.com/bbook.pdf. This is a PDF file which requires a PDF file viewer in order to read.
A co-worker reports that his Heritage Corridor train ran ten minutes late every morning this week, and five minutes late in the afternoon. Another co-worker reports that signal problems on the BNSF line to Aurora caused major delays at PM rush hour on 11/5.
An interesting thing happened on Friday 11/6. I was on the 7:16 inbound Evanston Express from Main St. After leaving Howard, it stopped shortly before Jarvis. After a bit of a wait, the motorman (looking very embarrassed) walked through the train to the rear car and backed us back into the Howard station. We then proceded normally, after taking on additional passengers. One rider speculated that we blew a switch since we were on the inner track when at the time we backed up. I'm not sure what happened for sure, though.
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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