In this update:
1. Springfield Update
2. What’s in store for CTA and Pace?
3. What’s next?
4. Transit in the News
Springfield Update
August 1st marked the end of the State of Illinois’ one-month budget and the beginning of intense negotiations to pass a one-year budget for fiscal year 2008. However, as the debate over how to keep the state functioning dragged on, legislation reforming the RTA and increasing its funding (SB 572) lost momentum. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Julie Hamos, reported that House Minority Leader Tom Cross had instructed members of his party to withhold their support in an effort to secure a capital bill. But there is hope for SB 572, whose text has now been completed. The full text of the bill can be found here and a summary of the bill can be found here.
Currently there is uncertainty over what form the state’s budget will take, but increased transit funding and reform of the RTA were not part of the budget passed last week by the General Assembly. However, legislative leaders have indicated that they will be calling legislators back to Springfield to address both the transit crisis and the state’s capital needs.
If a solution to the transit crisis must be passed in conjunction with the state’s first capital bill since 2003, then it must be done before September. New capital funds are vital to the health of CTA, Metra and Pace, but operating funds are needed before September to avert fare increases and service cuts.
What’s in store for CTA and Pace?
In the past two weeks, both Pace and CTA have approved contingency plans that include fare increases and service reductions to be implemented in September unless the General Assembly and Governor are able to provide increased operating funds. CTA estimates its contingency plan will result in 100,000 fewer rides per weekday, while Pace estimates its plan will result in 5 million fewer rides per year.
Timeline of service cuts and fare increases:
September 1 – Pace local route and Metra Feeder fares will increase to $1.50. ADA Paratransit fares increase to $3.00. Taxi Access Program (TAP) fares increase to $5.50. Pace Vanpool fares increase by 10%.
September 16 – CTA fares will increase to $2.50 and $3.00 on trains during peak hours. Chicago Card fares increase to $2.00. 39 CTA bus routes will be eliminated.
September 29 – Pace will begin to eliminate fixed route and Metra Feeder buses that do not meet minimum performance standards.
October 1 – Pace ADA Paratransit service will be restricted to ¾ mile of regular fixed route service. Pace will no longer accept CTA passes.
December 3 – Pace will eliminate all Metra Feeder buses.
January 1 - Pace local route and Metra Feeder fares will increase to $2.00. ADA Paratransit fares increase to $4.00. Taxi Access Program (TAP) fares increase to $6.50.
January 5 – All Pace weekend service will be eliminated.
What’s next?
The end of this record-breaking session has proven exceptionally difficult to predict. Mass transit riders and advocates must continue to pressure the Governor and their legislators to pass legislation that ends the vicious cycle of doomsday scenarios and under funded transit agencies.
In the event that the Governor signs the budget passed by the General Assembly and legislators go into recess, they must be reminded that their work is not done! Solving Northeastern Illinois’ transit crisis must remain a priority, and it is up to constituents to make sure they do not forget. Call your legislators’ district offices while they are back from Springfield and ask them when they will be returning to Springfield to reform and fund the RTA. Also, remind them that if a capital bill is passed it must include funds to improve Northeastern Illinois’ transit infrastructure.
Transit in the News
Friday, August 10th the Daily Herald published an editorial urging the Governor and General Assembly to reform and fund the RTA. In it, the editors referenced CNT research showing how much money is saved by households with access to frequent and reliable mass transit.
Boost funding to stabilize mass transit - Daily Herald, August 10, 2007
The General Assembly inched forward Thursday as the House approved its latest version of Illinois’ months-overdue budget. Increased funding for the Regional Transportation Authority was not among the needs covered by the spending plan that faces an uncertain fate once it reaches Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s desk. The Senate was considering the budget when this went to press.
Legislators and the governor should support legislation that would raise the RTA sales tax by 0.25 percentage point throughout the region, and an additional 0.25 percentage point in the collar counties (that money to be controlled by the collar county boards for local transit and road projects), establish a real estate transfer tax in Chicago, and restructure the RTA to strengthen its oversight of Metra, Pace and the Chicago Transit Authority. At the same time, no tax increase can be approved without strict accountability measures also provided by the pending RTA bill. Fare increases must also be part of the mix.
Stable transit systems help boost regional economic development and tourism, reduce traffic congestion and pollution (of both the smog and greenhouse gas varieties), and provide ways for the less fortunate among us to get to work. And as we’ve noted before, a healthy RTA will be an absolute necessity, should Chicago land the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Here’s another sobering reason why suburban residents and legislators should support transit funding: A recent report suggests that families with access to strong transit systems spend less of their annual budgets on transportation costs than the average American family. And a great deal less than families in far-flung suburbs who must rely on cars, minivans or SUVs to get anywhere.
Citing Bureau of Labor statistics from 2004, Reconnecting America — a nonprofit organization that promotes revitalizing and expanding transit systems — found that while the average American family spends 19 percent of its income on transportation, families in the auto-dependent exburbs spend 25 percent on transportation. Families living in areas with good access to public transit spend just 9 percent.
The economics of those numbers will only get colder as gasoline prices continue their steady, inevitable rise.
State Reps. Julie Hamos, an Evanston Democrat, and Sidney Mathias, a Buffalo Grove Republican — the chair and ranking minority member, respectively, of the House Mass Transit Committee — say the RTA-related legislation will probably be tied to a capital spending plan, with or without a Chicago-based casino, and dealt with sometime before the end of August.
We certainly hope so, because the time to act is now — before Metra, Pace and CTA are forced to slash service and drastically hike fares, thus risking a deadly spiral of lost ridership forcing more cuts/hikes, driving more riders away.
By the way, Pace’s bloodletting would begin Sept. 1, the CTA’s on Sept. 16. Metra’s would hit commuters next year.
How foolish, too, the notion that we might have to pay much more in the near future just to restore the transit system to what it is today.
Hamos is hopeful a deal will yet get done. “I don’t know that anybody down here, including the governor, wants the responsibility of facing a shutdown” that service cuts and fare hikes could bring, she said Thursday.
For all our sakes, we hope she’s right.