Chicagoland`s rail and bus transit systems could be rocked by a $400 million bill under a sweeping new federal law that establishes broad rights for the disabled.
As supporters celebrate the recent signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the unprecedented access to richer lives that it promises, public transit officials here and across the country are trying to figure out how to pay for alterations to stations and rolling stock.
The Chicago Transit Authority says it may face a $240 million expense to make its rail system accessible, as well as a possible doubling of the annual cost of its Dial-A-Ride program to about $30 million.
Meanwhile, Metra, the other local transit agency that is expecting a major financial impact from the ADA, estimates it will have to spend $150 million in the coming years for lift-equipped rail cars. And because it is possible that the law will require larger lavatories to accommodate wheelchairs, the cars may lose as many as seven seats each.
The agency is still trying to determine the probable expense of making its stations accessible.
Passage of the law comes at a time when the Chicago metropolitan area`s transit system needs a $6 billion overhaul, according to a Regional Transportation Authority estimate.
The General Assembly last year approved $1 billion for infrastructure improvements over the next five years to begin the work. But transit officials complain that a big chunk of the money now may have to be diverted to comply with the ADA even as they face the possibility of expending more than $150 million to meet the requirements of a stringent new Clean Air Act.
Accessibility advocates contend that transit officials are exaggerating cost estimates for ADA compliance. And in any case, the financial benefits of the new law will outweigh its expense as disabled people are permitted to become productive, the advocates say.
”Right now, there is close to $300 billion a year being spent on services to people with disabilities who are dependent on others . . . who get benefits paid to them because they can`t work,” said Lawrence Gorski, Chicago`s special assistant to the mayor for people with disabilities. ”In congressional testimony it was estimated that the cost of implementing ADA would be $2 billion a year.”
While society as a whole may enjoy the new productivity, however, much of the cost will fall on public transit authorities. And Congress provided no new federal cash to soften the ADA`s impact.
”We don`t know at the moment where the money is going to come from,”
said CTA Executive Director Alfred Savage.
Among its many provisions, the law requires that ”key” rail stations-those that are terminals, serve as transfer points to other lines or have high ridership-be made accessible.
CTA officials, who recently completed a rough-cut assessment of the statute`s effects, believe that 45 of the agency`s 143 stations could be put in that category.
Of those, 33 are not now wheelchair-accessible. To make them so-by installing ramps, elevators and, in some cases, doing such things as widening platforms and realigning tracks-could cost from $155 million to $180 million in 1990 dollars, according to staff estimates.
Only newly purchased or rehabilitated rail cars are required to be accessible under the ADA. Unless officials decide to comply with the spirit as well as the letter of the law, however, they may be faced with the sticky prospect of providing newly accessible stations where disabled riders can`t board vehicles.
At many CTA stations, there is a gap of several inches between the edge of the station platform and the rail-car door sill, a potentially troublesome space for people in wheelchairs. If the agency decides to install devices that would bridge the gap, officials estimate the cost at $50,000 for each of the agency`s 1,218 cars. If that figure proves accurate, the total comes to nearly $61 million.
Besides mandating accessibility of buses and trains, the act also requires transit authorities to provide special door-to-door service for the disabled that is ”comparable” in scope to regular service.
The CTA this year will provide nearly 850,000 rides under its existing Dial-A-Ride program, but still will fall short of satisfying all requests for the service. To meet known existing demand and to extend the program to the blind and the developmentally disabled, two groups covered by the ADA, the transit authority would have to spend about $30 million annually.
That figure is roughly double what the CTA has budgeted for 1990. And it doesn`t include the money that would be necessary if Dial-A-Ride was made as convenient and dependable as mainline service, something that experts believe would attract even more riders.
Metra now is discussing its 213 stations with members of the disabled community, and there is disagreement over which already are accessible, according to Philip Pagano, the commuter rail agency`s assistant executive director in charge of corporate administration.
Questions have been raised about such things as whether automatic doors are needed, the appropriate height of ticket agent windows and whether stations must be accessible from all station parking lots.
Pagano said it is too early to determine a station accessibility cost of the ADA that will accompany the estimated $150 million price tag for accessible rail cars. But officials fear the expense will be burdensome.
Transit authorities in other cities, particularly those with old rail lines built when little or no thought was given to accessibility, find themselves in similar positions.
Officials of Philadelphia`s transit agency, for example, face an estimated cost of $21 million for station alterations as well as a possible tripling of their $6 million-a-year budget for dial-a-ride service.
The ADA comes at a time when the Philadephia system is in ”a rather perilous financial condition,” a spokeswoman said. ”We don`t have the resources to do any of these things now.”
”People have been very adamant that they just don`t have money,” said James Charlton, the CTA board`s only disabled member. But ”when push comes to show, money has been found” in the past, he asserted.
Charlton and other advocates for the disabled contend that some transit agencies are faced with making physical improvements all at once simply because they have failed to make them voluntarily over the years.
Indeed, officials in New York City, home of the nation`s biggest transit system, say they may escape heavy expenses now because they`ve been improving accessibility willingly in recent years.
”If this would have been done a long time ago, these costs . . . would not be nearly as high,” Charlton said. ”The past has caught up with the CTA. The chickens have come home to roost.”
