I hope I never shoot myself in the foot the way the Chicago Transit Authority is getting ready to do. It looks like I`m going to need these feet for walking.
Let me make sure I understand the business strategy of the CTA. The CTA is a service business. Its existence depends entirely on an increasing number of customers repeatedly using its service, a decision the customer makes based on convenience, reliability and cost.
So the CTA`s strategy is to eliminate some service, reduce reliability and raise the price. The bottom line is that, once again, the bean-counter mentality has chosen the typical short-term solution that only perpetuates the problem. It doesn`t take a psychic to foresee that downgraded service plus price increases equal loss of patronage. Businesses can sometimes survive one of the above, but rarely both.
Case in point: I use CTA services purely for convenience. I expect to spend around $1,100 this year for public transportation, but my usage is totally dependent on using the North/Clybourn subway stop. There is no reasonably convenient alternative. If I`m suddenly forced into the option of two or three bus transfers, I`ll give up and buy a car. Enough is enough. The CTA loses my $1,100, and I`m only a tiny drop in the bucket.
The Tribune article on Oct. 9 reported that CTA officials expect a strong negative reaction from merchants and inconvenienced riders. Well, at least they`re still lucid.
So instead of gearing up for a backlash, why not talk with those merchants and riders? The North/Clybourn area is a fast-growing residential and retail neighborhood with enormous potential for the future. Perhaps a merchants-residents task force could initiate an ”Adopt-a-Stop” program to tackle some of the costs or labor involved in keeping the stop open.
I don`t know if it`s feasible, but at least it`s more progressive thinking than ”save money, close it down.” I do know it`s better business to find ways to keep customers than to try and woo them back once their habits have changed.
I bet that if you got six of this city`s top marketing and business minds together and gave them the entire public transportation franchise, in five to seven years you would have a cleaned-up, efficient, expanded service operating at a profit. We`d be paying more to ride, but we`ll be doing that anyway.
Come on bureaucrats, take some of those rate hikes and buy a clue. Clean up the theft. Clean up the waste. Close those time-worn textbooks and call on some of this city`s creative problem-solvers. We`re facing a major public crisis in this city, whether you use public transportation or not. I`m not clairvoyant, but I can foresee the future. I moved here from Los Angeles.
