Senior citizens and disabled riders eventually could pay higher fares for rush-hour trips under a policy change approved Thursday by the Regional Transportation Authority board.
The change continues to hold fares for elderly and disabled patrons to no more than half the full-fare rate during off-periods, but it gives the RTA’s three operating subsidiaries-the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace-the authority to remove the discount during the day’s busiest hours.
None of the three operating units announced plans to change fares, though reducing the elderly/disabled discount could provide millions of dollars in additional revenues for the cash-strapped CTA, by far the biggest supplier of the cut-rate service.
CTA officials have complained bitterly about the state’s diminishing role in covering the expense of the special rates.
In 1989, when reduced fares cost the CTA an estimated $36 million in lost revenue, Springfield reimbursed the authority for $33 million. Despite an agreement to continue funding, that figure has declined steadily, said CTA Chairman Clark Burrus.
This year, the CTA is to get about $20 million in reimbursements, a little less than half the cost of providing the discount program, Burrus said.
“This is a classic illustration of good, sound public policy clashing with economic reality,” he declared.
The CTA faces a funding gap estimated at $50 million next year and must come up with a plan by Aug. 15 on how to cover the shortfall. The agency will lobby for more money from Springfield in the spring legislative session, Burrus said, and “it is premature now to even think about senior fares being increased.”
But Metro Seniors in Action, a senior citizens interest group, slammed Thursday’s policy change.
“I am outraged about this,” said Lucy Marshall, a spokeswoman for the organization. “We’ve had enough increases. . . . We’re not gullible just because we’re seniors.”
Also on Thursday, the board approved three lobbying contracts for the coming year that will cost a total of $180,000. The biggest, $120,000, will go to Winston & Strawn for the services of its chairman, former Gov. James Thompson. Receiving contracts of $30,000 each were the firms of Alfred G. Ronan. Ltd. and Hoffman, Vaughn and Associates.
RTA board member Martin Binder questioned the need for three firms, noting that the CTA, Metra and Pace also have lobbyists.
“I would think they’d be stumbling into one another,” he said.
