A tune is wafting from the Chicago Transit Authority, and it’s an old and troubling one: Give us more money or we’ll slash bus and train service.
The CTA says it needs $82.5 million to maintain its current level of service. It has prepared two competing budgets. One assumes the General Assembly coughs up the extra transit money and life goes on as usual. One assumes no money is coming, and 20 percent of CTA service is eliminated.
The CTA can’t count on a bailout from the legislature. Springfield doesn’t have a trunkful of money to take care of special pleas and Gov. Rod Blagojevich has not been receptive to raising taxes. Another possible source–raiding funds that go to suburban mass transit–will deservedly raise howls from suburban lawmakers.
There is one more option, and the CTA board on Thursday put it on the table: Raise fares. A 25-cent increase in the CTA basic fare, bringing it to $2, would raise up to $35 million in revenue. A $5 hike in the monthly pass would bring in more millions.
CTA fares went up just last January, to $1.75 from $1.50. But the basic fare hadn’t been raised for a dozen years before that. Bringing the basic fare to $2 would put Chicago at par with some other large cities, including New York, where the basic fare is $2. New York charges as much as $4 for some express bus routes.
Along with a fare increase, the CTA has to act right now to fundamentally reshape its transit financing structure. As its newest crisis–and all the crises over the years–demonstrate, it has an unsustainable financial model.
The CTA needs a system that can charge riders according to how far they travel, as the Metra commuter rail does. A ride from O’Hare to the Loop should cost more than a ride downtown from the Near North Side. The CTA should charge more for rush-hour rides than it does for other times, so it captures higher fares from those who can afford them–those who are working–and gives a break to those who have the option to travel at earlier or later times.
Beyond that, the CTA has to rethink how it does business. There is a monopoly in Chicago mass transit, and that’s not working. The CTA should introduce private competition for the right to run its bus lines, as has been done in a number of other cities.
Transit competition in Denver, the San Gabriel Valley in California and other localities has produced savings of 25 to 30 percent, according to Robert Poole, director of transit studies at the Reason Foundation.
What keeps the CTA from doing that is as simple as it is outrageous: Its labor contracts–from train operators to carpenters–contain clauses prohibiting privatization of functions and jobs. The CTA labor contracts expired in December and are under negotiation.
The CTA may still need a larger public subsidy. One possible idea is a modest Chicago parking tax increase that would be channeled to the CTA. But it will be difficult for the agency to make a compelling case for increased government subsidies until the competition ban is removed.
A fare increase, a modest parking tax and, though we don’t like the idea, a dip into CTA capital funds, would get the agency through the next year without cutting service. It would give time to start on a more fundamental restructuring.
The CTA has improved service, cleanliness and timeliness significantly over the last 10 years and as a result has stanched ridership declines. It has also embarked on a massive campaign to rebuild “L” lines and buy new buses and train cars. Those upgrades are what will attract more riders and keep the system growing.
A functioning rapid transit system is vital to the economy of the city and the region–and a 20-percent cut in CTA service would be disastrous. The question of saving mass transit in Chicago is not whether to do it, but how. That’s why CTA management needs to work on long-term solutions–including reducing its cost structure–rather than careering from one financial crisis to the next.
