Pop some champagne on the train. Break out the balloons on the buses. Let’s celebrate at all the stops. Doomsday has been averted with Wednesday’s announcement that the state will provide $24 million to the CTA, staving off fare hikes and the cutting of 39 bus routes.
But before you don a party hat, isn’t this doomsday deja vu? Didn’t we have a similar celebration in 2005 when riders were threatened with dramatic fare hikes and then rescued by a $54.3 million bailout from the state?
Needed or not, Wednesday’s temporary reprieve is nowhere near the $110 million the CTA needs to balance its budget and keep service levels intact. This most recent infusion is the equivalent of treating precious public transit like a temp worker, forced to live check-to-check instead of being offered a long-term livelihood.
In fact, come Nov. 4, the dreaded route cuts and fare hikes may return if Springfield lawmakers do not press on and pass legislation that increases taxpayer contributions to regional transit and reforms the agency’s health-care and pension plans.
If I sound like an ingrate, that isn’t the case. I am happy my beloved No. X3-King Drive Express will continue to skip stops and whisk me from Bronzeville to downtown. I’m elated for the riders, many of them students, who have written and e-mailed me all week panicking about their routes being cut or having to dig deeper into their wallets for less service.
Doubtless, we will all breathe a collective CTA sigh of relief that service will continue as normal — or what we’ve come to accept as normal, anyway.
Still, we deserve better than another turn on the rider roller coaster that is CTA funding. Instead of toasting this temporary victory, let’s keep urging lawmakers to deliver more than a budget Band-Aid for local and regional transportation. Then, after we achieve that, let’s kick butt on bus bunching.
