Nauseating.
That’s the way CTA Chairwoman Carole Brown describes her reaction to service cuts and fare hikes set to take place Sunday if state lawmakers don’t deliver a funding fix. Without help from Springfield, the CTA says it will eliminate 39 bus routes and raise fares on buses and trains. Cash fares will rise to $2.50 on buses and $3 on trains, and there will be increases for Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus users.
Earlier this week, Brown took a break from doing deals as managing director at global investment bank Lehman Brothers to talk to RedEye about a variety of transit topics, including how riders are reacting to the threat of even more draconian Jan. 6 service cuts and fare hikes, the funding future of the CTA and how well she works with CTA President Ron Huberman.
On the impact of bus cuts to students
Brown said she was devastated by the recent release of a City Colleges of Chicago survey that indicated that 41,000 of those students use the CTA to get to school. Of that number, 14,000 said they will be forced to drop out if the CTA cuts take place. And those aren’t the only students who will be impacted, Brown said.
“We don’t advertise it, but during the day, we increase bus service around certain schools and high schools to clear the campus and avert conflicts … keeping kids from being caught up in gang activity,” Brown said. “This is the result of working with the Chicago Public School System and the Chicago Police Department. When the bus cuts hit, we will no longer be able to provide that service. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about what might happen.”
On rider reaction to the 2008 CTA budget
“The response to Ron’s budget at public hearings has been muted as compared to the past. Last year, when we presented the budget, we got 100 e-mails from riders. This time around, we’ve gotten four. We need to keep the pressure to lawmakers on, so that kind of worries me.”
On getting busted at the bus stop
Not everyone is numb to the CTA’s doomsday scenario. Brown, who lives in Streeterville, said she was approached by some riders who recognized her and railed against one particular route being removed.
“The No. 157 [Streeterville] services my neighborhood, and one day I was waiting for the bus and got an earful,” Brown said. “People were telling me not to let them cut the bus. I kept looking down the street, thinking, ‘Where is that bus, by the way?’ “
On working with Huberman
“I feel like we’re more peers in our thoughts,” Brown said of the difference between her relationship with Huberman versus working with his predecessor, Frank Kruesi. “Ron and I are closer in age and education. We see eye-to-eye in running the CTA like a business, applying private sector concepts to a public agency.”
Huberman told RedEye it is great working with Brown, and that her talents in finance come in handy.
“She was especially helpful in restructuring the pension and healthcare arrangements we have with CTA employees, which is key to fixing our funding situation,” Huberman said. “She is very talented, and our skills are complementary.”
But that’s not to say there haven’t been bumps in the road.
“Ron is Type A personality, and his mind is going in 17 different directions at once,” Brown said, laughing. “It can be a challenge for me, since I’m doing this as a part-time job. We’re working on our communication, but I’ve learned a lot from him.”
———-
kkyles@tribune.com
