Thanks for the mention! I appreciate your mention of the rail lines with lower productivity. I agree that with the depth of cuts the region is considering, these sections will probably need to get a haircut to make ends meet. However, as rail reductions are considered, the fact that trains in their own dedicated right of way can deliver much more utility (carrying more people, longer distances, faster) than buses in mixed traffic needs to be front and center.
I'm very on the fence about fare increases. I know they're probably necessary, but increasing the actual cost of taking transit (fare increases) while increasing the time cost of taking transit (service cuts) reduces the base of people who might choose transit. I agree that focusing fare increases during peak periods is probably the least destructive way to do this, but It still noses towards a death spiral.
Beyond this, the value of the experience of taking the CTA has really degraded over the past several years. I'm not sure how many people would say the experience is currently worth $2.50, and asking them to pay $2.50+ feels like a tough sell.
Regardless, I think the next few years (absent additional funding) will require some tough trade-off thinking that we have a tendency to avoid in Chicago.
It's also unclear that fare increases will be progressive because they're flatly applied across all riders - but even disregarding that, 9-5 commuters probably buy monthly passes anyways so it's unclear that fare increases would target them (unless the monthly pass costs also went up).
I would love to see demographics of 9-5 commuters broken down by income level.
I see Pace and and Metra are giving some money to the CTA so we suburbanites can pay for our suburban buses we don’t use to also pay for Chicago buses we don’t use. Whoopie!
Ending the boondoggle that is the red line extension would save quite a bit of money. funds that could theoretically be used to repair the forest park blue line track.
CPS is using short term borrowing for 80% of payroll. Pensions are underfunded to a number I cant fathom. CTA, arguably the lifeblood of the city, has to make severe cuts. Property taxes are going up (when they get the bills out). All this is the hollowing out of the city. Declare bankruptcy now and save Chicago before the cash flow goes with everything else. There is no way out of this mess that makes lenders whole. They got higher rates for years because it was HIGH risk. Remind them that reward has risk!
Thanks for the mention! I appreciate your mention of the rail lines with lower productivity. I agree that with the depth of cuts the region is considering, these sections will probably need to get a haircut to make ends meet. However, as rail reductions are considered, the fact that trains in their own dedicated right of way can deliver much more utility (carrying more people, longer distances, faster) than buses in mixed traffic needs to be front and center.
I'm very on the fence about fare increases. I know they're probably necessary, but increasing the actual cost of taking transit (fare increases) while increasing the time cost of taking transit (service cuts) reduces the base of people who might choose transit. I agree that focusing fare increases during peak periods is probably the least destructive way to do this, but It still noses towards a death spiral.
Beyond this, the value of the experience of taking the CTA has really degraded over the past several years. I'm not sure how many people would say the experience is currently worth $2.50, and asking them to pay $2.50+ feels like a tough sell.
Regardless, I think the next few years (absent additional funding) will require some tough trade-off thinking that we have a tendency to avoid in Chicago.
It's also unclear that fare increases will be progressive because they're flatly applied across all riders - but even disregarding that, 9-5 commuters probably buy monthly passes anyways so it's unclear that fare increases would target them (unless the monthly pass costs also went up).
I would love to see demographics of 9-5 commuters broken down by income level.
I see Pace and and Metra are giving some money to the CTA so we suburbanites can pay for our suburban buses we don’t use to also pay for Chicago buses we don’t use. Whoopie!
Ending the boondoggle that is the red line extension would save quite a bit of money. funds that could theoretically be used to repair the forest park blue line track.
CPS is using short term borrowing for 80% of payroll. Pensions are underfunded to a number I cant fathom. CTA, arguably the lifeblood of the city, has to make severe cuts. Property taxes are going up (when they get the bills out). All this is the hollowing out of the city. Declare bankruptcy now and save Chicago before the cash flow goes with everything else. There is no way out of this mess that makes lenders whole. They got higher rates for years because it was HIGH risk. Remind them that reward has risk!
It may be the lifeblood of the city, but it smells a lot more like urine than blood.