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Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Metra has a real difficult time right sizing their service. Sometimes trains are very crowded because Metra still hasn’t figured out the peak travel times/days. As a rider I have a good idea but they have the actual data and they still can’t figure it out. There are days when tickets don’t get collected because the train is too crowded for the conductor to get through. How do you survive if you don’t collect fares.
This is what happens when you exist to supply jobs for friends of elected officials as opposed to running a business to make a profit.
Even in pre – pandemic days when I commuted on Metra, tickets were not collected a good half of the time… it was like getting a “half – price” rate. I was a senior, but I figured why bother getting a senior pass, when I was already riding so cheaply…
Sad as I enjoyed my 6 years of commuting into da Loop on Metra express trains.
However, if nobody is riding Metra anymore because of WFH then it needs to be right-sized.
I’m sure its tough for Big Guvmnt to right-size one of its own but that’s what needs to be done.
Retrain all of the train engineers and conductors to be green energy workers!!
How many unhoused refugees can be comfortably lodged on a parked bus? Same basic shape as a mobile home and might be positioned at convenient spots in the city for drop-in sleepers. Drivers could be retrained as some combination of social-worker-community-organizer and be paid out of the savings achieved by not consuming fuel.
Utilizing todays “Public Transit” is down right dangerous and air travel isn’t far behind.
Public transit is on the verge of collapse. I know a guy a metra and he says it is a major topic of discussion. Everyone knows it’s going to collapse when the covid money runs out. People aren’t coming back onto the trains, there is too much overhead and too little ridership to sustain what they are doing now.
Let me get this, fewer people are “straining” public transit? Did you read that? No, too many riders strain public transit, not too few. Unless of course you justify the existence of your transit system as more of a government patronage money pit rather than for transit. The proper governmental response to fewer riders is to “right size” the transit routes and equipment and personnel. Not to complain that you no longer need so many trains and busses. Proof that governments only know how to get bigger, never smaller.
“Unless of course you justify the existence of your transit system as more of a government patronage money pit rather than for transit. The proper governmental response to fewer riders is to “right size” the transit routes and equipment and personnel.”
Bingo, and as you point out:
“Proof that governments only know how to get bigger, never smaller.”
Well they’ve gotta protect their cushy jobs and guaranteed pensions you know.
Services that are no longer needed must be cut. That’s it. If the public ever returns, then you rebuild from there. The Appointed Custodians of these transit agencies, and their bloated patronage networks, just can’t bring themselves to face reality and do exactly this. What these participation trophy holders really don’t want is to interrupt the gravy train by laying off “somebody somebody sent” and causing a funding cut courtesy of an offended politician who sent ’em. Meanwhile, they attend conventions and awards dinners to congratulate themselves for the spectacular job they’re doing wasting taxpayer dollars on expensive green boondoggles… Read more »
I agree with you and Rick. These public transit services think like CPS, the latter of which always seems to have increasing budgets for declining student enrollment. Public transit services need to reduce staff and reduce service to adjust to declining riders, instead of asking for more money. This is so obvious to most people, but not to public unions and their employees, many of whom seem to think they’re entitled to cushy jobs until retirement.