By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
End work from home? Cut overtime? For government workers?
We don’t hear those kinds of demands very often from Illinois politicians.
Yet that’s what State Sen. Ram Villivalam and State Rep. Marty Moylan are calling for – among other requirements – before they’ll agree to support the Regional Transit Authority with new money. The RTA faces a $730 million deficit now that covid dollars from the federal government are drying up. The agency threatens to go off a “fiscal cliff” if it doesn’t get support asap.
But before you get too excited, know that those lawmakers aren’t serious about fixing the agency’s fiscal problem. Their solution to the agency’s oversized overtime bill is to hire more people. Which means they’re ignoring where the real savings are: rightsizing operations with actual demand.
Ridership is seriously down across the CTA and Metra, yet the agencies haven’t trimmed train and bus rides to save costs. Take CTA rail ridership. It’s still down about 40% compared to its pre-covid average – nearly seven million fewer rides are taken per month.
Yet the number of miles the CTA’s trains travel is 7% higher now than it was in 2019. More than 400,000 additional miles are being traveled each month.
More distance, more hours. Yet fewer riders and less fare revenues.
Downsizing operations to meet that reality is where real savings can be found.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- More than $1 billion in market losses is a reminder of how close Chicago pensions are to the brink
- If they’re on a fiscal cliff, why are CTA and Metra operating like it’s 2019?
- About that drop in homicides. Chicago’s rate hasn’t declined like NYC and LA’s
- New teacher contract: CTU wins, CPS wins…Chicago taxpayers lose
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
How many empty buses we see in lake county. The dollars better spent using uber drivers. Save money on buses upkeep and benefits
Familiar ignoring, or ignorance, when they claim or assume that significantly fewer can’t be served without having to keep paying workers overtime. This is a reason why I don’t connect the merits of a plan to an impact on job numbers.
Some of us recall the halcyon days when gas was so high that the trains were packed and extra cars had to be added. Then along came the vid, ridership plummeted and people stayed home. Yet the CTA continued on as if nothing happened, and still does. The Dorval Carter’s kept collecting outrageous salaries and the homeless had the place to themselves. “No worries, we can always juice everyone in IL for whatever money we need to keep this bloated, money hemorrhaging tire fire going” is the attitude.
Exactly last SATURDAY IDOT state workers cleaning the median on I55 with a full fleet of workers and trucks on overtime – that couldn’t wait till Monday it’s been a sh** hole all winter and spring, once you leave will county the landscape drastically changes the state workers do their job instead of farming out the mowing to 3 guys and a tractor