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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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If you want to increase ridership you need to create jobs adjacent to public transportation. That way you create a steady client base that will use your service to travel to their place of working providing it is efficient, safe and clean. Since Chicago, Cook County and Illinois are packed with regulations that inhibit people from staying in business or starting new businesses you are going to have problems attracting and keeping ridership, let alone making it efficient , safe and clean.
“At the peak in 2015, nearly 768,000 people boarded the L on an average weekday, according to the CTA. Last year, that number was just 389,000 — a drop of almost 50 percent in less than a decade.” That’s the dirty little secret. We tend to look at the decline of the RTA and its operating arms, CTA/Metra/PACE, using pre-Coof 2019 as the high-water mark for ridership. I did a dive into ridership numbers last year and found that, in reality, 2019 was at the end of a long uninterrupted decline in patronage. The Coof only moved the needle lower at a… Read more »
We appreciate your informed comments.
Nice summary RR. You’ve done your homework. Too bad those who need to read it won’t.
I do think it’s an informative article, including interviews with many of the important people involved with the issue. But I wonder how the writer managed to have a coherent conversation with Garfield amidst the loud intrusive announcements CTA inflicts on passengers (“Your safety is important. We can imprison you for ten years.” “We are experiencing a delay and we regret the inconvenience.” etc.)
Thanks progressives. You’ve turned a public asset into scrap metal.
Funding should come from the riders, not the 98% of the people in the state that have never seen the thing much less rode on it.
Have people bid on scrapping might give enough money to save other public transportation.
Who will pay for the widened roads required when CTA is liquidated?
Ridership is so low, the roads will hardly notice.
No no no. 50% of operating expenses need to covered by rider fares. That’s by law.
This was put in place specifically to discourage raiding the treasury to pay for service with insufficient demand.
The Sen Villivalam (United We Move Illinois) SB0005 moves away from riders funding CTA, METRA & PACE to having taxpayers fund a bigger %. SB0005 is essentially an EBF for transportation no matter how empty the trains & buses are. It’s another bill to essentially make the ARPA-COVID spending levels permanent. Look for similar push for higher ed EBF. That’s what all these articles are about
Correct. The only ‘Reform’ the political animals unequivocally support is the elimination of the 50% farebox recovery rate. The rest is shuffling deck chairs while the stern rises. This is an attempted money grab by the executive directors. Illinois has no business paying more for the RTA than the state already does. Perhaps if the state hadn’t been similarly mismanaged for the past two decades, there could be some relief. Right now, Illinois is unable to pay its current obligations, much less pile on more handouts. The only way out is cut service. The executive directors know this, the political… Read more »
Wow, great article. All the years I took buses, the el, or Metra to get around, I remember it sometimes being very packed during rush hour and I remember not wanting to take the el after 7 pm. But I don’t remember putting up with cigarette smoke or pot smoke. Glad the author pointed out that smoking is antisocial behavior. A vivid incident stands out in my mind: a thug ripped the necklace off a female passenger near me right before exiting a bus. After that, I rarely wore jewelry on public transportation. Sad to ride a train or bus… Read more »