-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
"Conventional wisdom would say if someone were using a service, they should be the ones paying for it. But RTA’s farebox recovery ratio, the share of system revenue generated by riders, was 43 percent in 2018 and has fallen to just 21 percent. This means taxpayers are on the hook for 80 percent of the system’s finances."
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Audio and summary Why the Holdup Using Artificial Intelligence to Cut Illinois Government Costs? – Wirepoints
May 19, 2026
10 Comments
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Note to readers from Mark Glennon re: Ukraine
May 6, 2026
4 Comments
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer – Chicago’s struggling commercial real estate and more
April 22, 2026
5 Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
Audio and summary
One would think that holding fares down should increase ridership, but you’d be mistaken. Failing to ensure safe, clean experiences is no doubt the chief reason. I’m sure that NYC Mayor elect’s plan to make rides free will be just as successful! SMH
Mass transit is much too dangerous for the normal person.
Tax & Spend, repeat Tax & Spend. repeat, Tax & Spend and so on and so forth.
Just another way to make suburban residents to pay for Chicago. Chicago mass transit riders should have a fare increase to pay for their public transportation. What does Johnson say? Chicago needs to “put some skin in the game”.
RTA is not about moving people but providing high paying jobs to the politically connected. We need DOGE to examine it.
What other business can survive without raising prices in nearly 10 years, only with Democrats in Illinois, just keep pulling that blue handle this is what you get.
The 50% farebox operational recovery rate hasn’t been simply a goal. It’s in the law that created the RTA in the first place. This clause was intended to discourage running mass transit operations lacking the ‘mass’.
RTA/CTA/Metra/Pace fares are ridiculously low, given the normal years of inflation plus the outrageous Bidenflation cost hikes.
Mass transit is a scam. Locally in Rockford, Illinois and Beloit, Wisconsin the buses usually are occupied by one person, the driver.
Same here in the suburbs. Huge 70 passenger busses nearly empty. For 40 years. You’d think they would figure it out.