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"And that brings us to the bigger problem — beyond the fact that taxpayers are now on the hook for a project that will cost nearly three times what the CTA spends annually to operate its entire fleet, or nearly three times what it takes to run the Chicago Police Department each year, or roughly twice the cost of completely rebuilding Union Station for the 21st century, or about three-quarters of the cost of the massive terminal expansion and modernization project at O'Hare International Airport. That bigger problem is CTA oversight."
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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C’mon folks, there are many politicians who,need to refill their pockets due to rising costs and inflation. A project like this will not only scam the taxpayers but those pols can really pump up the bank account. Ridership down, no service cuts to empty bus lines or trains so full speed ahead on wasting billions of cash. The Chicago way baby!
Too many political patronage and/or no-show jobs at CTA for it to ever be reformed.
When will the discussion begin on reorganization of management? Get rid of unqualified managers and political hires, downsize management to create an efficient agency. Public transit doesn’t need more money, it needs to be reorganized to weed out “dead wood.”
Ruh roh. When even the lefty dolt children at Crain’s can read the tea leaves everyone else has seen for years, you know this project is in trouble.
Simply put, this project will take a few people off of existing (and mostly paid for) buses and put a few of them aboard a train, all in the name of ‘equity’.
More like idiocy.
Time for a full service application of the automatic brakes, then tie this train down permanently.
CTA ridership down and no service cuts from the CTA. New taxes on multiple services of 6.5% to fund the failing CTA. Just imagine the outrage of Illinoisans living hundreds of miles away from Chicago as they are forced to pay for a failing public transportation system in far away Chicago. Jumbo Pritzger and the democrat controlled House and Senate simply don’t care. Just a bunch of rubes and hayseeds so pay no attention to their objections.
Consider if you will, the Federal Goverment after loosing the Election to Trump, announced on or about Jan 25th that the U.S.Dept Of Transportation had awarded 5.7 BILLION dollars to Chicago to extend the C.T.A. Redline train. U.S. D.O.T. claims the Redline extension will carry 38,000 more potential riders. Thats with 5.7 BILLION (with a B) dollars! However, if instead you bought each of these 38,000 potential riders a brand new Tesla Model 3 to drive to work, it would only cost one billion, 330million dollars. This would leave more than 4 BILLION dollars to steal. Then the Politicians from… Read more »
No one ask for that train yall just trying to take money from the taxpayers no one voted on this
$5.7 billion cost at a ridership level of 38,000 gives a per-seat build cost of $150,000. That’s if you can believe the rather rosy ridership projections. Operating costs are another matter. This will need to be maintained and run by CTA personnel. Incremental? Sure. I bet the ridership comes in at around 40% of the projections with over half coming from existing CTA bus riders. That puts the incremental ridership level at around 20% of projections, or 7600 daily customers added. This translates to $750,000 construction cost per incremental daily rider. Remember, CTA buses already crisscross the service area of… Read more »