* Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot answered “Yes” to this Active Transportation Alliance question during the campaign…
The Metra Electric District line connects people to jobs and opportunity all along Chicago’s South Lakefront and into the South Suburbs. Currently, outside of rush hour Metra Electric trains run only once per hour south of 63rd Street, where many of the region’s most economically depressed are located. Do you support increasing the frequency of Metra Electric trains (every 15 minutes or less) on the full Metra Electric District line, with a discounted fare transfer to CTA buses?
* But now…
County Board President Toni Preckwinkle cemented a [three-year pilot] plan to lower fares and increase service on both the Metra Electric and Rock Island train lines at the center of a racial equity agenda presented to the City Club of Chicago earlier this week — saying the effort would help ensure South Side and south suburban residents have better access to transit. […]
Lightfoot’s not convinced. The fare reduction plan would have “a dramatic effect” on the Chicago Transit Authority, the mayor told reporters Wednesday.
“I’m not in favor of it based upon the analysis that we’ve done,” Lightfoot said. “I’ve spent some time talking with (CTA President) Dorval Carter about it, and it looks like it is essentially a transfer of CTA passengers to the Metra line.
* The Active Transportation Alliance is not happy…
Yesterday Active Trans spokesman Kyle Whitehead criticized Lightfoot’s position in a statement. “The region has come too far with this plan for it to fall apart at this stage,” he said. “Politics and inter-agency competition shouldn’t get in the way of delivering better transit service to the people of Chicago’s South Side and South Suburbs.”
“Southland residents are better served by fast, frequent, and affordable Metra Electric service than buses that aren’t given any priority on city streets,” Whitehead added. “Leaders are working to reverse bus ridership declines with upgrades like bus lanes and traffic signal priority, but we’re a long way from system-wide improvement. This Metra Electric pilot can deliver benefits now.”
There are lots of reason why if, assuming the initiative results in more convenient, shorter, and more affordable transit trips for South Side and Southland residents, including many lower-income and working class people, it shouldn’t matter whether the CTA loses ridership. For example, as it stands many South Siders currently opt to ride buses to the Red Line to get downtown, rather that take much faster, more direct Metra trips, due to cost and schedule issues. That’s a major waste of their time, and it makes it more difficult for them to access job and education opportunities in other parts of the city.
And if the CTA loses lots of bus riders because of the shift, it’s a relatively simple matter to move buses around.
* Greg Hinz…
A similar test has worked well at New York’s Long Island Railway, says [Preckwinkle transportation chief John Yohan]. Even if people only go downtown to transfer to get to jobs elsewhere, “let’s give it a try. Fixing the public transit we have is the top priority for this region,” he says, and that means getting Metra and Pace and the CTA together. […]
Chicago is one region. Can we finally end the mayoral campaign?
* Related…
* Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to co-host Cook County Democratic Party fundraiser with board President Toni Preckwinkle
- City Zen - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 1:47 pm:
“it looks like it is essentially a transfer of CTA passengers to the Metra line”
Pace to the Bottom
- Benjamin Recchie - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 1:54 pm:
===it looks like it is essentially a transfer of CTA passengers to the Metra line===
That’s good. I had to endure many a trip on an overcrowded CTA express bus heading down Lake Shore Drive while the Metra trains ran at half capacity simply because the buses came frequently and Metra didn’t. And Metra is faster than the CTA express buses for most of those travelers anyway.
Just shifting bus passengers to the Metra Electric would be a big win, but I seem to recall that the county’s early studies think it will add something like 40,000 riders net.
- grand old non-partisan - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 1:55 pm:
I think Active Trans is also upset that this spat will complicate their push for congestion pricing in the loop. After all, who wants to be financially penalized for opting not to rely on a fractured transit system managed by bickering politicians?
- Nick - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 1:56 pm:
A poor look for Lightfoot, again
- Bourbon Street - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 1:57 pm:
Lightfoot should be supporting any system that gets people to work and school (or anywhere they need or want to be) in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. As a former everyday user of the CTA, I can attest that, if Dante were alive today, he would have described one of the circles of hell as being forced to ride a CTA bus.
- @misterjayem - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 1:57 pm:
Too often it feels like Mayor Lightfoot would rather fight than win.
– MrJM
- train111 - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:05 pm:
Problem is that the ridership on Metra Electroc and Rock Island Distrct have dropped like a rock. In the spring of 1983 Metra Electric handled an average of 36,685 riders per day. In the fall of 2018 it handled an average of 27,427 riders per day. A decline of some 25%. Rock Island went from 26,345 to 20,506 - alao a drop of some 25%. At the same time services such as BNSF went from 39,739 to 54,931 average riders in a day - or UP Northwest which went from 29,909 to 37,610.
How would Ms Lightfoot or Ms Preckwinkle justify spending resources on a service that has declining usage - most likely reflecting population declines in their service areas.
Or is it simply more ‘county’ ontrol over Metra vs ‘city’ ontrol over the CTA?
- Juvenal - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:06 pm:
It isn’t just former rivals that Lightfoot is struggling with.
Despite her purported hopes of bringing economic development to Chicago’s Southside and Westside, Mayor Lightfoot refuses to return phone calls from businessman Willie Wilson, who championed the issue during the campaign.
Wilson told the Sun-Times he called Lightfoot four times before getting a text back that she was “too busy” to meet with him.
She is suddenly too busy to meet with the people that endorsed her?
Lightfoot does not share the sandbox well.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:09 pm:
Lightfoot still hasn’t figured out… she won, and she needs to cobble support from those she beat, and those who still question her.
The fighting rarely leads to winning in cooperative governing.
- Roman - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:09 pm:
I’m with Preckwinkle on this one. We need regional transportation solutions. Who cares whether it says “CTA” or “Metra” or “PACE” on the side of the train or bus? The point should be transporting as many people as possible, as effectively as possible, for a reasonable price.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:14 pm:
I get the Lightfoot v. Preckwinkle angle, but I cannot help but think that this plan would not be necessary if the Red Line Expansion south was more of a priority for CTA. More CTA capital dollar are going to the Belmont flyover to reduce delays, which may be good, but there are hundreds of blocks on the south side that have literally no transit access.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:16 pm:
===How would Ms Lightfoot or Ms Preckwinkle justify spending resources on a service that has declining usage===
If you run government like a business, you cut off people from transit options, or whatever. That’s why you don’t run government like a business.
- Amalia - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:18 pm:
S. Side no transit access…no buses? And the CTA should be following the lead of PACE and setting up buses…with platforms…that are not on every corner but at designated places. this helps with time and traffic.
- Blue Dog Dem - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:26 pm:
All this is doable if only we could muster the support from the majority party in the state by allowing for a city earnings tax. Who does the majority party supposedly represent?
- cover - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:28 pm:
= Can we finally end the mayoral campaign? =
Unfortunately not for another 3 1/2 years at least…
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:36 pm:
I shouldn’t have said no transit access, but no CTA trains after 95th Street. The City goes to 138th, so that’s a lot of area without a CTA train.
- reun@yahoo.comvvedup - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 2:41 pm:
Politics aside (if that’s ever possible), It would be great if the Metra Electric became true mass transit (more frequent trains, not just commuter-schedule service). Having to wait an hour between trains forces people to use the roads, not go, or take far longer to go and return than often the task itself. Been there, done that myself.
- The Doc - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 3:07 pm:
==Problem is that the ridership on Metra Electroc and Rock Island Distrct have dropped like a rock==
It’s a pilot program, and Lightfoot isn’t arguing against the proposal due to ridership concerns.
- Shytown - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 3:34 pm:
Lightfoot is almost succeeding at making Preckwinkle look…sympathetic. Not a battle worth fighting given there will be others worth the effort.
- BC - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 3:46 pm:
There are major transportation inequity issues on the South Side related to access and cost. CTA train coverage on the south side is awful. If you live in Auburn-Gresham or Pullman, you have to take a bus or two to get to the Red Line at 95th and the Ryan. Or you can walk to the Metra Rock Island or Metra Electric Line in your neighborhood, but you will spend $5.50 one-way to ride downtown — more than twice the cost of taking a CTA train from Evanston, Skokie or Forest Park.
Give Preckwinkle credit for trying to address this.
- Nick - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 3:47 pm:
=If you run government like a business, you cut off people from transit options, or whatever. That’s why you don’t run government like a business=
Also I think people have a lot of misconceptions as to how to actually run a transit service well, which often results in these death spirals of “no one is using this, so we should cut service/investment even more.” Reliability, frequency of service, fare price, transit connections, etc, there’s a lot which goes into the individual decision making someone might do for choosing to commute by one means over another.
Frequency especially can’t be forgotten. A lot less people would be using the CTA for instance if, instead of being able to catch a train every 5-15 minutes, you had to plan your entire schedule around catching it every hour or so, and if you missed it you’re SOL.
- Blue Dog Dem - Monday, Sep 23, 19 @ 3:58 pm:
Victims living south of 63rd street,East St. Louis and Cairo wake up. Those pretending to act in your best interest are they doing their job?