* Sun-Times…
State legislators are proposing legislation that would create a transit agency to oversee public transit across northeastern Illinois and provide an additional $1.5 billion in annual funding for public transportation.
State Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, and state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, D-Chicago, have introduced the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act, which would create the Metropolitan Mobility Authority to oversee all public transit operations and replace the Regional Transportation Authority.
They say the measure aims to avoid overlap and competition for money between the RTA, Chicago Transit Authority, Pace and Metra — which they said has led to a delay in integrated fares — and instead provide “coordinated” services. The metro area once had just the RTA and CTA, and Metra and Pace were created later. […]
RTA Chair Kirk Dillard said the agency was open to changes but adequate funding had to come along with that for the “chronically underfunded” system.
“We welcome discussion on reforms that strengthen coordination, efficiency, and accountability across the regional transit system,” Dillard said a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times. “But reforms must come with the necessary funding to upgrade service and maximize transit’s impact on the region’s economy, climate, and access to opportunity for all residents.”
* Tribune…
Some of the transit agencies have pushed back on the idea. [CTA President Dorval Carter], in a September letter to CMAP about the organization’s proposals, said focusing on how transit is governed instead of funding would be a “grave mistake” and a “near impossible task to practically accomplish” because providing service is complex.
“To attribute the region’s challenges to anything other than a funding shortage is to perpetuate a narrative that will — at best — serve as a distraction to the funding crisis we face, and — at worst — deepen the disparities of opportunity and access plaguing our region by claiming that it is governance and management issues that are the premier drivers of our challenges,” Carter wrote.
The way transit systems are funded, now, is “discriminatory,” Carter said in the letter, tying funding issues to race. The CTA historically has been underfunded under a 40-year-old deal reached by a downstate- and collar county-controlled Illinois General Assembly when Harold Washington was elected as the city’s first Black mayor, he said.
The deal was intended to ensure the CTA and the mayor’s influence “was always controlled ultimately by other entities,” Carter wrote. He cited the creation of a “suburban-controlled” RTA and a funding formula that sends 49% of the region’s transportation funding to the CTA, which provides 80% of transit trips.
* Gov. Pritzker was asked about this proposal at an unrelated event…
I have not read the bill, I’ve only read the reporting on the bill.
And obviously, there are changes that will have to take place as we move forward in thinking about the funding cliff and thinking about how better to operate the transit systems in the region. So you know, I like that there’s creativity coming out of the General Assembly.
I also think we need to make sure that we’re listening to other organizations, including the CTA, who ought to be coming forward with more about what changes need to take place.
So I’m pleased that there’s movement on this front but I you know, I don’t not endorsing any particular plan yet
Please pardon all transcription errors.
…Adding… Interesting point…
…Adding… Daily Herald…
“What we hope is included is a long-term fiscal solution that doesn’t disrupt progress and reflects the real-life service needs of our region,” Pace spokeswoman Maggie Daly Skogsbakken said.
“Pace’s current governance structure allows us to be nimble and responsive to local needs, and it is feared that a governance consolidation would negatively impact commuters.
“Changes must reflect the actual service needs of our region and address the real problem, which is a historic lack of investment in our transit system, especially in the suburbs,” she added
- Just Me 2 - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 1:44 pm:
The CTA as an agency and its staff shouldn’t be taking a position on their governance structure. It is inappropriate for employees to lobby who their bosses should be, and they’re naturally going to support their current boss’ position to keep them in charge.
- Give Us Barabbas - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 1:45 pm:
I don’t see how adding another overlay to the Venn Diagram of transit management results in better funded more reliable and efficient transportation. Why can’t RTA be modified to do more of that?
- Google Is Your Friend - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 1:56 pm:
- Give Us Barabbas - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 1:45 pm:
The proposed legislation abolishes separate entities and makes one. That’s hardly “adding another overlay to the Venn Diagram.”
- Arsenal - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 2:00 pm:
== [CTA President Dorval Carter], in a September letter to CMAP about the organization’s proposals, said focusing on how transit is governed instead of funding would be a “grave mistake” and a “near impossible task to practically accomplish” because providing service is complex.==
I can’t believe Carter’s “don’t ask how I’m going to use it, just give me more money” play didn’t work.
A state takeover of Chicagoland transit would be a tremendous middle finger to the Mayor, but it’s not a crazy idea, and it’s not like CTA has proven that it can govern itself anymore.
- Just Me 2 - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 2:00 pm:
Hey CTA == The deal was intended to ensure the CTA and the mayor’s influence “was always controlled ultimately by other entities,” Carter wrote. He cited the creation of a “suburban-controlled” RTA and a funding formula that sends 49% of the region’s transportation funding to the CTA, which provides 80% of transit trips. ==
What Carter is conveniently leaving out is the CTA gets 100% of the discretionary funding.
If you would rather the suburbs stop subsidizing your operations I’m sure we can have that conversation. But if you want the suburbs’ money to run empty trains at night, and spend billions on a new rail line just a few blocks from an existing one, you gotta’ tolerate some regional oversight.
- Gravitas - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 2:14 pm:
In order to improve the CTA:
Let’s put conductors back on to the elevated trains. Let’s put a stop to persons who do not exit the trains at the end of the line and move those loitering in the trains station platforms and tunnels.
- Dan Johnson - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 2:14 pm:
Probably best to de-personalize this debate. The people who happen to be running each agency in 2024 will not be running them in 2034 (or probably 2029), so how to best structure and fund transportation isn’t really about the personalities or perceived shortcomings of each particular appointed manager.
- ChicagoBars - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 2:44 pm:
Did I miss the part in CTA President Carter’s letter where he explained why CTA service went to heck in a hand basket post-2020 despite unprecedented Federal $ support?
The whole “We just need more CTA funding” thing would be a lot more effective if the CTA hadn’t been operationally hurting for going on a good three years now.
- City Zen - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 2:55 pm:
==What Carter is conveniently leaving out is the CTA gets 100% of the discretionary funding.==
And CTA has a devoted revenue stream from Chicago’s real estate transfer tax.
The other transit agencies serve Chicago too. Metra serves numerous Chicago neighborhood stops. And paratransit covers the entire region.
- Scooter - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 2:59 pm:
A comment on the Daily Herald addendum, specifically, the quote from Pace’s spokesperson:
“Pace’s current governance structure allows us to be nimble and responsive to local needs, and it is feared that a governance consolidation would negatively impact commuters.”
If Pace really wanted to be ‘nimble and responsive to local needs,’ they’d already have agreements and set protocols in place, with Metra, to provide stopgap service when the latter’s trains are stopped due to unforeseen delays. When Metra’s service is interrupted like this, the ridership is typically offered nothing more than excuses along the lines of “sorry, the trains aren’t running and we don’t know when they will be.” This is one area where Metra and Pace fail pretty spectacularly, as separate agencies within their own silos.
- StarLineChicago - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 3:35 pm:
Overall we need to divorce the idea that the CTA is for Chicago and Metra/Pace are for the suburbs. 12% of ‘L’ stations are located in suburban Cook County, and one-third of Metra’s stations are within city limits. We should have a true network that serves all of Chicagoland rather than continue buying into a city/suburb binary. I wish the CTA took more seriously the idea that they should be serving their entire statutory service area (which encompasses a majority of Cook County), but absent that direction, we do need a combination of new revenues and new reforms to properly reimagine transit service throughout the region.
- Ben Tre - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 5:32 pm:
Mayor Lori opposed Cook County’s test of “Fair Transit South Cook” because it would shift passengers from CTA to Metra. That should tell you everything you need to know about why we need to consolidate transit agencies.
- Angry Chicagoan - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 6:11 pm:
We really need to get away from the territoriality between the agencies. If you were to allocate funding purely by rides it would kill transit in the suburbs due to the longer average distance and driving the suburban middle class away from transit is the last thing we should be doing in the Chicago area if we want to lessen car dependence and make it easier to live without a car.
And think what we could do without the territoriality. Let’s consider Metra routes in the city limits. For example Metra Electric South Shore used to run six times an hour off-peak. It’s now hourly and skips some useful connections with east-west CTA bus routes it once had. It ought to be the south lakefront’s L. Metra Electric Blue Island used to run I believe a couple times an hour; now it’s every other hour, for what could be an extremely useful point to point link across the southern suburbs. CTA, for their part, ventures into the suburbs in a number of key settings and that should also be better integrated with Pace and Metra.
- Phineas - Monday, Apr 29, 24 @ 8:40 pm:
A few points:
- the Governor asking CTA to the table is code for “hello, Mr. Mayor”
- suburban Cook has always been the real loser im transit funding, hollowing out the inner ring suburbs unfortunate enough to be beyond CTA lines, or subject to Metra lines starved at the expense of extensions to cornfields in Kane and McHenry
- I’m intrigued by the proposed governance. Mayor and County board Pres majority control? Could be a recipe for better coordination and fixing the imbalances above. But hello, Mr. Mayor? Got any funding? How about that hotel tax …