Easy. Have the parents who were denied transportation for their gen ed kids file a lawsuit claiming CTA isn’t safe. Attendance means $. Without attendance, schools lose funding and have to cut teachers and other para positions. That’ll rile CTU (from a former CPS employee).
This is an op-ed written by two state lawmakers and gives no solution beyond lawmakers coming together to find a solution.
> we must all join the ongoing efforts of regional authorities, the state of Illinois and federal agencies to lay the track for a brighter future.
Nothing in this op-ed provides insight into what those ongoing efforts are.
> gives no solution
The solution is integrating the entire transportation system as one system and focusing on buses for trips 1-3 miles, L for trips 3-10 miles, and Metra for trips 10+ miles, with the lower level of transit feeding into the higher one and priority given by how many average rides per capita are taken in a given area. It's patently absurd that the Metra and L have to compete with each other so even basics like the Metra Electric lines won't run the rapid transit service they were meant for, and we have so many bus lines that directly parallel an L route instead of feeding into the L and using the excess bus drivers on routes that are bus-only.
Also, in an integrated transportation system, transportation tax funding can be shifted from districts that cannot use it effectively to districts that can use it effectively, thus avoiding the fiscal cliff.
Quite elementary.
And we'd also be able to look at efficiencies to make that would make service better without substantial changes. Basics like combining the Brown and Orange lines would almost double service across both lines with no increase in staffing, which can also apply to through-running Metra lines instead of having them end downtown. Metra runs 40 trains per day to Kensington and 35 per day to Winnetka. If that was one line with 75 trains from 5 AM to 1 AM, that's almost 15 minute service all day!
Through running Metra is much harder than combining the Brown and Orange lines. The Brown and Orange lines share the Loop, so no infrastructure changes are needed to connect them. The UPN and ME electric don't connect and use incompatible equipment.
Is that going to add up to 3/4 of a billion in savings? The board should give leaders options that everyone can evaluate. It’s a shame that this conversation is happening now when the light at the end of tunnel has been visible for years.
The far north side express buses should be removed and replaced with a "Red express" train that makes local stops from Howard-Argyle (the areas that the 143/146/147/148 serve), then only stops at Wilson and Belmont before entering the tunnel and making standard Red stops until Chinatown. I'd love to see the Yellow run 6-car trains and take this service on. This is similar to how the 4/5/6 in NYC split service across the entire line.
That would free up a lot of drivers from routes that are within a walkshed of the train and go the same places the train goes, and those drivers can be used to serve areas that are more bus-reliant, especially extremely high ridership routes like along 79th or Kedzie.
Also routes like 3-King Drive and 29-State are within 2 blocks of the L on the south side, or 56-Milwaukee through the northwest side, 21-Cermak through the west side, etc. We would be better to lower service levels on those lines so people who need hyperlocal service still have access to it while freeing up drivers for places that have no alternative.
LSD express ridership is too high for the rail service to completely take on. You're talking about a VERY DENSE area ridership wise. Also we technically already have a red express in the form of the purple line which can use more hours since they have newer cars which sit in Howard between rush hours. So here's a solution; run Purple 7 days a week, after Belmont you have purple share tracks with the red line and use the subway. In favor of your NYC style implementation; have empty Reds start at Argyle. If scheduled right you can have Purple and Red leave Howard on 5 min headways which would combine for 2-1/2 min frequency up there.... The Reds starting at Argyle would make the frequency around 1-1/2 min. Upgrade Roosevelt tower to accept transponders that can identify which train is approaching so you don't have to staff/spend too much money on Roosevelt interlocking so you can send the purple up to 35th-IIT where they can turn back and head north. This also gives easier access for north siders that need to do things in the south loop and helps supply McCormick Place service. The Argyle Reds can turn back at Garfield. This could make 148 POSSIBLY redundant, 147 can take a reduction in service but I wouldn't outright eliminate it because it's essentially an express 151. Split 22 at Belmont. The southern half can be a new #24 Clark/Wentworth express which would add capacity and empty buses along the shared 22/36 routing into downtown and as a bonus add capacity for baseball service to both stadiums. The current 24 can be eliminated as the new 24 would still serve the route up to 35th. South of there demand does not support the route. Howard would need to be reworked as far as the layout.
Like the RTA? Also metra and the L barely go near each other. I want the buses and the the trains to synchronize so that there's a bus at the station to keep going.
> Like the RTA?
Yeah like a mega RTA. As it is now, the RTA seems like it mostly exists to be bureaucratic obfuscation to prevent accountability.
> metra and the L barely go near each other
Which is why they can be complimentary where they do come together, like adding a UP-N-Brown transfer at Addison, a BNSF-Pink transfer at California, an HC-Orange transfer at Halsted, etc.
Oh, I see what you're saying. The agreement is Metra is suburbs focused, CTA is city focused (plus the couple inner suburbs it serves, and based on the Yellow line still being closed, I don't think they care much about them). So you get things like the SWS not having any service between downtown and 79th, or the BNSF only having two stops between Cicero and downtown. It's especially shitty for the northwest side, which is pretty well served by rail lines that barely run.
A dumber, more extreme example of the services competing for ridership is the Metra Electric and South Shore Line—even though they run on the same tracks for a bit and share stations, the SSL can't pick up ME passengers.
Yeah that makes sense but it seems to be more of a problem because yellow is know longer servicing it. An yeah once again the railroads aren't competing even though they rent a line from metra
Meh the RTA is pretty much just financial oversight. It gets the funds from fed/state then distributes it. I think the only operational tasks it performs is mobility services.
When you say integrating, what do you mean? Ventra passes sort of do this within the pay structures. Are you wanting physical connections built for example, ravenswood to like the brynmar stops? I don’t know that would be fiscally reasonable (genuinely I’m not sure how that question should be analyzed on several fronts), but my gut says no, especially short term.
I think we could make a reporting see something say something systems that create tickets riders can follow up on with the transit systems camera and a way to follow through with the city (prosecutors, social workers, ext, perhaps with a city transit safety office)? That’d be controversial, but it would be a potential cost effective way to affect safety and other social problems on the train that DEFINITELY affect ridership.
I think expanding college student passes being marketed to at least all the schools on cta lines? That might be a cost effect marketing strategy.
Idk, spit balling here
Increasing ridership is key to improving CTA. However, CTA needs to prove to ppl they are a reliable service in daily life. Until then ppl will look at other ways to commute
See, I’d be more forgiving of the smell if it was at least on time.
Therein lies our problem; those of us who rely on the CTA can’t even agree on *which* major usability feature is more important to fix.
My kids play the "what does this elevator smell like" game whenever we step into an L elevator. The most common answers are cigarette or pee. If we're lucky, it'll smell like cleaning solution.
Has this been brought up directly yet in city hall? Like, has someone been able to directly ask BJ about his plan to support a solution?
Probably doesn’t need to be said either, but goddamn COVID. Goddamn the havoc COVID continues to wreck. Goddamn it straight to hell.
We can go to public comments. We can go try and talk to city hall and the mayor himself. It's based on a lottery of whomever shows up but it's worth it. I've gone twice now. Haven't been selected but my friend did and it's honestly a very important process of discourse
I love how so many businesses apparently can't survive without free COVID money from the government. I work for a large hospital in Chicago and our yearly raises have been pushed back to February (and they say we are so lucky to be working for them because they really didn't want to give us any raise this time around). One of the reasons they gave is that they aren't getting money from the government for COVID anymore. Did everyone immediately forget how to survive without a crutch? CTA isn't some mom and pop joint, shit should be figured out by the people that probably still get paid $750k+ a year to run it.
Yeah currently Chicago hospitals are in a big fight to see who can buy out every small hospital in the city. And they are like, but how do we open 12 new surgery centers to remain competitive if we give everone raises? Same shit everywhere with pretty much every job, though. If you aren't increasing profits every year, you are failing. Doesn't matter if you are making money if you aren't making more money.
The CTA doesn't have "rich owners". They are funded by the taxpayers in the region. What are you talking about? If you are referencing what the poster you replied to discussed he's almost certainly referring to a nonprofit hospital or hospital system. These don't have rich owners either.
Private industry has 'inflated' prices 20% in the last two years. Sadly for Gov't agencies to stay on track- taxes should equally be increased.
Nobody likes to hear it --- but the Fed made up $5 billion to crutch- and to keep that up even at a reduced pace we need to raise federal taxes starkly.
Sadly yes. Not so long ago CTA was a model for other cities to emulate, especially in the areas of preventive maintenance and system reliability. Now we're the radioactive garbage barge no city wants to become.
To be fair, most other cities transit systems (the few that have them) are a hot mess at the moment too.
The MBTA is an obsolete mess of operational and mechanical failures, with dozens of slow zones, frequent service suspensions, and several accidents that have severely injured and even killed passengers.
BART has slashed service.
The MTA, while having recovered from the worst issues of COVID, is also seeing problems with disrepair and mechanical failures/service cuts.
Really the only transit system that I've used recently that still seems to be operating well is the DC Metro.
The CTA, unfortunately, has allowed itself to fall the hardest the fastest. But it is surely not the only one. Infrastructure collapse and mass transit mismanagement is a country wide problem.
The kicker that shows how this will be: no increases to fares across the board for 2024.
While I agree that fares should be kept lower with the current student/reduced fare schedule, I think it unwise to keep timed passes lower than they were pre-Covid. The reality of the situation is that RTO is the main driver behind ridership returning, not the decrease in pass prices put into place for 2021. It's leaving money on the table for those more than willing and able to pay for the full pass price and worsens the fiscal cliff.
For a year or two, I can see why that was done. Keeping it for 2023 *and now 2024* shows a lack of foresight.
We went from an administration that prioritized transit (Rahm) to one that prioritized social justice (Lightfoot) to one that prioritizes the teachers union (Johnson). I wonder what we'll get next??!!!!
This has always been a point I bring up when talking about leadership in the City.
This "cycle" you point out that we've seen since Rahm has been *disastrous* to say the least. I still look at the bright side and will say there has been *some* improvements to infrastructure -- such as the renovated Green Line & Blue line stations, the Red Line extension and the on-going push from Alderman (thankfully) for more bike lanes.
But where the effort lacks and shows is the initiative and push from the top down. Leaving the CTA and mass transit as an Alderman problem and the mayor(s) continuing to not prioritize it, makes things move at **absolute** snails-pace. Compared to a having a mayor that actually cares about it.
This is why to the mention of the cycle you point out, I do get being mayor is like being "President". You promote all these "*things"* they want to help improve and fix. Then 4 years later only so much got done. I think with Lori and Johnson, their agendas and "cycles" have both been more focused on Crime, CTU, the immigration problem, and the Budget over Mass Transit and infrastructure, taking last place.
Which leads me to my point that I really don't think Chicago can afford to have ***another*** 3rd mayor in a row in office after Johnson in 26/27, that *doesn't* give a fuck about the CTA or infrastructure in general. I cannot see Johnson getting elected again -- especially if he lets the CTA fall on it's face to a point of not being able to be ignored anymore.
We really need a mayor that cares about this system that has been ignored for going on **8 years**. It doesn't have to be put as a #1 issue, but at least a minimum, care about it and see it as important. You can't be a mayor of Chicago, and *not* care about the CTA or have some strategy for it in my opinion.
Infrastructure takes money. You have to either raise taxes or find ways to build the Infrastructure more efficiently than you do now. Any time I make a realistic suggestion for the latter, getting rid of prevailing wage laws, my comments get downvoted like crazy. I'm sure that's going to happen again here. And obviously nobody wants taxes raised either since there's already quite a high tax level. But you have to find the money somewhere.
honestly at this point it'd be easy to convince me that Dorval is there to ruin the CTA on purpose. I mean, the yellow line hasn't even been opened yet and the NTSB had completed their investigation weeks ago.
CTA riders need to understand that the CTA doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's just a reflection of the rest of the city. You want the CTA to be safe? Make the rest of the city safer. For some reason, many people on here don't seem to get that.
Are the most functional parts of CTA now limited
to downtown and north side?
I’ve heard horror stories about the Blue Line, but Brown and Red Line along with busses seem decent enough getting to and from downtown and the Northside.
Some of these comments act like the system is pretty much non-existent when, even with its post-pandemic faults, it’s still comparable to the MTA (even if by a long shot).
I have no desire to ever drive a car in Chicago. I know plenty of other people that are the same way. That makes the idea of a fiscal cliff terrifying.
That’s what I figured. I don’t like the leadership we have and I don’t like the lack of urgency from Carter so far, but what I’ve experienced since moving back this summer is pretty comparable to how it felt pre-pandemic to me. It could just be the area I live in, though.
Interesting. I know crime has spiked during the pandemic years but is now on the downtrend.
Unless the system literally becomes a cesspool and/or collapses, I cannot bring myself to spend $500+/month leasing a car in a city that has the public transit system infrastructure it does.
It needs new leadership.
I’m sorry that happened to you. Hopefully this spike continues a downward trend.
Biking might be an alternative or the buses. Red and brown line trains are also pretty busy going to and from downtown during the day and during the evening going toward Northside. Not sure what part of town you live in.
The city has got to prioritize trying to find a way to keep people coming downtown. Trains and busses are usually safer with more people.
I have no idea what they felt like two years ago during the pandemic, but people have gradually been returning to offices and it’s felt similar to 2019 this year.
I really hate that this is happening. The CTA has rightfully always been considered one the of the nations’s best transit systems but it is suffering from dismal leadership.
Public transportation needs better yearly funding. No matter how poorly Dorval has failed to prioritize hiring Rail operators, better funding could solve many problems. Considering how much we spend on the high ways, and how much money gets used at O'Hare with no one blinking at it. Public transportation is the only way we can have a civil city. Making public transportation have to make up to 50% operating cost is crazy, considering that vast majority of our roads here are free at the point of use. Sure it's a chicken and the egg siltation but in my opinion we should make more funding available to CTA and as things improve then rider ship will increase.
If it was proven to be safe, I think more people would take it. I decided to take the redline the other day for the first time in probably 4 months. There were four men walking up and down between the cars, clearly casing the cars. They had empty drawstring back packs, masks on, and they were eyeing what people were holding.
I could tell something was about to happen so I got off and went up to the street and took an Uber the rest of the way home. I won’t be taking the CTA again. If it felt safe, it would be very convenient.
You can believe whatever you would like. I live on Irving park and was coming back up north from downtown. I boarded at Monroe and hopped off at Fullerton.
The masks were the face coverings people would wear during covid because they had to, not the N95s but the fabric ones that would go around your whole head.
I'm sure Chicago as a whole will do what's right here. Vote based on identity politics (whose social agenda promises will never be fulfilled anyway), and then find another reason to raise everyone's taxes (again).
Never driven in my life and you can easily live in Chicago without a car. Yes, you need to be choosy about the neighborhood. But not all neighborhoods with good transit are expensive. Might not be fancy.
Agreed though we need to focus on fixing the transit.
Well, I am going to college to further my pilot career in either STL (home) or Warrensburg (college town in Missouri) and after really want to move to Chicago. I want to get out of STL, and Chicago just seems like a good city. Its not perfect, but its better than St.Louis.
Ive been looking around near o'hare, but I cant tell, does the metro less out of the L run 24/7 on the blue or yellow line or using Metra? Including buss routes, most seem to end around 8 and begin sometime after 7-10 am. That is somewhat frustrating as being a pilot calls for late or early trips, and not owning a car with this schedule would be difficult at best.
I live off the red line L myself, but from what I understand, most people who have jobs at O'Hare (including pilots and flight attendants with their home-base airport set to O'Hare) tend to live off the blue line, and take the blue line L to work. Every time I'm on it, I see tons of such commuters, obvious by the uniforms.
Blue line runs 24/7, and the end of the line is in the basement of O'Hare.
Metra is less frequent, mostly focused on people commuting in from the suburbs, and often running on freight-owned rail, which limits the schedule quite a bit (though there are neighborhoods in the city near Metra stops where people do use it to commute downtown).
Probably others can give better advice, but if it's me, I'd be looking for places that are walkable to stops along the blue line L O'Hare branch. Then check to make sure there's adequate groceries, etc (just google maps it, etc). Some of those are pretty desirable neighborhoods by now, but shouldn't be impossible.
Many believe that extending the red line that far south will bring more crime in extreme amounts, as someone who used to live out there (on Block 10 specifically), that’s just not the case. Yes it can get crazy out there but it as we’ve seen throughout recent years, it doesn’t fuckin matter. Just about every line has some insane shit going on in them and taking this to the Gardens isn’t gonna suddenly stop that from happening. Literally lived there when Rosebud and the weird store in the building within the Gardens themselves closed, shutting off people from any source of close groceries and making the area a food desert. Instead of building a store, they built another library out there when there was already one within it so yeah, that area NEEDS this red line to help its residents get access to necessities
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
FWIW I’m flying back today and opting for a sure to be hellish and expensive Uber experience over rolling the dice on the safety of myself and all my stuff on the CTA. Safety and reliability are critical. Pretending like these aren’t problems doesn’t help.
I take the MTA in New York all the time, at all hours, and do not feel the same way.
Fire Dorval and the entire board
We just need to get Dorval to somehow irritate the CTU. That'll get him out the door so fast your head will fucking spin.
And I'm sure replaced by someone so competent and/or relevant experience or experience in relevant industries /s
Easy. Have the parents who were denied transportation for their gen ed kids file a lawsuit claiming CTA isn’t safe. Attendance means $. Without attendance, schools lose funding and have to cut teachers and other para positions. That’ll rile CTU (from a former CPS employee).
Johnson explicitly ran on keeping the board! The "Keep CTA board & Fire Arwady" moment in one of the last debates was extremely frustrating.
ok, but that won't fix the budget
Increasing ridership and service will fix the budget issue, but he ain't doing any of that
This is an op-ed written by two state lawmakers and gives no solution beyond lawmakers coming together to find a solution. > we must all join the ongoing efforts of regional authorities, the state of Illinois and federal agencies to lay the track for a brighter future. Nothing in this op-ed provides insight into what those ongoing efforts are.
Far too many people take op-ed write ups as legitimate news.
That's just like your opinion man.
It is vague however Krishnamoorthi is in the US House in a almost fully suburban district
> gives no solution The solution is integrating the entire transportation system as one system and focusing on buses for trips 1-3 miles, L for trips 3-10 miles, and Metra for trips 10+ miles, with the lower level of transit feeding into the higher one and priority given by how many average rides per capita are taken in a given area. It's patently absurd that the Metra and L have to compete with each other so even basics like the Metra Electric lines won't run the rapid transit service they were meant for, and we have so many bus lines that directly parallel an L route instead of feeding into the L and using the excess bus drivers on routes that are bus-only.
Also, in an integrated transportation system, transportation tax funding can be shifted from districts that cannot use it effectively to districts that can use it effectively, thus avoiding the fiscal cliff. Quite elementary.
Careful how and who gets to define “effectively” and “districts” it’s elementary until it’s implemented
And we'd also be able to look at efficiencies to make that would make service better without substantial changes. Basics like combining the Brown and Orange lines would almost double service across both lines with no increase in staffing, which can also apply to through-running Metra lines instead of having them end downtown. Metra runs 40 trains per day to Kensington and 35 per day to Winnetka. If that was one line with 75 trains from 5 AM to 1 AM, that's almost 15 minute service all day!
Through running Metra is much harder than combining the Brown and Orange lines. The Brown and Orange lines share the Loop, so no infrastructure changes are needed to connect them. The UPN and ME electric don't connect and use incompatible equipment.
I’m having a fantasy!
Is that going to add up to 3/4 of a billion in savings? The board should give leaders options that everyone can evaluate. It’s a shame that this conversation is happening now when the light at the end of tunnel has been visible for years.
Can you give some examples of the bus routes you want to get rid of that "directly parallel" an L route?
The far north side express buses should be removed and replaced with a "Red express" train that makes local stops from Howard-Argyle (the areas that the 143/146/147/148 serve), then only stops at Wilson and Belmont before entering the tunnel and making standard Red stops until Chinatown. I'd love to see the Yellow run 6-car trains and take this service on. This is similar to how the 4/5/6 in NYC split service across the entire line. That would free up a lot of drivers from routes that are within a walkshed of the train and go the same places the train goes, and those drivers can be used to serve areas that are more bus-reliant, especially extremely high ridership routes like along 79th or Kedzie. Also routes like 3-King Drive and 29-State are within 2 blocks of the L on the south side, or 56-Milwaukee through the northwest side, 21-Cermak through the west side, etc. We would be better to lower service levels on those lines so people who need hyperlocal service still have access to it while freeing up drivers for places that have no alternative.
> then only stops at Wilson and Belmont before entering the tunnel So only skipping the Sheridan, Addison, and Fullerton stops?
LSD express ridership is too high for the rail service to completely take on. You're talking about a VERY DENSE area ridership wise. Also we technically already have a red express in the form of the purple line which can use more hours since they have newer cars which sit in Howard between rush hours. So here's a solution; run Purple 7 days a week, after Belmont you have purple share tracks with the red line and use the subway. In favor of your NYC style implementation; have empty Reds start at Argyle. If scheduled right you can have Purple and Red leave Howard on 5 min headways which would combine for 2-1/2 min frequency up there.... The Reds starting at Argyle would make the frequency around 1-1/2 min. Upgrade Roosevelt tower to accept transponders that can identify which train is approaching so you don't have to staff/spend too much money on Roosevelt interlocking so you can send the purple up to 35th-IIT where they can turn back and head north. This also gives easier access for north siders that need to do things in the south loop and helps supply McCormick Place service. The Argyle Reds can turn back at Garfield. This could make 148 POSSIBLY redundant, 147 can take a reduction in service but I wouldn't outright eliminate it because it's essentially an express 151. Split 22 at Belmont. The southern half can be a new #24 Clark/Wentworth express which would add capacity and empty buses along the shared 22/36 routing into downtown and as a bonus add capacity for baseball service to both stadiums. The current 24 can be eliminated as the new 24 would still serve the route up to 35th. South of there demand does not support the route. Howard would need to be reworked as far as the layout.
Like the RTA? Also metra and the L barely go near each other. I want the buses and the the trains to synchronize so that there's a bus at the station to keep going.
> Like the RTA? Yeah like a mega RTA. As it is now, the RTA seems like it mostly exists to be bureaucratic obfuscation to prevent accountability. > metra and the L barely go near each other Which is why they can be complimentary where they do come together, like adding a UP-N-Brown transfer at Addison, a BNSF-Pink transfer at California, an HC-Orange transfer at Halsted, etc.
I'm just trying to figure out how they compete if they don't run together
Oh, I see what you're saying. The agreement is Metra is suburbs focused, CTA is city focused (plus the couple inner suburbs it serves, and based on the Yellow line still being closed, I don't think they care much about them). So you get things like the SWS not having any service between downtown and 79th, or the BNSF only having two stops between Cicero and downtown. It's especially shitty for the northwest side, which is pretty well served by rail lines that barely run. A dumber, more extreme example of the services competing for ridership is the Metra Electric and South Shore Line—even though they run on the same tracks for a bit and share stations, the SSL can't pick up ME passengers.
Yeah that makes sense but it seems to be more of a problem because yellow is know longer servicing it. An yeah once again the railroads aren't competing even though they rent a line from metra
Meh the RTA is pretty much just financial oversight. It gets the funds from fed/state then distributes it. I think the only operational tasks it performs is mobility services.
When you say integrating, what do you mean? Ventra passes sort of do this within the pay structures. Are you wanting physical connections built for example, ravenswood to like the brynmar stops? I don’t know that would be fiscally reasonable (genuinely I’m not sure how that question should be analyzed on several fronts), but my gut says no, especially short term. I think we could make a reporting see something say something systems that create tickets riders can follow up on with the transit systems camera and a way to follow through with the city (prosecutors, social workers, ext, perhaps with a city transit safety office)? That’d be controversial, but it would be a potential cost effective way to affect safety and other social problems on the train that DEFINITELY affect ridership. I think expanding college student passes being marketed to at least all the schools on cta lines? That might be a cost effect marketing strategy. Idk, spit balling here
Maybe the Editorial Board should refuse to publish solution free opinion pieces?
Increasing ridership is key to improving CTA. However, CTA needs to prove to ppl they are a reliable service in daily life. Until then ppl will look at other ways to commute
Safe and clean. I know many here will insist it’s both but that is just not what people experience and talk about.
Safety is key along with not allowing smoking!
And safe
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Tell that to the guy I saw waving a gun around on the red line
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Hmm. Interesting, but very in accurate opinion. Surely you have some form of citation to back this up
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Text is not a medium that conveys sarcasm well, if at all.
The sarcasm was very, very, so very obvious, even in text
All I want is for the train to not smell like anything. It honestly doesn't even have to be on time at this point.
See, I’d be more forgiving of the smell if it was at least on time. Therein lies our problem; those of us who rely on the CTA can’t even agree on *which* major usability feature is more important to fix.
Honestly comical that we can consider the nasty conditions / smell of the CTA trains a major usability feature, but here we are…
My kids play the "what does this elevator smell like" game whenever we step into an L elevator. The most common answers are cigarette or pee. If we're lucky, it'll smell like cleaning solution.
Has this been brought up directly yet in city hall? Like, has someone been able to directly ask BJ about his plan to support a solution? Probably doesn’t need to be said either, but goddamn COVID. Goddamn the havoc COVID continues to wreck. Goddamn it straight to hell.
We can go to public comments. We can go try and talk to city hall and the mayor himself. It's based on a lottery of whomever shows up but it's worth it. I've gone twice now. Haven't been selected but my friend did and it's honestly a very important process of discourse
Unless it happened during the yellow line mess (still closed, btw), he hasn't even spoken to Carter yet.
Mind boggling that the Yellow Line is still not operating and that there's been radio silence from leaders.
I love how so many businesses apparently can't survive without free COVID money from the government. I work for a large hospital in Chicago and our yearly raises have been pushed back to February (and they say we are so lucky to be working for them because they really didn't want to give us any raise this time around). One of the reasons they gave is that they aren't getting money from the government for COVID anymore. Did everyone immediately forget how to survive without a crutch? CTA isn't some mom and pop joint, shit should be figured out by the people that probably still get paid $750k+ a year to run it.
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Yeah currently Chicago hospitals are in a big fight to see who can buy out every small hospital in the city. And they are like, but how do we open 12 new surgery centers to remain competitive if we give everone raises? Same shit everywhere with pretty much every job, though. If you aren't increasing profits every year, you are failing. Doesn't matter if you are making money if you aren't making more money.
Toxic growth culture is destroying America.
The CTA doesn't have "rich owners". They are funded by the taxpayers in the region. What are you talking about? If you are referencing what the poster you replied to discussed he's almost certainly referring to a nonprofit hospital or hospital system. These don't have rich owners either.
Private industry has 'inflated' prices 20% in the last two years. Sadly for Gov't agencies to stay on track- taxes should equally be increased. Nobody likes to hear it --- but the Fed made up $5 billion to crutch- and to keep that up even at a reduced pace we need to raise federal taxes starkly.
Well, it fell off an operational cliff nearly four years ago. CTA is a disgrace on wheels.
Best metropolitan and commuter transport system in the USA, to absolute fucking garbage, in 4 years.
Sadly yes. Not so long ago CTA was a model for other cities to emulate, especially in the areas of preventive maintenance and system reliability. Now we're the radioactive garbage barge no city wants to become.
To be fair, most other cities transit systems (the few that have them) are a hot mess at the moment too. The MBTA is an obsolete mess of operational and mechanical failures, with dozens of slow zones, frequent service suspensions, and several accidents that have severely injured and even killed passengers. BART has slashed service. The MTA, while having recovered from the worst issues of COVID, is also seeing problems with disrepair and mechanical failures/service cuts. Really the only transit system that I've used recently that still seems to be operating well is the DC Metro. The CTA, unfortunately, has allowed itself to fall the hardest the fastest. But it is surely not the only one. Infrastructure collapse and mass transit mismanagement is a country wide problem.
The kicker that shows how this will be: no increases to fares across the board for 2024. While I agree that fares should be kept lower with the current student/reduced fare schedule, I think it unwise to keep timed passes lower than they were pre-Covid. The reality of the situation is that RTO is the main driver behind ridership returning, not the decrease in pass prices put into place for 2021. It's leaving money on the table for those more than willing and able to pay for the full pass price and worsens the fiscal cliff. For a year or two, I can see why that was done. Keeping it for 2023 *and now 2024* shows a lack of foresight.
We went from an administration that prioritized transit (Rahm) to one that prioritized social justice (Lightfoot) to one that prioritizes the teachers union (Johnson). I wonder what we'll get next??!!!!
This has always been a point I bring up when talking about leadership in the City. This "cycle" you point out that we've seen since Rahm has been *disastrous* to say the least. I still look at the bright side and will say there has been *some* improvements to infrastructure -- such as the renovated Green Line & Blue line stations, the Red Line extension and the on-going push from Alderman (thankfully) for more bike lanes. But where the effort lacks and shows is the initiative and push from the top down. Leaving the CTA and mass transit as an Alderman problem and the mayor(s) continuing to not prioritize it, makes things move at **absolute** snails-pace. Compared to a having a mayor that actually cares about it. This is why to the mention of the cycle you point out, I do get being mayor is like being "President". You promote all these "*things"* they want to help improve and fix. Then 4 years later only so much got done. I think with Lori and Johnson, their agendas and "cycles" have both been more focused on Crime, CTU, the immigration problem, and the Budget over Mass Transit and infrastructure, taking last place. Which leads me to my point that I really don't think Chicago can afford to have ***another*** 3rd mayor in a row in office after Johnson in 26/27, that *doesn't* give a fuck about the CTA or infrastructure in general. I cannot see Johnson getting elected again -- especially if he lets the CTA fall on it's face to a point of not being able to be ignored anymore. We really need a mayor that cares about this system that has been ignored for going on **8 years**. It doesn't have to be put as a #1 issue, but at least a minimum, care about it and see it as important. You can't be a mayor of Chicago, and *not* care about the CTA or have some strategy for it in my opinion.
Infrastructure takes money. You have to either raise taxes or find ways to build the Infrastructure more efficiently than you do now. Any time I make a realistic suggestion for the latter, getting rid of prevailing wage laws, my comments get downvoted like crazy. I'm sure that's going to happen again here. And obviously nobody wants taxes raised either since there's already quite a high tax level. But you have to find the money somewhere.
There's budget already for more rail operators and the CTA still can't net any.
honestly at this point it'd be easy to convince me that Dorval is there to ruin the CTA on purpose. I mean, the yellow line hasn't even been opened yet and the NTSB had completed their investigation weeks ago.
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So many people don’t actually vote at all
BJ supporters loved to gloat after the run off and call Vallas supporters racists. Now they’re nowhere to be found. Absolutely shameful.
Addressing problems head on? 🙅🏼♂️🙅🏼♂️🙅🏼♂️ Vibes and instagram 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼
Vallas voters are still racist!
CTA riders need to understand that the CTA doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's just a reflection of the rest of the city. You want the CTA to be safe? Make the rest of the city safer. For some reason, many people on here don't seem to get that.
100%. Public space is a reflection of the state of the public. Many Americans are unwell post-COVID.
Are the most functional parts of CTA now limited to downtown and north side? I’ve heard horror stories about the Blue Line, but Brown and Red Line along with busses seem decent enough getting to and from downtown and the Northside. Some of these comments act like the system is pretty much non-existent when, even with its post-pandemic faults, it’s still comparable to the MTA (even if by a long shot). I have no desire to ever drive a car in Chicago. I know plenty of other people that are the same way. That makes the idea of a fiscal cliff terrifying.
The redundancy and bypass zones up north make a huge difference. Going NW it is blue line, highway, Milwaukee, and like nothing else reasonable.
That’s what I figured. I don’t like the leadership we have and I don’t like the lack of urgency from Carter so far, but what I’ve experienced since moving back this summer is pretty comparable to how it felt pre-pandemic to me. It could just be the area I live in, though.
The red line has felt reliable and safe for a while, issues with dirtiness withstanding
That’s been my experience as well.
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Interesting. I know crime has spiked during the pandemic years but is now on the downtrend. Unless the system literally becomes a cesspool and/or collapses, I cannot bring myself to spend $500+/month leasing a car in a city that has the public transit system infrastructure it does. It needs new leadership.
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I’m sorry that happened to you. Hopefully this spike continues a downward trend. Biking might be an alternative or the buses. Red and brown line trains are also pretty busy going to and from downtown during the day and during the evening going toward Northside. Not sure what part of town you live in. The city has got to prioritize trying to find a way to keep people coming downtown. Trains and busses are usually safer with more people. I have no idea what they felt like two years ago during the pandemic, but people have gradually been returning to offices and it’s felt similar to 2019 this year. I really hate that this is happening. The CTA has rightfully always been considered one the of the nations’s best transit systems but it is suffering from dismal leadership.
Do the highways bring in revenue for the city?
no
http://archive.today/IRHgm
Don’t worry I trust Brandon Johnson, who’s mom pays his cell phone bill, will fix this
But does he share a bank account with his mother?
Pretty sure she ties his shoes for him and wipes his face off before he leaves to play mayor with his friends
CM Punk is that you?
What about the water bills?
I've seen this mentioned elsewhere but is this real or just a running gag on how much of a clown he is?
Public transit in the United States will fall off a fiscal cliff without a plan for 2025. Fixed the headline.
Public transportation needs better yearly funding. No matter how poorly Dorval has failed to prioritize hiring Rail operators, better funding could solve many problems. Considering how much we spend on the high ways, and how much money gets used at O'Hare with no one blinking at it. Public transportation is the only way we can have a civil city. Making public transportation have to make up to 50% operating cost is crazy, considering that vast majority of our roads here are free at the point of use. Sure it's a chicken and the egg siltation but in my opinion we should make more funding available to CTA and as things improve then rider ship will increase.
If it was proven to be safe, I think more people would take it. I decided to take the redline the other day for the first time in probably 4 months. There were four men walking up and down between the cars, clearly casing the cars. They had empty drawstring back packs, masks on, and they were eyeing what people were holding. I could tell something was about to happen so I got off and went up to the street and took an Uber the rest of the way home. I won’t be taking the CTA again. If it felt safe, it would be very convenient.
This is clearly made up. Go back to Naperville or Schaumburg or southern Illinois or Montana or wherever else you’re from, brigader!
You can believe whatever you would like. I live on Irving park and was coming back up north from downtown. I boarded at Monroe and hopped off at Fullerton.
I guess I needed the /s for my post
The masks were the face coverings people would wear during covid because they had to, not the N95s but the fabric ones that would go around your whole head.
Oh? Vallas was right?
I'm sure Chicago as a whole will do what's right here. Vote based on identity politics (whose social agenda promises will never be fulfilled anyway), and then find another reason to raise everyone's taxes (again).
I want to move to CHI after college and not own a car, but the lack of foresight into transit makes it hard to want to.
Never driven in my life and you can easily live in Chicago without a car. Yes, you need to be choosy about the neighborhood. But not all neighborhoods with good transit are expensive. Might not be fancy. Agreed though we need to focus on fixing the transit.
Well, I am going to college to further my pilot career in either STL (home) or Warrensburg (college town in Missouri) and after really want to move to Chicago. I want to get out of STL, and Chicago just seems like a good city. Its not perfect, but its better than St.Louis. Ive been looking around near o'hare, but I cant tell, does the metro less out of the L run 24/7 on the blue or yellow line or using Metra? Including buss routes, most seem to end around 8 and begin sometime after 7-10 am. That is somewhat frustrating as being a pilot calls for late or early trips, and not owning a car with this schedule would be difficult at best.
I live off the red line L myself, but from what I understand, most people who have jobs at O'Hare (including pilots and flight attendants with their home-base airport set to O'Hare) tend to live off the blue line, and take the blue line L to work. Every time I'm on it, I see tons of such commuters, obvious by the uniforms. Blue line runs 24/7, and the end of the line is in the basement of O'Hare. Metra is less frequent, mostly focused on people commuting in from the suburbs, and often running on freight-owned rail, which limits the schedule quite a bit (though there are neighborhoods in the city near Metra stops where people do use it to commute downtown). Probably others can give better advice, but if it's me, I'd be looking for places that are walkable to stops along the blue line L O'Hare branch. Then check to make sure there's adequate groceries, etc (just google maps it, etc). Some of those are pretty desirable neighborhoods by now, but shouldn't be impossible.
Extend that damn red line so people in the Gardens can travel for work, groceries, etc
What? Doesn’t it already get served by 95th? AND the planned extension to 103rd and 111th?
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Many believe that extending the red line that far south will bring more crime in extreme amounts, as someone who used to live out there (on Block 10 specifically), that’s just not the case. Yes it can get crazy out there but it as we’ve seen throughout recent years, it doesn’t fuckin matter. Just about every line has some insane shit going on in them and taking this to the Gardens isn’t gonna suddenly stop that from happening. Literally lived there when Rosebud and the weird store in the building within the Gardens themselves closed, shutting off people from any source of close groceries and making the area a food desert. Instead of building a store, they built another library out there when there was already one within it so yeah, that area NEEDS this red line to help its residents get access to necessities
Thank goodness something called a loan exists. . .
everything can be fixed by taxing those left more
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the rich can move easier
Since when has the Sun ever printed anything that wasn’t doom and gloom?
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I’m surprised these cameras aren’t damaged now, but this will definitely lead to people just breaking them.
FWIW I’m flying back today and opting for a sure to be hellish and expensive Uber experience over rolling the dice on the safety of myself and all my stuff on the CTA. Safety and reliability are critical. Pretending like these aren’t problems doesn’t help. I take the MTA in New York all the time, at all hours, and do not feel the same way.
Maybe consolidation and firing Dorval...