CTA Fare Hikes
Click on the ad the Chicago Transit Authority spend oodles placing in Chicago’s newspapers and you will see what CTA riders will have to pay to get to and from work.
How does it compare with what you have to pay?
It looks like $6 a day on a rapid transit train and $5 per day, if you take a bus.
Get a monthly pass, however, and the cost is $84. With twenty working days a month, that seems to be about $4 a day, assuming one doesn’t use bus or train service any time else during the month.
What do you pay to get to work each month?
When you fill up your motor vehicle with gas, how much does it cost?
Did your cost of gasoline increase 50% this year?
Do you have to fill it up at least twice a month?
Do you have car payments?
Even if you don’t, there is obviously depreciation on your car as you use it. when it wears out, you'll have to buy a new one.
Just wondering.
Is keeping CTA, Metra and Pace fares down worth it to have your RTA sales taxes tripled from one-quarter of one percent to three-quarters of a percent, 
even if half of the increase is going to be given to the McHenry County Board to spend improving the roads of its choice?
Just wondering.
It's going to cost the average McHenry County family about $200 a year if the CTA bailout bill is passed.
And for those reading from outside the Chicago area in Illinois, part of your share of the sales tax will be ripped off. In that Governor Rod Blagojevich's spokeswoman is correct.
The Metra engine is pulling into Crystal Lake's train station from Chicago. The Pace buses are on Bull Valley Road at the McHenry spur's grade crossing. Tell us where the CTA bus is, Chicago readers.
You know this went up on McHenry County Blog first.
23 comments:
Heh, I saw once that a monthly pass cost $88 a few years back. $84 is still better than what it was back in the day.
I can understand the arguments against giving the CTA more funding. Especially if the issues are mostly money management. Still it's too bad that the CTA had to increase their fares becaues the state can't make up their mind whether to increase CTA funding or even increase a sales tax.
Last Tuesday you said it would cost McHenry County taxpayers $200 per year. Now you say it will cost them $200 per month.
Which is it, Cal? And was it an honest typo or a Fox News typo? Or simply more BS from you on the goofy "tax/benefit" meme you've been misrepresenting for 30 years?
Let's make it simple Cal, what is your preferred McHenry county tax contribution for public transit in NE IL? You realize that McHenry County is part of northeastern Illinois' economy, right? How much should they pay for transit?
$200 a month? At 0.5 percent, that would be $40,000 a month in taxable purchases. I hghly doubt that. THis should be corrected immediately.
1) And half of that money goes straight to your roads.
2) My Federal dollars are subsidizing somewhere between 1 and 14 dollars per gallon (probably a lot more than that now depending on your opinion on the war) 1998 report
3) The interesting propaganda at CTA stations. Anyone else see the farebox return ration on display at various stations putting the CTA as getting the least help from the government. Well a more complete list can be found on wikipedia and as you can see, CTA falls right in the middle. I am curious about how much the surrounding areas get taxed in those places/where the public money comes from. Anyone know?
Does Cal want the farebox recovery ration to be 100%? or does he want local dollars to be kept local? I assume it is the later. And I don't really have a good counter argument except for that fact that our federal government is HUGE and money never stays local. I wish this wasn't the case. That is why I have been voting democratic at the federal level.
4) The CTA did what has been asked, it laid off workers and renegotiated its pension contract. But apparently But apparently the notion of compromise is lost on the republicans once again.
Hey Skinner, there's a #20 Madison bus leaving the Loop for the West Side... be under it!
(I admit that sounds a trifle juvenile, but so does your anti-Chicago and anti-mass transit rantings.)
Living in the suburbs, I incur a significant amount more lawn mowing expense than my citified cousins. I am forced to use wasteful small-hp lawnmowing equipment or just let my yard go to seed. This does not seem fair to me.
Couldn't the State develop a giant monopoly of lawn mowers that would erraticaly service the suburbs with dangerous and dirty yard care?
Why should I be forced to pay for my own yardcare? Shouldn't city residents be forced to pay so that can enjoy my garden?
JBP
shorter JBP:
Sarcastic non-sequiturs are easier than salient arguments.
JBP,
Does the growth of your lawn contribute to the economic well-being of the region?
Does your lawn make it possible for people unable to find decent jobs in their own neighborhood to find work in other areas?
Would you rather they just stopped working and went on welfare?
There are arguments to be made that the CTA/RTA are poorly managed. I raised those arguments myself today over at CapFax. However, they are clearly necessary to the economic safety of the region.
If you guys don't pay up, we're all going to quit our jobs, go on welfare, and move to McHenry County.
Great Anon.
Laugh at poor people.
That's funnny.
Let me guess -- you consider yourself pro-life?
Whats wrong with laughing at poor people? Liberals have been doing it for years. Poor rural folks are always the target of their jokes.
I'm pro-choice. You choose to live the city, you pay the extra costs.
no matter how you want to argue the issue, even with an increased fare, public transportation is still the best bargain in town.
Where else can you commute to work for $88 per month. Even driving a Honda Civic that gets anywhere from 33-37 mpg, I still pay about $50/week for my commute.
Sk,
*sarc*
My lawn and the lawns of my neighboring 5 Million suburbanite process over 200 Tons of Greenhouse gasses per day, nullifying the ill effects of driving to work.
Yes, our yards provide jobs, build strong moral fiber, and help promote dental hygiene, all we need is more government management to make it work.
If we could just bring in the great minds that bunch buses (two double-length vacatn buses chasing each other on Sheridan today) into empty caravans, use a different size train between Chicago and Evanston (and Skokie and Wilmette), don't stop at Addison on Cub night games, eliminated the express run to O'Hare, don't have luggage racks on O'Hare trips, spend hundreds of $millions in "capital" improvements, while not having enough funds to run the Blue Line Spur...then we could be the lawn care the suburbs deserve.
The way I see it, the State would confiscate all private lawn care entitites, eliminating unhealthy competition, and tax the wealthy urbanites that gain so much our yards without paying their fair share for the enjoyment. Only then will we have a system that is equittable to all, and not just the skyscraper dwellers in a very wealthy City.
JBP
JBP,
There is a pretty big difference between "this government enterprise is badly run" and "government should not be in this business."
sk,
But when this government enterprise is badly run for generations, there are multiple private alternatives, and the taxpayers are tired of paying for something they cannot use, it becomes fairly clear that governmnet should not be in this business.
JBP
Privately run alternatives?
First, you ought to take a look at Chicago history and see what happened when the trains were run by non-government.
Second, I am the first to note that some bus routes should be cut, but how in the world would a private bus company replace the CTA?
Yes,
Pre confiscation, El transportation was profitable, and decreased fairs regularly, resulting in a very angry Harold Ickes who thought that his political enemies should be punished with his management skills, resulting in the mess we have today.
Maybe a private bus company would have a smaller bus to run on routes that no one rides. Or perhaps stop running a caravan of empty buses around town, and just have 1 rather full bus instead. Just a couple thoughts.
JBP
The CTA had VICTOR REYES as one of it's members on the Board while he was representing a HALF A BILLION of interests before the Board as a lobbyist with Girls Gone Wild law firm and Jack Abramoffs law firm GREENBERG TRAURIG including the French firm JCDeceaux hundreds of millions CTA stops. Richard M. Daley the Mayor appointed Victor Reyes to the CTA board--that is called a conflict of interest.
The CTA Board also included the wife of now indicted fast Eddie Vrdolyak gopher Sam Panaytovich.
How did Gil Valadez (a convicted drug dealer and informant) end up at the CTA after getting terminated by Julia Stasch (and resigned) at the City?
With all the jobs and contracts at the CTA and the gross misanagement of the CTA by big pension arrogant Frank Kruesi it is hard to have sympathy.
I do have sympathy on the riders.
How can Howard Brookins run as an outsider and reformer if he has Michael "Don't touch the Hair" Noonan?
Michael Noonan is at the Roosevelt Group with VICTOR "the Hog" REYES.
Victor Reyes is the as of yet unindicted co-schemer A on the Al "the troll" Sanchez the former Head of Streets and Sanitation who associated with drug dealers, gang bangers, took money for jobs, had people mow his lawns, sex for jobs with Maria Nino, threatened people, violated Shakman, and loads of other fun.
Victor Reyes took over HDO (the Hispanic Democratic Organization) after Tim Degnan founded it to control Hispanics. One member, who donated at the same time he got a promotion, George Prado (who also works with the brother and dad of Senator and former Two Six gang member Tony Munoz) who plead guilty and convicted of running a major 8 man heroin deal connected to the Columbian Cartel right out of the Department of Water Management. This is not rumor or allegation but a GUILTY PLEA and CONVICTION.
HDO members Angelo Torres--the gang member who was in charge of the Hired Trucks program--the one that gave no bid trucking contracts that laid off union and city workers with a living wage and retirement benefits to hire mafia trucking companies who did nothing and slept on the job. Angelo Torres plead guilty and is a family member through baptism to Senator Munoz and used to drive Victor "the Hog" Reyes, Tim "Slim" Mitchell of the Park District (now dealing with the Olympics, and Al "the Troll" Sanchez around. Again, this is not rumor, innuendo, or allegation: Angelo Torres plead GUILTY and was convicted and there have been numerous Federal pleadings, paperwork and hearings and an award winning series of articles by investigative journalist Tim Novak of the Sun Times on what is now called Hired Trucks. HDO which Victor Reyes is still the head of and Michael Kasper (the lawyer for Venezuelan vote fraud company Sequouia) are still running HDO and received lots of money from these Hired Truck companies many associated with the mafia as seen in the recent "Family Secrets" Federal criminal trial.
Resa also plead guilty to fixing jobs and lying to the FBI.
Al "the Troll" Sanchez is under indictment and Victor Reyes took 140,000 or so to pay Tom Breen the criminal attorney for mafioso Marcello for Sanchez and Reyes.
Michael Noonan was also the lying moutpiece for Todd "the toddler" Stroger in his racist and hatemongering campaign of claiming that Tony Peraica would cut services, close clinics, lay off nurses and cut jobs as the mean Republican. Everything that Noonan said during the 2006 campaign for County Board President came out the opposite.
Tobaggon slides and pools are still closed, Award winning nurses quit or are fired. Clinics are closed. Immigrants are beat up and denied care.
Strogers friends and relatives still get contracts and jobs.
How could anyone in the media or any voters have any confidence or trust at all in Noonan.
Noonan's law and lobbying partner is involved in DRUG DEALING, GANG MEMBERS, HIRED TRUCKS, CROOKED INSIDE DEALS, MAFIOSOS, ORGANIZED CRIME---How could a candidate for State's Attorney want a campaign manager connected to this level of criminality and sleaze?
People are tired of appointments of relatives. The lying about the health condition of John Stroger. The lying about the health condition of Todd Stroger. Possible falsification of signatures. Cutting front line services for the most vulnerable which is what Democrats are supposedly about. Cousins, wives, friends, convicted felons get jobs--while a lot of other people suffer.
Will Howard Brookins investigate the County?
Will Howard Brookins investigate Victor Reyes and HDO or be beholden to them?
Will Howard Brookins investigate Todd Stroger if that is where the evidence will lead?
What kind of people are Howard Brookins surrounding himself with?
If it is Mike Noonan--than he lost my vote and probably every serious law enforcement and editorial page too.
It's $200 a year, not $200 a month.
The article to which it was linked explains that.
Correction will be made.
First of all, Craver's Herald article carefully juxtaposes facts to create the false impression that CTA will be getting money from McHenry. That's not true. As Craver says, the new sales tax formula reduces CTA's share of the sales tax from the current level, and shifts a good deal of its funding burden to us Chicago homeowners. Just as today, collar county receipts will fund Metra and Pace; it's Cook County taxes that will fund all three.
Cook County will, after all, pay over FIFTEEN TIMES as much as McHenry County with the same quarter cent increase in sales taxes. And Cook County's heavy subsidizing of the breathtakingly money-losing collar county transit services will not only continue, but increase, in an attempt to win over your support.
Re: transit still being a bargain, note that (as of next week) inflation adjusted cash fares on CTA will have increased 59.6% since 1998, while the cost of driving (per AAA) has actually decreased 9.9% since then. Plus, driving gets you door to door, in better comfort, and often faster -- you pay for that convenience.
Re: profitable transit. I don't really care about whether transit made money before 1947, although all evidence points to it not making much money. (Or maybe you're talking about the WW2 years, when the government rationed gasoline and required carpooling and transit use? Sounds great to me.) Let me repeat: your roads don't make money (and lose a fortune once costs like air pollution are included), my transit doesn't make money, and no other transit system in the world* makes money.
Even contracted operations will not be a panacea. The Underground is right now suffering through strikes on lines managed by a bankrupt private operator. In 2004, NYC Transit had to de-privatize, at huge public cost, many of its bus lines, over complaints about service quality and the private companies' inability to improve their fleets without giant subsidies.
Now, closer to home, let's see what the Auditor General has to say about Pace's contracted bus service: "unit costs of the contract services are very similar to those of the directly operated bus service, with 2005 being the only year in the past five when the cost per mile for contracted service ($4.94) was lower than that of the directly operated service ($5.06). Because of fewer passengers per trip, the cost per passenger of the contract operated service was almost $1.50 higher than the directly operated services."
JB, Purple Line Express trains do stop at Addison for Cubs night games, and going forward will always stop at Sheridan (three blocks from Wrigley). Luggage racks to O'Hare were eliminated to provide more seats and better fleet compatibility. By the "Blue Line Spur" I think you mean the Pink Line, which has seen increased operations and increased ridership. Also, it's not as easy to remove "empty buses" as you think: if a bus running every 10 minutes is 50% full, cutting service to every 20 minutes won't magically fill it to 100%. Granted, bus bunching IS a problem, but having sat down at a table full of MIT grads talking about it, it's not an easy one to fix.
* except in Hong Kong, which is so crowded it would make the Loop look like McHenry County. As always, exceptions prove rules.
PC,
Not correct re Purple Line express as of August 29...no stop at Addison.
Jane Byrne eliminated those luggage racks saying (pretty much a direct quote) "If people are rich enough to fly, they can afford to get a cab". Brilliant, forward thinking, could not be rectified in 20 years because we "need to provide more seats and better fleet ompatibility "??
Glad the Pink Line is so successful, (after years of unpredictable service). Perhaps it can pay for itself now.
I think the issue is too many MIT grads and not enough independently minded people discussing such issues as bus bunching. Perhaps having a smaller bus or two would be a possibility.
JBP
Post a Comment