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Like I have said before all they have to do is reduce the frequency of the buses. Many routes have way too many buses, too often, with not very many people riding them. The CTA could keep operating hours on all of the routes they are talking about reducing the hours of, as well as save money by just adjusting the frequency of buses in the schedules. All they are doing is tugging at the heartstrings (and wallets) of people in order to get more money to waste. The city and state need to bring in an outside auditor and consultants on how do make the CTA more efficient. I have no confidence in most of the buffones that make the decisions at the CTA.
For example, I would much rather have to wait 20-30 minutes for a Halsted bus at 2 pm then not be able to get on one at all at 2 am.
Also the Halsted bus not only effects the north side. It effects the UIC area,Greektown,West Loop, Bridgeport, and areas further south. Those areas are much further away from north/south train service than the northside north of North Ave.
Maybe it's just me. I think CTA has improved quite a bit. I remember some seriously God awful service. I think they have improved a lot.
Maybe it's the routes I take now or the time of day etc. but I have been very happy for the most part with their service. I will not go into my nightmares of 10-15 years ago.
Just thought I would put that out there. You may now throw things at me.
Disclaimer: I do not work for the CTA or know anyone that does. Just a captive consumer.
Like I have said before all they have to do is reduce the frequency of the buses. Many routes have way too many buses, too often, with not very many people riding them. ...
Bingo. Head out to the bungalow belt and watch the empty busses on W. 103rd St., S. Pulaski, etc. coming by every ten minutes. These are heavily car dependent areas, similar to the neighboring inner suburbs that have much less frequent bus service provided by Pace. Cut back service to every 20-30 minutes and you can take half the busses on these routes off the road, with the resulting costs savings. I think things are better now, but 15 years ago I depended on the 52A, S. Kedzie, which was supposed to run every 10-15 minutes weekdays. It wouldn't be unusual to wait 30 minutes to an hour for a bus. They might as well just schedule them to this frequency, but run them according to a schedule! It would be a lot more convenient then waiting on a street corner for a half hour.
They might as well just schedule them to this frequency, but run them according to a schedule! It would be a lot more convenient then waiting on a street corner for a half hour.
Having Bus Tracker helps a lot with this for most people, although you need internet access and there are plenty of people who depend on public trans and can't afford internet access.
So now the CTA is getting no fare increases for 2 years (until after the election), because the state is taking out tens of millions in bonds to cover the shortfall in operating funds (because who doesn't take out a mortgage to buy groceries). Two years from now the CTA will be on the hook for $10 million in interest payments a year for the next 28 years to pay for all this. All in all it's a $280 million drain on operating funds over almost three decades just because of the 2010 budget shortfall. One year.
Now in 2 years, the CTA is probably going to be in the exact same mess since no one will actually fix the solutions - just throw them into the next year or two, and we're going to add another $10 onto the pot of expenses. Say hello to even bigger fare increases and service cuts.
Whoever approved all this needs to be shot. As someone with just a small knowledge of finances - this is a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE idea. Screw the "it's a bad year for everyone". This plan has one and only ONE reason behind it. Elections coming up within the next two years.
I see the Pew Institute just released their list of the 10 most troubled states as far as financing - and there was Illinois - shining right up there near the top. Year after year of constant borrowing to meet annual pension dues and other expenses. The worst was in 2004 when the governor took out a $30 BILLION dollar loan to cover pension costs for the next 20 years, while at the same time taking the state off the hook from making any contributions for a two years span (election budget time!). So the state would have fared as well under this new plan than it would have if it had just made the annual contributions when they come due - assuming that the state got a constant 8.5% return on this new investment over 20 years. Even at the time any and all experts were looking at this right away shaking their heads going "what? well that's not going to happen. Why on earth are they doing this???".
Well guess what. It's only getting a 3.5% return. So now because we didn't feel like paying pension dues for 2 years we get a bad deal from an investment - and it all adds up to the state adding billions and billions in additional costs to the state budget EVERY YEAR.
We need to do some massive spending cuts coupled with some pretty big tax hikes, coupled with pushing down some unions and having a stern talk about the future of the state pension if we have ANY hope of crawling out of this in a reasonable fashion.
I completely second your post. This new 'solution' to the CTA's funding problems(and which requires the CTA to not raise fares for 2 years) is EQUALLY BAD as when Blagojevich inserted the 'seniors ride free' program when the CTA had funding problems in late 2007. My dad even completely agreed with me, plus a friend of mine who's a train operator for the CTA, when I talked to both of them only hours after I heard about Gov. Quinn's proposal.
Much as I'd love to see voters turn against Gov. Quinn next year(and IMO, he deserves it for reasons beyond just how he's screwing the CTA with this new funding proposal), I sadly can't say I'm holding my breath it'll successfully happen, considering we were the same state that stupidly reelected Blago in 2006. *puke*
grr, I'm so upset they got rid of the X49! seriously, why would they get rid of an express route that traverses so much of the city? I really liked taking that bus to get to the Western brown line stop (have a friend that lives near there). now I've got to deal w/ the local, or go out of my way to take the North Ave bus to the red line and transferring over. seriously, barring traffic on North Ave, that may end up being faster; I'll have to time it
I preferred taking that bus to hit up the shops near Diversey/Elston. 3 stops the X49 made (Armitage, Fullerton, and Diversey) vs., what, the nearly 10 stops the local makes (I can't even remember them all, but there are at least 4 stops between North and Armitage alone! it's only a 1/2 mile apart! there are two stops barely 15 feet apart near the Western L stop!). why can't they just cut back on all these stops or at least give bus drivers the option to go express like the trains do during rush hour?
I really don't understand this free ride deal either. even if it doesn't net them massive savings, why continue giving away service for free when you're bleeding money and being forced to cut service?
56 Milwaukee (Why would you cut back on a bus that travels the whole length of the north part of the city on an angle? They will lose a huge amount of fares by cutting this route.)
Current start 3:40 am. Proposed 4:30 am.
Current end 1:50 am. Proposed 10:30 pm.
8 Halsted (Really smart. Cut back greatly on a bus that travels through neighborhoods that combined have about half or more of the citys population. They will lose a huge amount of fares by cutting this route. Sometimes I wonder if some of the great minds at the CTA have their hands in the taxi cab industry. Also, great way of encouraging more people to drink and drive since there are a huge number of bars on or near Halsted all over the city.)
Current start 2:45 am. Proposed 4:00 am.
Current end 2:20 am. Proposed 12:30 pm.
Eliminate X80. (They should be making the whole route express and getting rid of the normal buses. Morons.)
Eliminate X3,X4,X9,X20,X49,53AL,X54,X55. (Ditto as above.)
I think their rational is that #56 basically travels close to the Blue Line, and #8 is a 5 minute walk from the Red Line on the north side, and not too far away on the South Side. I was bummed about the #8 though, because I end up taking that bus all the time for whatever reasons.
I think in the end the CTA is really putting its bet on the unions giving up part of their 3-3.5% pay increases this year and next. Save the jobs, and save the frequency.
The game isn't quite over yet. The state's done their bid, and the CTA went back and said to the Unions that their layoffs are all still on the table unless they give a little back. In this economy with almost all of us in the private sector just happy to have jobs - I don't think giving up a 3-3.5% raise is too much to ask for.
Not to mention the train and bus drivers average around $60K a year with lots of benifits! That's the biggest issue of all according to the CTA. Pay has gotten way to out of hand in relation to service provided and funding. Unions just throw off the natural order of things as far as what people would normally make in our capitalist economy.
I think their rational is that #56 basically travels close to the Blue Line, and #8 is a 5 minute walk from the Red Line on the north side, and not too far away on the South Side....
North of the Logan Square stop, the Blue Line is about mile away from Milwaukee Ave from the Belmont stop through the Montrose stop.
While it is true Halsted is 2 blocks or less away from the Red Line, from the Sheridan to North/Clybourn stops on most of the north side-on the south side and from downtown, Halsted is about a mile away (and in some cases a mile) from the Red Line. That is a good 15-20 minute walk.
There is abundance of redundant buses (like State Street) south of Cermak ,east of the Dan Ryan, and north of 63rd. Perhaps the CTA should be getting rid of some of these routes completely or cutting back on them greatly.
The 29 State Street (south of Cermak), 24 Wentworth (south of Cermak),4 Cottage Grove(south of 35th),3 King Drive (south of 35th),and 1 Indiana-Hyde Park (the whole route) routes are unnecessary. If the CTA wants to use certain rational on northside buses they need to FULLY implement the same on the south side.
The people at the CTA need to get their heads out of their hind ends. The taxpayers do as well. There is no need to raise fares,eliminate vital express buses, and cut service times on many routes. The CTA should make a deal to put a good number of workers into early retirement,cut redundant routes,cut frequency on over served routes, and institute a hiring freeze for perhaps the next 5-10 years. They have plenty of people already to cover the people that will be retiring in the next few years.
Last edited by Avengerfire; 11-16-2009 at 05:55 PM..
I think their rational is that #56 basically travels close to the Blue Line, and #8 is a 5 minute walk from the Red Line on the north side, and not too far away on the South Side. I was bummed about the #8 though, because I end up taking that bus all the time for whatever reasons.
I think in the end the CTA is really putting its bet on the unions giving up part of their 3-3.5% pay increases this year and next. Save the jobs, and save the frequency.
The game isn't quite over yet. The state's done their bid, and the CTA went back and said to the Unions that their layoffs are all still on the table unless they give a little back. In this economy with almost all of us in the private sector just happy to have jobs - I don't think giving up a 3-3.5% raise is too much to ask for.
Not to mention the train and bus drivers average around $60K a year with lots of benifits! That's the biggest issue of all according to the CTA. Pay has gotten way to out of hand in relation to service provided and funding. Unions just throw off the natural order of things as far as what people would normally make in our capitalist economy.
On the macro level, I think unions are still important because you need some political counterweight to the tremendous amount of money and lobbying power concentrated among the major corp and business associations in Washington. Yet its on the micro level, where you see bus drivers making 60K and throwing a fit over not getting another 3.5% raise, when my entire company has been on a salary freeze for nearly 2 years now, that makes you think, 'get your ****ing heads out of your asses'.
On the macro level, I think unions are still important because you need some political counterweight to the tremendous amount of money and lobbying power concentrated among the major corp and business associations in Washington. Yet its on the micro level, where you see bus drivers making 60K and throwing a fit over not getting another 3.5% raise, when my entire company has been on a salary freeze for nearly 2 years now, that makes you think, 'get your ****ing heads out of your asses'.
yeah seriously, the CTA employees are some of the biggest bunch of babies I've ever seen. I never thought adults could act so childish, they're like a bunch of spoiled toddlers whose parents buy them their favorite action figure but complain because they can't get a small ice cream cone. I couldn't feel less sorry or sympathetic for their situation if I tried. In a time where people are forced to become waiters, bartenders, or even work fast food or retail (if they're lucky), CTA employees are some of the luckiest employees in the entire city.
Shoot if they don't like working for the CTA I'd be more than happy to trade places with them. Any CTA employees here hit me up with a PM, we can work somethin out. I'm broke, can't find a job anywhere, and recently had to move from my studio apartment in Humboldt Park to New Orleans. If that sounds more appealing than making good money while driving a bus and drooling on yourself, feel free to get in contact with me, I'd be more than happy to switch.
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