Another RTA warning cry issued
Higher fares and less service will ring in the new year for mass transit riders unless state lawmakers come to the rescue, Regional Transportation Authority leaders said Friday.
RTA board members approved a so-called doomsday budget that would require Pace, Metra and the Chicago Transit Authority to slash operations to make ends meet.
"We'll continue to work with Springfield and hope they can reverse this action," RTA board Chairman James Reilly said.
Board Director Fred Norris, who represents Kane, McHenry, Lake and Will counties, was less optimistic.
"I've lost faith in what goes on in Springfield," he said. "It's obscene."
The cutbacks and fare hikes are expected to offset a $405 million budget shortfall.
Draconian measures for Pace would include cutting 26 weekday routes, eliminating 230 jobs and upping fares from $1.25 and $1.50 to $2. The plan also would halt evening service past 7 p.m. and increase fares for special programs serving disabled riders.
Those changes would go into effect Jan. 20 as would CTA cuts that involve laying off more than 2,400 workers, stopping 81 bus routes and raising cash fares by 38 percent to 63 percent.
Metra reductions effective Feb. 1 would increase ticket prices by 10 percent. In addition, about 100 jobs at the agency would not be filled.
Public transit agencies have warned for months they need more funding to operate.
The General Assembly is considering several measures, including a sales tax hike, to pay for transit but the process is complicated and tied to a gambling expansion plan.
The damage will be done once cuts are put into effect, Reilly said. "When you lay off people, the best people will get new jobs," he said.
"It does a tremendous amount of damage when you cut a bus route."
And even if routes are reinstated, "in the meantime people have found other ways to get there so there's not as many riders," he said.
In another development Friday, CTA union leaders canceled a threatened walkout Monday that would have crippled the rush hours.
Options before lawmakers include raising the sales tax by a quarter cent in the metropolitan region or shifting money from the sales tax on gas in the suburbs and city to mass transit.
But Reilly warned the latter would not generate as much as a quarter-cent hike, leaving a $100 million shortfall. "By 2009, we would need a 10 percent fare increase to make up the difference," he said.
But one suburban lawmaker fired back at the transit agencies, citing recent state audits that found an array of management and spending issues.
"I'm getting a little sick and tired of mass transit, especially CTA, pointing fingers at us," said state Rep. Fred Crespo, a Hoffman Estates Democrat.