To help Chicago businesses, fully fund public transit, report says

To preserve the region's economic vitality, Chicago needs to invest in its aging, under-maintained public transport infrastructure, a newly released report concluded.

The report, issued by the Metropolitan Planning Council, looks at the impact Chicago's trains and buses have on its businesses and workers, just as the state prepares to consider new investments in the system's long-neglected capital needs.

Research suggests that a dollar of public money spent on public transit produces well more than a dollar in return, the report says.

New research conducted for the report found that neighborhoods around transit stations see both higher growth in good times - in terms of new construction and higher real estate prices - and greater resiliency in bad times.

And though ridership in the system overall is falling, it is rising among a few important groups, including young people and commuters.

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