Chicago transit officials say funding, not restructuring, is key to better service
CHICAGO — The heads of Chicago’s four transit agencies argued Tuesday at a legislative hearing that financial support, not structure, is the key issue they face in trying to serve the region’s passengers.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the top officials at Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority, bus operator Pace, and the overarching Regional Transportation Authority all argued that a proposal to combine the four into a single Metropolitan Mobility Authority misses their real needs — to address a looming “fiscal cliff.” That shortfall could be $730 million as soon as 2026, when the organizations no longer have federal aid to help offset the drop in ridership that came with the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting change in work and commuting habits.
Legislation introduced earlier this year would replace the boards at each of the four agencies with a single 19-member board [see “Illinois bill proposes merger …,” Trains News Wire, April 30, 2024]. A majority of the new board would be appointed by Chicago’s mayor (five seats) and the president of the Cook County board (five seats). That would be in place of the current 47 seats across the four boards appointed by 21 elected officials.
The Sun-Times reports Metra CEO Jim Derwinski said doesn’t know what savings would result from the change.
“We do operate the leanest system in the country,” Derwinski said. “We keep making it happen when we don’t have the right resources. And because of that, certain other things don’t happen.”
CTA President Dorval Carter, whose agency put out a statement calling the proposal a “distraction, at best,” when it was first announced, reiterated the CTA view on Tuesday: “The governance model is not the problem … The issue is getting the funding levels to where they’re supposed to be.”
“I do not believe that combining us into one organization will make us better,” said Melinda Metzger, executive director of Pace. “To put us all under one board, the needs of the suburban areas, the far-away areas, will not be met as well as they are right now.”
Chicago transit agencies get just 17% of their funding from local and state tax dollars, the lowest such figure among major systems in the U.S., the hearing was told, according to WGN-TV. (In Philadelphia, the figure is 50%; in New York, it’s 28%.)
“We’ve never had the level of funding to truly allow for a discretionary funding program that would be controlled by the RTA,” said Carter, “that would allow RTA to basically direct priorities.”
The hearing was the first of six scheduled by state Sen. Ram Villivalam, who heads the Senate Transportation Committee [see “First hearing on future of Chicago transit set …,” Trains News Wire, Monday, July 8]. Villivalam said the proposal may or may not move forward. “The reality, though,” he said, “is that that question is being asked of us by our constituents. So it’s upon us to ask that and get to the root of where we go.”