RTA budget woes foreshadow transit cuts

Crain's:

The Regional Transportation Authority lowered its revenue estimates Thursday, a move that could set the stage for service cuts among its three mass transit agencies.

The RTA expects to collect $61 million less this year than previously anticipated from sales and real estate transfer taxes. The economic recession, which has kept consumer spending in check and homebuyers on the sidelines, has taken its toll on the transportation agency.

It’s the second time the RTA has adjusted its revenue estimates. The agency in April reduced revenue projections by 9.8%.

This article mentions that CTA will only recieve $35 million less and CTA President Richard Rodriguez has said that there may be service cutson the trains and buses although no further details are provided. The next CTA board meeting is scheduled for July 10.

Also in transit news, while I'm not sure how many of you use paratransit services courtesy of Pace, but the fares for that might rise due to the RTA forecast:

RTA Chair Jim Reilly suggested that Pace could raise fares for paratransit riders to $3 across the region to deal with funding problems.

Reilly’s comments came as the RTA board considered reserving $25 million in federal capital funds from CTA, Metra and Pace to pay for service for the disabled. The decision on reserving the money was deferred until next month.

Currently, riders pay $2.25 in the city, $3 in suburban Cook County, and $2.50 in the collar counties to ride on paratransit, which provides van pick-up for riders who cannot take regular transit services due to their disabilities. The real cost of the service, which is federally mandated, is about $40 a trip.

Reilly said while he didn’t think a fare increase was inevitable, he thought having a uniform fare across the region would make sense, and the increase for Chicago and the collar counties would help with future funding problems.

“Even at $3 it’s a very good deal.” Reilly said. A spokesperson for Pace was not immediately available for comment.

Here's the meeting schedule for the CTA Board. You can also check out the meeting schedule (need Adobe Acrobat) for the RTA Board. Apparently they had one today (need Adobe Acrobat) although I didn't know about it until now!

BTW, this article was from yesterday probably not much to say that was already said in the other two exerpts in this post, however, it needs to be posted anyway:

CTA President Richard Rodriguez said that longer waits for buses may be coming due to a new $35 million budget shortfall, but he couldn't yet say exactly what service would be affected.

"Everything is on the table," Rodriguez said after speaking at the City Club of Chicago. "I can't necessarily stand here and say specific routes are going to be eliminated or weekend service is going to be eliminated or any of that." He said one possibility is that instead of having five-to-seven minute headways between buses on some routes, it could be 10 to 15 minutes.

Rodriguez said he is first trying to see what can be cut internally "without sacrificing quality." "We have to look at who's going to be impacted, who's more transit dependent . . . and where we can afford to reduce service and not necessarily eliminate service," said Rodriguez.

The shortfall, caused by a fall in both sales tax and real estate transfer tax revenues, is on top of an already announced $155 million reduction in the CTA budget.

Tough times ahead!