ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (WBBM) - Some arrived indignant, others angry, some to merely plead.

WBBM’s Bob Roberts reports.

Every rider who spoke at a public hearing Tuesday on the proposed 2008 Pace budget criticized it.

“This isn't fair to us who really need it,” sputtered Larry Alanis, of Mt. Prospect.  “I'm one of the many who do not drive and I need this service available.  I want it available to me in the evenings and on the weekends.”

Service after 7 p.m. weekdays and most weekend service, except for certain heavily-patronized weekend routes in western and southern Cook County, will be eliminated if the budget is implemented as written.

It tries to erase a $32.9 million budget hole, and Pace Director Vernon Squires, of Winnetka, said, “Obviously you have to cut a lot of routes.”  

Squires and the riders who spoke during the hearing at Pace headquarters in Arlington Heights, agreed on one thing. They are dissatisfied with the lack of action by to date by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and legislative leaders in Springfield.

“There's a problem here that no one in the state (government leadership) seems to take you, CTA or Metra seriously - nobody,” said rider James Reynolds, a South Side Chicago resident. 

“They're not excited - yet,” Squires said.  “But you have to believe that as this thing hits, and it's not just Pace, it's the CTA.  What the CTA is about to do to the city is horrendous.”

Following the meeting, he said he was keenly interested in the alternative funding proposal being pitched Wednesday to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) by House Republican leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego).

Gov. Blagojevich said that he, Cross and both Senate leaders had “signed off” on the proposal.  Madigan was not a party to those talks.  Neither Pace nor Metra is aware of the new proposal's contents, and CTA and RTA spokespersons were unavailable Tuesday.
Rita Vlahos, of Park Ridge, said implementing the proposed service reductions would leave her and many other Pace riders in a quandary.
Vlahos said she leaves work at about 6 p.m. on weekdays.

“I can see weekends.  I can see Sundays,” she said.  “But the night service at 7 o'clock, I can't see that at all.   This is affecting people that work. This is the livelihood of the state.”

When she asked Squires, who was the hearing officer why 7 p.m. was chosen, he told her, “There is no good reason.”

Rider LeMar Wilder said Pace should have taken a selective approach, instead of moving to eliminate all evening service, citing the 352/Halsted bus.

“Are you crazy?  Do you realize how much money you'll be losing?  Out to Harvey, out to Homewood, all those people who can't get back and forth to the city, or if they get off work late at 95th and the Dan Ryan (CTA terminal),” he said. 

Rider Ian Rothbart, of Arlington Heights, suggested that a single mid-evening trip remain on the schedule on routes that serve shopping malls, to allow those who work at the malls to get home.
Squires called it a “constructive idea.”

Patricia Rush takes the 616/Chancellory Connection between Rosemont and Itasca.  It is one of 10 routes scheduled to be dropped in the first round of cuts on Nov. 4.

“What I fail to understand is why there is a total elimination (of the route) and not a reduction,” Rush said. 

The budget closes a $32.9 million budget gap by raising the base cash fare to $2 and the paratransit fare to $4, by eliminating all weekday service after 7 p.m. and most weekend service outside of south and west suburban Cook County, and by laying off 224 employees.  It would eliminate 21 additional bus routes not included in the hit list of 75 routes scheduled to be dropped either Nov. 4 or Dec. 3. 

The plan preserves limited weekend service, on routes that recover more than 25 percent of operating costs.  Original contingency plans had slated all weekend Pace service for elimination.

Pace would no longer accept CTA one-, two-, three-, five- and seven-day passes, as well as the CTA U-Pass sold to college students.  That alone is expected to cost Pace 4.4 million riders a year; in all, Pace expects to lose more than 10 million riders a year if the budget is implemented. 

Weekday routes scheduled for elimination Nov. 4 include: 210/Lincoln Avenue; 616/The Chancellory Connection; 653/Bloomingdale-Glendale Heights; 654/South glen Ellyn; 690/Arlington Heights Road; 706/College Avenue/SE Wheaton; 822/Woodridge-Lisle Feeder; 381/Joliet-Midway Airport; 707-713/SW Wheaton-Wheaton-Naperville; and 787- 788/Naperville Midday. 

All of the Pace weekday rush-hour routes that primarily feed Metra stations would be dropped Dec. 3.   Metra is scheduled to unveil its 2008 budget on Thursday. 

Weekday routes scheduled to be eliminated in January include: 234/Wheeling-Des Plaines; 272/Golf Mill-Milwaukee Av. Corridor; 319/Grand Avenue; 362/Park Forest; 451/Southeast Homewood; 460/Hazel Crest; 506/East Washington; 529/Randall Road-5th Street; 535/Fox Valley Shuttle; 550/Big Timber-North Randall; 626/Skokie Valley Limited; 637/Wood Dale-Rosemont CTA; 657/West Glendale Heights/Glen Ellyn; 747/DuPage Connection; 753/Matteson; 757/Northwest Connection; 767/Congress-Douglas-Prairie Stone; 801/Elgin-Geneva; 820/University Heights/Hobson Creek-Lisle; 877/South Suburban Oak Brook; 643-645/NW Elmhurst-Elmhurst Industrial.

Hearings continue through next week.  Pace, the CTA and Metra must submit their 2008 budgets by Nov. 15 to the RTA, for approval by its board in December.