Ladd Chairs His Last Metra Meeting, Says Tax Hike Needed

CHICAGO (WBBM)  -- There was no pomp and ceremony as Jeffrey Ladd presided over his last meeting as Metra's chairman, after a 22-year run.

In fact,  WBBM Newsradio 780's Bob Roberts reports that if one didn't know, there would have been no sign that Metra's founding chairman was going anywhere.

Ladd fumed over delays for two consecutive rush hours to riders on Metra's BNSF commuter line, pronouncing the three- hour delays endured by some to be "unacceptable." 

He asked pointed questions about Metra power rates that won't increase until next year, and about a long-term program to minimize delays to both commuter freight trains in the Chicago region.  

Only after the meeting, when reporters asked him a series of questions, did the subject of his departure come up. 

"This is the perfect time," he told WBBM.  "We're getting ready for the next set of authorized projects to get them to the point where we can get appropriations for them both in Springfield and Washington, so it's time for someone to pick up the baton now and start that race on their own rather than have to change in the middle." 

The 65-year-old attorney has been at the helm of the commuter rail agency's board from its beginning -- 22 years ago.

Ladd has been known for his brusque style and a determination to get things done.  He defended his territory vigorously, and that meant butting heads often, especially in recent years, with leaders of the Chicago area's other transit agencies.

During the discussion of looming increases in power bills, he kidded gently, "Just so you know, we don't shoot the messengers here anymore."

CTA Chair Carole Brown admits that she had frequent disagreements with Ladd.  But she acknowledged that Ladd was doing his job.

"You have to look at the growth of Metra and what they've been able to accomplish," she said this week.  "He was an integral part of that. He has had a lasting impact on transportation in this region."

Ladd himself said as much in his resignation letter, submitted last week to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.

"I have led the board in the only way I know how, with honesty, energy and integrity," he wrote.  "I have always been direct, some may say too direct, but that was because I have always deeply cared about building this agency and serving the riders who depend upon it."

Disinvestment and disinterest plagued Chicago-area commuter rail lines for years before Metra's formation in 1984. Railroads that owned three of Metra's commuter lines -- the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Milwaukee Road -- had collapsed, and the lines faced abandonment unless rescued. 

The condition of the lines Metra inherited and the level of service provided were things Ladd did not suffer well.

"The operations were such when we came into being that I don't leave with anything but a sense of satisfaction and pride in what we have accomplished," he said.  "We built the finest commuter rail operation in the country."

Under his leadership, Metra spent millions of dollars replacing locomotives and the trains they pulled and embarked on a massive capital investment program to catch up on the decades of deferred maintenance. 

To finance it in part, Metra took steps unseen elsewhere in the industry, such as a 1989 fare hike devoted exclusively to generating money for capital improvements.

Now, Ladd said, he sees no way around some form of tax increase to provide the capital and operating funding Metra needs going forward.

If that money is not forthcoming, he said, "We will get to the kind of deferred maintenance situation we that we knew in the early '70s if you keep this up much longer."

Ladd said the deferred maintenance has been addressed during his tenure, but made one of his biggest goals unattainable.

"My biggest regret is that the deferred maintenance on the system was so great that we couldn't get to building a suburban system sooner," he said.

The proposed STAR Line, which will utilize new right-of-way between O'Hare and Hoffman Estates along I-90, and then swing south to Joliet along Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Ry. freight trackage, is only the first of three suburban "circle" lines that he envisions. 

In 1996, Metra opened the Chicago area's first new commuter rail line in 70 years -- its North Central Service, linking Chicago with Antioch.  Earlier this year, service on the line was doubled after most of it was double-tracked.    But Ladd clashed in recent years with south suburban officials who wanted the  proposed Metra STAR Line extended beyond Joliet, demanded that Metra put a Southeast Service on its planning map and obtained improvements to its Electric District service, including an order for new bilevel commuter cars that are washroom-equipped for the first time.

Ladd denied repeatedly that he was biased against south suburban riders.  He responded with a series of improvements on the Electric District, including a speed-up in the long-delayed reconstruction of its Randolph Street terminal, now an industry showpiece. 

"They shouldn't (feel slighted)," he said.  "They have more service than anybody on the entire system."

He said the older Highliner cars, built without washrooms, were built by the Illinois Central R.R. with input from the communities the line serves.  He said a number of improvements have been made, and that in reality, the south suburban have received more money for improvements than any other area.

"A lot of people have given them misinformation," he said. 

In recent months, he chastised staff members at board meetings when the on-time performance of trains slipped behind New York's Metro-North Commuter Railroad for the first time.      Rumors about Ladd's future at Metra began to surface early this year.  Some said that his style was too fractious for the all-for-one approach that the Regional Transportation Authority, under chairman Jim Reilly, has taken toward obtaining new sources of funding from Springfield. 

Suburban Cook County commissioners, who appoint suburban members of the Metra board, are said to want a suburban Cook County representative as chairman.  Ladd has law offices in downtown Chicago, but lives in McHenry County.  

Ladd will not leave the board officially until a replacement is named.