CHICAGO (WBBM) -- The grim reality is setting in for CTA and Pace officials who had hoped until now to obtain new funding streams and avoid implementing "doomsday" plans.
CTA Chair Carole Brown said she is "disappointed." Speaking for top Pace officials, spokesperson Judi Kulm agreed.
"We are disappointed, but realistic, and we are continuing to implement our planned fare increases and service cuts," she said.
Effective Sept. 16, CTA will eliminate 39 bus routes and raise the cash fare to $2.50, with a $3 rush-hour cash fare on the "L."
In addition, CTA plans to lay off nearly 750 employees and will defer heavy overhauls needed to prevent the agency's aging bus and rapid transit fleet from breaking down.
In an attempt to decrease the pain, CTA has waived the $5 fee it normally charges riders to obtain a Chicago Card, which is recharged with cash, or a Chicago Card Plus, which is recharged automatically using a credit card.
The waiver will continue through Halloween.
On Sept. 16, Pace will raise the fares on 65 rush-hour routes that primarily feed Metra stations, and on local service in Aurora, Elgin and Waukegan, to $1.50. It also has released an updated list of routes to be discontinued should the impasse continue until Oct. 7. Service would end completely on 10 routes. In addition, Saturday service would end on eight routes and weekend service on one route.
Those facing discontinuance include:
- 210/Lincoln Avenue;
- 616/Chancellory Connection;
- 653/Bloomingdale-Glendale Heights;
- 654/South Glen Ellyn;
- 690/Arlington Heights Road;
- 706/College Avenue-SE Wheaton;
- 822/Woodridge-Lisle feeder;
- 831/Joliet-Midway;
- 707-713/SW Wheaton/Wheaton/Naperville; and
- 787-788/Naperville Midday.
Routes facing elimination of Saturday service:
- 320/Madison Street;
- 348/138th Street-Riverdale Connector;
- 422/Linden CTA-Glenview-Northbrook Court;
- 423/Linden CTA-The Glen-Harlem CTA;
- 528/Aurora Transit Center-Rush Copley Hospital;
- 529/Randall Road-Fifth Street;
- 711/Wheaton-Carol Stream; and
- 801/Elgin-Geneva.
The 304/Cicero-LaGrange route would lose weekend service.
A spokesperson for Illinois Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) said Friday night that consideration of new funding streams for Chicago-area mass transit has been postponed until at least Sept. 17, because of issues remaining unresolved between Jones and Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson (R-Greenville).
The CTA and Pace will begin implementing their contingency plans the day before.
The stumbling block is believed to be Republican insistence that work be completed first on a statewide infrastructure program. State Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) had been expected to file a Senate version of the transit funding bill on Monday that closely tracks the bill that lost a House test vote in the past week.
similar to the bill that failed in a test vote in the Illinois House
CTA President Ron Huberman has reserved comment, but has said that the Sept. 16 contingency implementation date is ironclad, and has said that the CTA would risk running out of cash if it postponed implementation any further.
The latest version of the CTA contingency plan preserves all rapid transit service, although rush hour Purple Line trains operating downtown may become all-stop locals, depending on the crowding aboard Red and Brown Line trains.
There has been some form of express service on the Purple Line dating back at least to 1908.
Metra has postponed $60 million in capital projects, but plans no fare hikes or service cuts until early 2008.
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