CHICAGO — A group of Chicago-area civic organization have urged Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and others to support a proposal to improve transit on the city’s South Side and South Suburbs by cutting fares and increasing service on Metra’s Electric and Rock Island districts.
Crain’s Chicago Business reports that groups including the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Metropolitan Planning Council, the Active Transportation Alliance, and others signed an open letter to “elected leadership and transportation executives” to approve the pilot proposal.
Preckwinkle has come out in favor of the proposal, while Lightfoot opposes it, saying it will hurt Chicago Transit Authority ridership. [See “Chicago mayor opposes plan for expanded Metra service to South Side,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 19, 2019.]
The letter says the pilot program “is a good way to find long-term solutions to transportation problems that have persisted in the region for too long.” It notes the proposal “will require unprecedented coordination between Metra, CTA, Pace [Chicago’s bus system] and RTA [the Regional Transportation Authority] to be successful. … This pilot program is an exciting opportunity to implement true fare integration and offer seamless transfers between services. These are enormous benefits for users of the transit system and another reason all government agencies involved in transit should participate fully in this pilot.”
Other groups signing the letter include the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Environmental Law & Policy Center, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, Chicago Jobs With Justice, the Coalition for a Modern Metra Electric, the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (Transportation Division).
Charles Landey – I’ve not been in Chicago in many years. The “disgrace to America” LaSalle Street Terminal isn’t the old Rock Island depot, right? What’s the situation?
I don’t get what they mean regarding “fare integration”. A Ventra card is good on the CTA, Pace bus system and Metra. I’m guessing that the “integration” means the availability of a low cost transfer from one mode to another, which currently does not exist.
Mr. Landey, I agree with your comments on all points. There are way too many in the Chicago metro area that are all too willing to simply stick their hand out and say “gimme” with not a thought or care as to the fact that SOMEONE has to pay for it. This is a perpetual cycle that has been going on for years and has no end in sight.
“Cutting fares” to an already highly subsidized service provided by an agency METRA/ RTA, which is in financial trouble. That part gives me a problem. Having said that there’s plenty of room and lots of reasons to improve service to the South Side. The Rock Island and Southwest services – both serving heavily African American neighborhoods – both need big investment. The Rock Island District’s terminal at LaSalle Street is a disgrace to America.
Too, investment in the Metra Electric needs to continue, even though it’s no longer the wreck it was 25 years ago.
If Chicago politicians would stop squabbling over the spoils and work together for their constituents, that would be good. Ms. Preckwinkle and Ms. Lightfoot are examples of politicians at their worst, fighting not over policy (identical as between the two women — far left) but over who would win the most recent mayor’s election.
The other comment I must make is to urge readers to study the list of signers to the letter. Never assume that special interest groups speak to what’s good for the community as a whole.
Finally one must get tired of the whining from the less prosperous communities. METRA and RTA have needs across the board, including to the wealthy suburbs not currently well served by the skeleton schedules on the METRA North Central Line to Antioch.
They want to ride commuter rail at mass transit fares. One more in the long list of handouts. Sometimes I wonder why I worked and saved just so it can be taken from me.
Who is in charge here? The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) looks like a corporate holding company with a bunch of subsidiaries competing for resources, not unlike the railroad holding companies (Illinois Central Industries and Northwestern Industries come to mind) that once called “Chicagoland” home. RTA needs to take charge, integrate the management organizations of its transit operations, and get the local politicians out of playing trains. Go visit NYC and benchmark what they are doing. Think of the overhead that could be reduced and, heavens to murgatroyd, taxpayer dollars that could be saved.
GEORGE – If you haven’t seen LaSalle Street “station” you are one lucky dude. The former New York Central and Rock Island LaSalle Street station was torn down for an office building. The tracks and train shed remain in place but not any sort of amenity for passengers above the absolute minimal.
Unlike former Northwestern Station where a new office building includes considerable accommodation to passengers (and retail and restaurants), the office tower at LaSalle Street has none. Gone also is the direct connection to the Chicago “El” that the old LaSalle Street Station had.
A Rock Island District passenger must take a long walk from the street around the office building to reach the train shed. There’s a tiny waiting room (if you call it that) unfit for humans.
To be fair to METRA some sort of rebuild has been proposed at LaSalle Street. But it will never approach what Ogilvie (former Northwestern) has.