RTA Governance

[Busjack]

Not sure about the comments on her looks, but the article does say she has experience as a transportation professional, something that a lot of us, yourself included, have said there hasn't been enough of in recent years among the local transit agencies.

Seems more experienced than most around here, but also seems embedded in the same old stuff, at least implied by the article. For instance, one wonders about a director of planning of an agency that doesn't seem to plan anything, except some municipal projects, in which the role seems to be funneling federal CMAQ funds. One thing that may support her assertions is that the current ICE list includes proposals to expand the Shuttle Bug and reverse commute options (Word 2007 document).

As far as same old stuff, I don't see her view of Emanuel blocking the budget over a small amount of discretionary funds "a healthy debate."

Also, a bit surprisingly, her line (Milw W) didn't do so well on the Jan. 2014 On Time Report, and the Milw N record is atrocious, so apparently the blame doesn't go mostly to the contractor run lines, despite news reports. If she is that satisfied with Metra performance....

[jajuan]

Seems more experienced than most around here, but also seems embedded in the same old stuff, at least implied by the article. For instance, one wonders about a director of planning of an agency that doesn't seem to plan anything, except some municipal projects, in which the role seems to be funneling federal CMAQ funds. One thing that may support her assertions is that the current ICE list includes proposals to expand the Shuttle Bug and reverse commute options (Word 2007 document).

As far as same old stuff, I don't see her view of Emanuel blocking the budget over a small amount of discretionary funds "a healthy debate."

Also, a bit surprisingly, her line (Milw W) didn't do so well on the Jan. 2014 On Time Report, and the Milw N record is atrocious, so apparently the blame doesn't go mostly to the contractor run lines, despite news reports. If she is that satisfied with Metra performance....

Granted her appointment isn't a total reversal of what we've been getting over the decades that RTA has been existence especially in recent years. However, her having some experience is a step in the right direction, albeit a tiny one.

[Busjack]

Tribune says that the Fitzgerald task force came out with a report that suggests adopting the MTA model of one board with operating subsidiaries.

But then we have the Sun-Times repeating others (mostly invested in the status quo) that it isn't going to happen.

I don't see anywhere yet where the report itself is posted, although I suppose it should be under this IDOT page on the task force.

[Busjack]

Saw the link on the home page Tribune article on DuPage chairman on CTA costs.

The real impediment to the debate is that both Cronin and Steele are 50% lying. There was the CTA pension reform, inducing the imposition of the Real Estate Transfer Tax only in Chicago. On the other hand, Steele brings up the "82% of the region's rides" bogus statistic. That proves Cronin's statement "in 2012, telling the Tribune that the CTA 'trying to pick the pockets of the suburbs is not the answer.'"

Of course, the RTA was unavailable for comment. Not mentioned was that it was held hostage by the 5 Emanuel appointees on the marginal amount of discretionary funds issue.

No wonder nothing gets done here.

[Busjack]

Interesting column in the Daily Herald about Ranney's view of the transit mess, although the only thing new is that Preckwinkle is supposedly for the task force proposal while we know that Emanuel wants to keep his dictatorial grip.

BTW, to cruise through the Google Survey, take the answer that most seems like "no."

[garmon757]

Interesting column in the Daily Herald about Ranney's view of the transit mess, although the only thing new is that Preckwinkle is supposedly for the task force proposal while we know that Emanuel wants to keep his dictatorial grip.

BTW, to cruise through the Google Survey, take the answer that most seems like "no."

#53 to Lake County??? Aren't there some kind of restrictions when it comes to CTA routes going to another county?

[juelzkellz]

They're talking about Illinois Route 53 the highway, not the bus route.

[garmon757]

They're talking about Illinois Route 53 the highway, not the bus route.

Oh I see. Thanks.

[Busjack]

Well, the massively overstaffed PR department has to eventually do some work. I assume most of them owe their jobs to Mike Madigan & election time is here.

More likely Rahm Emanuel, as typified by a link on the home page to a Tribune story that Brian Steele says there is nothing wrong with transit governance in this area, despite an international study saying the opposite (but relying on other studies saying the same thing).

I see that Steve Mayberry, once a Todd Stroger toady, and then CTA spokesperson for overnight crashes, now is an Emanuel campaign spokesperson.

If one wants to get into politics, Fioretti is right about Emanuel with regard to "He's also sought to paint Emanuel as out of touch with regular Chicagoans and unwilling to listen to their concerns," but Fioretti does not have respect for the constitutional restraints on government, either. However, I don't have a vote in that election.

[Busjack]

They were full of crap to begin with. They will always have a broken agenda no matter what project to come that can extremely build some revenue but that's CTA (well, RTA). Nothing but absolute f-ups.

Since you mentioned RTA, there was this article yesterday in the Tribune about rehabilitating Union Station. Getting around the problem that Amtrak owns it, and Metra doesn't have control, we get to this point:

The Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the CTA, Metra and Pace, has had two telephones offering a direct link to its Travel Information Center. Neither phone worked just days ago.

When asked about the phones, the RTA said they were being replaced with information about the RTA's website and how to use the agency's Trip Planner and Transit Tracker.

The stinking RTA can't even do that right. We previously discussed that Trip Planner is grossly incorrect, besides being a waste of taxpayer money because all 3 agencies are on Google Transit, which is accurate. The RTA interface to the 3 trackers is also a mess, and isn't much of a help, even though there are 3 incompatible trackers.

Yet the RTA is too brain dead to figure that out. In the meantime, you are correct that CTA is too brain dead to figure out the farce of these projects, but keeps paying consultants.

Apparently patronage is more important than serving the riding public and efficiently using taxpayer money.

[garmon757]

Since you mentioned RTA, there was this article yesterday in the Tribune about rehabilitating Union Station. Getting around the problem that Amtrak owns it, and Metra doesn't have control, we get to this point:

The Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the CTA, Metra and Pace, has had two telephones offering a direct link to its Travel Information Center. Neither phone worked just days ago.

When asked about the phones, the RTA said they were being replaced with information about the RTA's website and how to use the agency's Trip Planner and Transit Tracker.

The stinking RTA can't even do that right. We previously discussed that Trip Planner is grossly incorrect, besides being a waste of taxpayer money because all 3 agencies are on Google Transit, which is accurate. The RTA interface to the 3 trackers is also a mess, and isn't much of a help, even though there are 3 incompatible trackers.

Yet the RTA is too brain dead to figure that out. In the meantime, you are correct that CTA is too brain dead to figure out the farce of these projects, but keeps paying consultants.

Apparently patronage is more important than serving the riding public and efficiently using taxpayer money.

HELLO!!!! Money over the riding public!!! No wonder why we get the short end of the f'ing stick! The non-working phones situation is very atrocious and ill-advised. All those bs trackers and they couldn't shut them down??? The biggest problem with the RTA is there's no mutual agreement and it's really kicking us in our asses, especially well-rotten, piss hole Metra trying to strike another fare hike!!! Knowing damn well it's now becoming too excessive and "out of pocket"!

[Busjack]

HELLO!!!! Money over the riding public!!! No wonder why we get the short end of the f'ing stick! The non-working phones situation is very atrocious and ill-advised. All those bs trackers and they couldn't shut them down??? ...

My point on this was not whether the RTA should shut down the 4 trackers, as its interface relies on them. However, its interface is buried on its site and does not work as well as the real interfaces. At least the Pace portal now asks what direction.

On the other hand, its Trip Planner is redundant of Google Transit and inaccurate, and thus clearly a waste of resources.

[Catbus]

It sounds like the general consensus is that much of what RTA does is redundant, probably not worth giving them 11% of the region's transit dollars. When the Transit Task Force issued their report earlier this year they recommended different structure, but I guess that never got any traction politically.

Does anyone think transit reform is more likely with elections out of the way? Did Rauner take any position on this?

[Busjack]

It sounds like the general consensus is that much of what RTA does is redundant, probably not worth giving them 11% of the region's transit dollars. When the Transit Task Force issued their report earlier this year they recommended different structure, but I guess that never got any traction politically.

Does anyone think transit reform is more likely with elections out of the way? Did Rauner take any position on this?

Rauner, not really. There are too many budget issues on his plate, including that the pension reform plan has been declared unconstitutional by a circuit judge in Springfield, and I think that is going to stick.

The question is whether anything can be read into Kirk Dillard, who after being defeated by Rauner in the primary and getting the appointment as RTA chief, being put on the transition team. There is also an intergovernmental efficiency team, but only mayors on it, so it isn't clear whether that involves the thousands of units of local governments other than municipalities and counties.

[Catbus]

That's a good point that Rauner having other issues to deal with.

I hadn't heard about Dillard joining the transition team, but I had read that pro-reform former RTA head John Gates was involved. Maybe between the two of them they can figure out a better transit arrangement...

[Busjack]

That's a good point that Rauner having other issues to deal with.

I hadn't heard about Dillard joining the transition team, but I had read that pro-reform former RTA head John Gates was involved. Maybe between the two of them they can figure out a better transit arrangement...

Gates has proven himself to be hopeless.*

I had forgotten about the reference to him, but he doesn't have the influence to overcome Emanuel saying no way (either directly or through Claypool) immediately after the Fitzgerald task force report came out.

__________

*Your link was to joint purchasing, which got ignored, and had his delusion that Pace was buying Ventra equipment independent of CTA, while it was clear that Pace was piggybacking the CTA contract with Cubic, except maybe for the 8 or so TVMs.

[MetroShadow]

Presented without comment.

[Busjack]

Presented without comment.

Well, I can.

Any line item veto would require legislation. As it now stands, the funding formula is set in the legislation, and except for discretionary funds, there is nothing the RTA can do about it. CTA is going to get its 48%, one way or the other. Also, it appears, for the most part, that capital funds do not come from the RTA.

The rest of the article is correct that this would create another source of bickering, and there is too much bureaucracy. It also concurs in my view about what Rauner's priority will be.

As usual, Dillard just wants to feather his own nest, instead of realizing that he just picked up another unnecessary government job.

[jajuan]

RTA can't even keep the other three under control with the powers it does have. So what does it think it could do with a line item veto power other than cause more bickering and conflict as already noted?

[Busjack]

Tribune report of another survey saying either the RTA should be abolished or the 3 service boards should be. It took reading about 60% to determine that the survey was commissioned by the RTA., but apparently only to jiggle the funding formula and not to get the result they got.

The report did have one error: The governor does appoint 3 members to the Chicago Transit Board. Maybe, because Quinn's appointees didn't know what they were doing they became nonexistent.

And, of course, at the bottom, there are Dillard and Redden saying "everything fine now that we are in charge." No, it isn't. I'm sure everything was fine at Metra during Pagano's tenure until it was discovered that he was forging his own pay vouchers.

[artthouwill]

Tribune report of another survey saying either the RTA should be abolished or the 3 service boards should be. It took reading about 60% to determine that the survey was commissioned by the RTA., but apparently only to jiggle the funding formula and not to get the result they got.

The report did have one error: The governor does appoint 3 members to the Chicago Transit Board. Maybe, because Quinn's appointees didn't know what they were doing they became nonexistent.

And, of course, at the bottom, there are Dillard and Redden saying "everything fine now that we are in charge." No, it isn't. I'm sure everything was fine at Metra during Pagano's tenure until it was discovered that he was forging his own pay vouchers.

The shame is that it took a survey that was paid for to report what many of us have been saying on this forum forever/ They could've paid me to tell them that.

[Busjack]

The shame is that it took a survey that was paid for to report what many of us have been saying on this forum forever/ They could've paid me to tell them that.

1. You aren't politically corrected.
2. You didn't approach them with a proposition to conduct a survey on how to get more money to the CTA.

However, your point is well taken that the political hacks who depend on the status quo for their jobs can't concede the obvious. Also, all the good feeling is probably due to sales tax collections coming off the depth of the recession and the Hartney Oil decision (with respect to which the RTA did have a role).

[NewFlyerMCI]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-rta-transit-report-met-20150109-story.html

Discuss. I am of the opinion that Metra and Pace be combined and CTA left alone. Pace and CTA are radically different (headways, type of service, types of areas served, etc) and shouldn't be combined and Pace is just bigger, except in matters of fleet and volume.

[Busjack]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-rta-transit-report-met-20150109-story.html

Discuss. I am of the opinion that Metra and Pace be combined and CTA left alone. Pace and CTA are radically different (headways, type of service, types of areas served, etc) and shouldn't be combined and Pace is just bigger, except in matters of fleet and volume.

It was discussed above. The only relevant issues are the overabundance of bureaucrats and whether there actually can be service coordination and regional planning. That the current service boards run different types of services is irrelevant, as the one MTA board oversees various operating subsidiaries for buses and subways, commuter rail, bridges and tunnels, etc. You could still have T.J. Ross as the Chief Operating Officer of the Suburban Bus Division, if that is what the unified board decided.

The direction you seem to be going is what destroyed the RTA under the original 1973 legislation--it thought that it was obligated to bring the same level of bus service to the suburbs as the city. There wasn't the demand nor the tax revenue to support that, and the suburban bus systems (except for Nortran) collapsed.

The only type of service coordination in the region in the past 20 years was the Crowd Reduction Plan, which basically featured CTA withdrawing from outer portions of the city. CTA couldn't even admit that it discussed the plan with Pace, until Pace later said what the replacement service would be.

And, as discussed above, the stinking politicians who have vested interests in the status quo (especially Emanuel and the useless functionaries at the RTA) aren't willing to have it happen.

[strictures]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-rta-transit-report-met-20150109-story.html

Discuss. I am of the opinion that Metra and Pace be combined and CTA left alone. Pace and CTA are radically different (headways, type of service, types of areas served, etc) and shouldn't be combined and Pace is just bigger, except in matters of fleet and volume.

Since Metra can't seem to figure out that the only North/South Pace bus in the Near West suburbs is the 331, which runs on 5th Ave. through Maywood, but the UP West line skip stops all day there, so making a connection there is impossible when the trains are 2 hours apart, I doubt if combining them would ever work.

I visit friends out that way & it would be far easier to use the UP & transfer to the bus, that the insane CTA bus, L train for one stop, then Pace bus way I go there now.