Politics

Viewer Feedback On The CTA Funding Crisis

We asked CBS 2 viewers who they think is to blame for the CTA's problems, what improvements they would make and how the cuts would affect them. Here are their answers:

Blame the riders. If us "car drivers" have to ALWAYS pay more. They should, too. As prices go up on fuel, insurance and maintenance we have to eat those higher costs. Taxes are not diverted to help us get to work. If you use CTA and/or Metra, you should have to pay for it. Free transportation is not a right. If you have to pay more to use it, so be it. It is still probably cheaper than owning a car. if you don't like it, get a car, take a cab or walk.
 - Jim Litke

Whats the big deal about raising fares? Those of us that cannot use public transportation have to deal with constant cost increases for fuel and other assorted costs and we take it in stride. Not happily but it has to be dealt with-catastrophe I think not! Raise the fares and quit using everything as an excuse to create political chaos!
 - Ron Gallman


The blame goes to the Elected Officials who subsidize the actual cost by robbing Peter to pay Paul. I have to pay more out of my pocket when gas, insurance and maintenance cost go up. The CTA needs to increase the fares or cutback service. It is public transportation and the public including the ridership need to pay their FAIR SHARE. 
 - Bill Ferche


Upper management from the chairman down. Fire 3/4 of them with no replacement as they are not needed.
- Al Goelz


The CTA cuts do not affect me directly but it does affect many people. If Chicago wants to even to be considered for the Olympics, they better get it together and are able to provide transportation for those coming in. I know the routes that you are considering cutting do not influence CTA very much but if they would just consider the people, they are affecting other people's lives. Think of the little people you were once one and not the comfortable office that you are now sitting in. Everyone has to have a chance to get a head give everyone that fair chance.
- Dee Brodt


I think that the CTA needs to have an outside consulting firm handle the books. They're obviously mismanaging funds. The buses are over crowed as it is, so cutting routes and buses is unacceptable. I stopped riding because I was tired of standing or being sat on by other passengers because the seats are too small!  Maybe they need to choose their vendors better as well, theses so called new buses leak with rain or snow which eliminates more seating. Overall the CTA needs to be managed by a non government team. What one of the largest cities in the nation is going through now is despicable!
- Frank


Privatize the operation, and take it away from the city.
- Jim H. Barton

The CTA is an agency that needs to be responsible for determining its needs and budget to the state of Illinois. The budget should include maintenance and upgrades which are sorely needed. It is a disgrace: crumbling and rusting rail and columns; slow speed; open-air platforms; dirty and unsafe; inconvenient breaks in rail lines requiring unreliable bus transfers. If you travel anywhere else in the post-industrial world you will not have such a slow, insecure, dirty, unsheltered system as the Metra and CTA rail services, Chicago as a city needs to step up to the modern world and provide a safe, secure, clean, safe, and modern mass transit system that is a showcase of US capabilities. However, the city, county, and state are so inept and corrupt that they do not have such a vision. The governor travels to the capital by plane, for God's sake, and this is a travesty. If he lives in Chicago he should live like a Chicagoan, not a prima donna being transported by limo and plane.
Government employees and elected government employees need to get a reality check: they WORK FOR THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS, and the people of Illinois need an updated, safe, reliable, and convenient rail system in order to compete in the 21st century. The wasted time and cost is a drain to the productivity of the typical commuter and local business.
Get SERIOUS about mass transit, and GET TO WORK!!! Thank God for the CTA director for being willing to fight for the people, because our elected officials and bureaucrats are not. Unacceptable.The CTA is an agency that needs to be responsible for determining its needs and budget to the state of Illinois. The budget should include maintenance and upgrades which are sorely needed. It is a disgrace: crumbling and rusting rail and columns; slow speed; open-air platforms; dirty and unsafe; inconvenient breaks in rail lines requiring unreliable bus transfers. If you travel anywhere else in the post-industrial world you will not have such a slow, insecure, dirty, unsheltered system as the Metra and CTA rail services, Chicago as a city needs to step up to the modern world and provide a safe, secure, clean, safe, and modern mass transit system that is a showcase of US capabilities. However, the city, county, and state are so inept and corrupt that they do not have such a vision. The governor travels to the capital by plane, for God's sake, and this is a travesty. If he lives in Chicago he should live like a Chicagoan, not a prima donna being transported by limo and plane.
Government employees and elected government employees need to get a reality check: they WORK FOR THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS, and the people of Illinois need an updated, safe, reliable, and convenient rail system in order to compete in the 21st century. The wasted time and cost is a drain to the productivity of the typical commuter and local business.
Get SERIOUS about mass transit, and GET TO WORK!!! Thank God for the CTA director for being willing to fight for the people, because our elected officials and bureaucrats are not. Unacceptable.
- Jamehlja Soderstrom

I don't own a car and ride CTA and Metra. I don't mind paying more, but who would pay more for a decrease in service? The sad fact is that the CTA is underfunded and yes it has been mismanaged also. Let us look forward and fund public transportation like other world class cities do. We can at least all agree to reduce road congestion and pollution for ourselves and our children. Should not that be enough reason to do what is needed?
We need to do away with or phase out pensions. I am paying my tax dollars to fund city, county, state employees retirement when all major corporations have phased out their pension benefits years ago. This is not fair and would save us all so much money to not feed the needs of a few who feel a sense of entitlement. Government would have no clue how to run a profitable business and delaying decisions and offering last minute bailouts just goes to proving my point.
Next time you drive on Lake Shore Drive during rush hour please take a moment to look into a CTA bus. Would you really want all of us sitting in traffic with you in our own cars? Oh thats right most of us are standing. How comfortable we all are. We must really enjoy riding in a packed bus with little or no suspension just to and from our 30-40k jobs.
- Todd Janousek

If you're going to blame someone then I'd blame those who are in charge. I find it interesting that when any kind of fare hike or a request for a budget increase is denied for what ever reason the public has to suffer. By cutting back on service closing down routes changing schedules to meet the demand for transportation and yet these people will get a pay increase for doing these things in the form of cut backs. As I see it at this rate there won't be a CTA then everybody will either be walking or driving their cars to work. Not that they don't do it already. For some people like the elderly and students it will be very hard to get around. Hey what do these higher ups think is going to happen? Rider ship will plummet causing more problems, then more route closing then less people will stop using. Will the higher ups figure this out? Probably not till it's too late and have driven the CTA out of business and themselves out of a job.
- Bill Hickok

I think the CTA's problems are caused by the CTA. They are so used to being funded by the Federal government. Now the Federal government is running out of money and they are look to the State and the State is broke too. CTA hasn't had to look at themselves. They should be audited every time they ask for money. One change they should make right now that could make them quite a bit of money is to start charging to transfer to the Blue Line. You shouldn't be able to go from the South or North side of Chicago and transfer to the Blue Line for free. There should be a charge to travel to O'Hare. That's one change they could make immediately. They should also change their machines to accept real dollars instead of fake dollars. People on the street know that their machines don't accept real dollars. They also need to see where they can streamline jobs. There are things they can do, they just haven't been made to do it.
I say audit the CTA and see where the money is going!!
- Lisa Rudgley

Well instead of letting Chicago figure out the mess they have placed themselves in with over bloated top heavy management and politically connected buddy - buddy system they keep playing the doomsday scenario and keep winning at their hand in poker with the state. I am tired as a tax payer to continually bail out a city such as Chicago it is time they clean house and begin to properly manage themselves. I am tired of the city shifting the blame to the collar cities and state for their ills and start looking at the real issue. It might take a disaster for the people to demand that city to clean house. In the mean time does that mean that every county who is in financial trouble play the doomsday card with the state to get the money the need also? Maybe DuPage county and Robert Schillerstrom needs to play this game of poker with the state also. Also the state schools need to get in this game also but oops I forgot they already been playing that doomsday card and keep winning also. Sucker bets anyone? By the way I am unemployed and nearly broke can I also get in the game as well? I start at 30 million and I'll raise you $200 million. What the state is not going to aid poor old me and give me the money I need to keep going too?
- Walter Miller

I don't know if this is realistic..but I imagine that a great chunk of the expense involved with providing bus services is the cost of the fuel to run them. At one time the city had electric cars and buses, perhaps this would be significantly less costly and environmentally favorable alternative. Resurrection of the street car on certain routes (downtown and other most frequently traveled bus lines) would give the city an added charm. The highly paid officials should sit down with an independent consultant and evaluate the numbers. An electric commute system would have to be more cost effective.
- Anonymous

CTA Management. All senior managers should take a 10% pay cut. The rest of the CTA employees should take a 5% pay cut. Then we can talk about a TAX increase.
- John Sawilchik

I live down state and I'm sick of hearing about the RTA and their money problems. Every time the RTA needs money they hold up the rest of the state for money. Suck it up) if you want to listen to the music you have to pay the fiddler.
- Jerry LeBeau

Stop the blame game. Just find out what it will cost to run the system and have the RIDERS pay for it. Do they pay for the expense on my vehicle? Last time I checked, this was not supposed to be Communism or Socialism. If you think it's too much money buy your own car! The mass transit system lags behind many Western Europe Countries, both with ease of use and speed. Suburban Cook County is forced to pay through gasoline tax a broken system that they don't use. Mass transportation in the south west suburbs on its best day is a JOKE! When I use the tollway, I don't ask bus riders to pay my tolls, why do they want us to pay theirs?
- Donald J. Martin

If the CTA had gone through with its service cuts, I would have to drop out of college, as the bus I take to get there is the only way I can get from work to class on time. I think both sides are equally to blame--the CTA for allowing things to deteriorate to this point while they enriched themselves on our money, and the government downstate for playing chicken with the livelihoods of a good part of the city of Chicago.
- Larry Wilson

In America rich people are the one who's commuting most by taking buses and trains going downtown and poor who commute through trains and buses are in majority only in South side of Chicago. Minority of the people who lives in Chicago are middle class or working class who do not take Buses and trains. And the poor who commute through cars are very few of them take buses and trains Going downtown since they work in suburbs. There is no one to blame except CTA for low price on the fare for the rich people who can afford going downtown.

$2.00 fare should had been $ 5.00 transfer card And $5.00 daily pass card must have been for $10.00 And Monthly card should have been for $200.00 for my simple calculation. Since CTA is under-funded will be surplus simple math by local citizen..
- Ahmed

I think that there are many, many problems with CTA that need to be improved immediately. It takes me 45-55mins to get to Loyola's lakeshore campus by car during rush hour. For some reason it takes me 2 hours and 30mins to get there from my far South Side home, in which I ride from, 93rd and Cottage to the Red Line, and I ride the Red Line all the way from the 95th to Loyola. That doesn't make sense, mass transit should be fast. If I take the Metra I'm downtown within 20mins, why can't CTA make some changes so that they could become that fast. If trains and buses weren't late there wouldn't be back up trouble of overfilled trains and buses. The aesthetic improvements are great, but some of them could have been avoided had CTA took care of the routes and equipment. Clean the gunk from tiles and pressure wash or clean the concrete floors more often for the newly enhanced Roosevelt stop. It drives me nuts when I see the workers painting the steel with PAINT FOR DRYWALL WALLS. Just stop it it's ridiculous. Just get the old paint removed and repaint with the right paint. You don't buy a new car and never put oil in it and expect it to last you ten years. They shouldn't reward CTA for the crappy work and service. Giving CTA the money is like saying, "It's okay." We're saying it's okay that you're late and almost never on time. It's okay for the CTA workers to be rude. It's okay for the trains to be dirty. It's okay that we haven't received not a single service improvement since the last fare hike. Make things right, because it's not okay.
-DeLeon A.

Why is it that the only solution to ones problem on how to get to work focuses on the government? What happened to neighbor helping neighbor? With all the cars on the expressways certainly one must travel by someone who needs a ride to work! Keep trusting in your government to provide your every need and you'll be popping anti-depressants like they're candy when you need to get another job just pay your taxes and feed your family!
- Kevin Hacker

CTA – Bad management
- Zoe Jeffries

I really think that they need to do a major restructuring of the whole CTA if they are seeking millions in funds to keep it running what or who is the real benefit. While I driving past some of these buses and when I ride the trains there are times that there are a couple of people on them. At times I get stuck driving behind 2-3+ buses at a time because the intervals get messed up due to traffic, trains, or other circumstances.

I really like riding the train to get to the city because I don't have to deal with the traffic parking and with the family we are free to go about and not worry about getting back to the car. We can go to the lakefront then later go up to the north side for dinner and then take the train home and walk the couple blocks to the house. For that reason it is a very convenient for us. But raising the rates or over all raising the taxes to pay for someone's failure to do their job and creatively conning the citizens out of their money to say that they don't make any money and need extra to keep up with maintenance and payroll etc, is pushing it to far. Yes its the government and while a hammer for the common people would cost 10.00 they charge 30.00 and pocket the rest I think that it is unfair that we should have to cover the extra 20.00 because someone can't take the extra initiative to do their job and check on their employees and make sure that everything is on the up n up.
- Nathaniel Callahan

I have taken the bus for most of my life. They have always been dirty and smelly, not to mention standing around in the very early hours scared of being mugged. I think we need to let doomsday happen and then get some housewife in there that has had to watch her budget to survive. The available lines of service would need to be redistributed to accommodate hospitals and schools. Car pooling and cabs can pick up the slack. The concept of supply and demand will drive down cab prices and make them more affordable. We need to find alternatives to what we have and will never look for options until we do. We can not automatically increase our budgets because we spend too much why would any business feel they can?
- Nanette Nelson

My vote would be for gambling revenue and capital program to bail out mass transit.
- Suzette Engerman

Placing blame at this point is useless rhetoric. The question no on seems to be asking is when the fare hike and service cuts go into effect and the funding from Springfield comes through, will CTA restore services cut and will they reduce the fares to pre-doomsday levels.

My guess would be that some services would be restored but fares would stay up.

Ask RTA/CTA about that. You are the journalist get us those answers.
- Jerilynn

Instead of eliminating ALL express service, why can't those express buses operate just during rush hours? It's my hope that CTA will go out of business, and a private company come in to run it. No matter how much money CTA gets, it will not be enough. I also resent CTA asking riders to write to their congressman to ask for funding for them. The bureaucracy within CTA is so bloated and veiled in dishonesty that maybe what they really need is an investigation by Patrick Fitzgerald.
- John Perino

It doesn't affect me. But the price of gas jumped 20 cents yesterday from the time I left work until the time got home. The price was $2.99 at 5:00 am. The price was $3.19 at 2:30 pm. Who is going to help me???? I think the riders need to pay the fare hike. Stop belly aching people.
- Grace Sink

I recently heard that contract laborors for the RTA make up to 80 dollars an hour when working on the tracks....WHAT? And I have also heard that the Grand Station is about to spend 63 million on renovations...so instead of blaming anyone, could I please have a contract job with you? I have a master's degree, and am qualified to hold a shovel............
- Andy Adolphson

I've long thought - but it never seems to get out in the mass media - that one thing that would help a lot is a 1-day stay-home boycott by all CTA users.

Regardless of having other means of transport or not, we just wouldn't go to those places we usually go by CTA. (Emergencies excepted, of course) As Chicago quickly ground to a halt, people at all levels of government - including Federal - would see how essential CTA is to Chicago's economy. This would provide motivation, not the actual content of the solution.
- Jean

1) Clean up the trains/buses from all the trash (possibly by actually enforcing the no eating/drinking rule as stringently as the no smoking rule)

2) fix the slow zones

3) In the long run, complete the circle line
- Slobovia

CTA is the PROBLEM NOT law makers. CTA is a public entity and for years they have continued to provide some of the worse service to paying customers. As long as I can remember year after year from around 87' to the present CTA has continued to come back asking for more money, yet nothing improves! As a customer, I would be more inclined to pay hikes in service if service was capable to what was being served. But when buses continue to show up 2 to 3 at a time and nothing appears in between, NO WAY!!..If you miss a bus, you are out of luck for another 30 minutes. Buses and trains are dirty and nasty and many have pest problems. Train service was cut on the green line years ago, eliminating overnight service. If you work nights or don't get off by 2am. You are out of luck. Safety on the transit system is a joke and has been, since the elimination of train engineers. Remember those guys who used to stand in the little plastic booths on the corners to check on the timeliness of the buses???!!!?... Well they left those booths years ago…now they ride around in SUV's…. Who is paying for that? Who and what is financing those guys who drive around in the CTA vehicles often trailing the buses??? Are they supposed to be security?? Tell that to the parents of Blair Holt AND countless others whom are assaulted on CTA and transit lines just about everyday. "The -Joke" Huberman was "supposedly" brought in clean up the machine; instead the machine has broken down AGAIN. Poor money management, waste and raises to the "higher-ups" are the blame. What happened to the push to have CTA audited????... Sounds like a damn good idea to me. That would have been the first to happen if I had a cash cow that continues to cut service then consistently raise fares to save money ONLY to come back almost every two years in the past 10 to 15 years asking for money and instill threats and service cuts to the faithful riders YET ridership continues to go up….

Sounds like a problem to me. NOW law makers have to hammer out ways to help lil' ole CTA and RTA stay in business… From the rumblings I have heard, it appears that law makers will make the public pay ONCE again in the form of raising taxes…. Add that to possible hikes on gas, utility and property taxes…… EVERYTHING around us is going up EXCEPT our salaries!!!!!!!!!!!……… People are already complaining about the housing market and the rate of foreclosures…….. These additions to current conditions will NOT help matters. It will only get worse. People will start leaving Chicago and Cook County at alarming rates. All of those condos going up in the loop area will remain unsold and the local economy is going to continue to spiral downward. I once proclaimed that I am a city boy…I will NEVER leave the city; "I will be on the last train leaving" is what I once proclaimed…… But nowadays especially in thinking about my future (i.e., marriage, buying a home and raising kids) I may be recanting that statement and catching the first thing leaving………
- Michael Arnold

In the last 2 years the cost of a gallon of gasoline and/or diesel has just about doubled (ie. $3.60/gallon gas), so why shouldn't transit fares increase 0.25-0.50 cents? It's only fair, since my costs to travel has increased why shouldn't the transit users'. It's still a relative bargain considering you burn at least 1 gallon of gas each way in traffic and have to pay for parking. I mean the cost of nothing else in this world has gone down, or stayed the same, just gone up. I'm sorry but it's a fact of life. Thus, why the big deal keeping transit fares where they are? Go ahead and raise them now, and let Springfield continue to work on the compromise, and hey now you'll need less from Springfield (aka us taxpayers) when they do come to a consensus.
- JL

Why should anybody who doesn't use public transportation have to pay the way for those who do. Riding the train or a bus is not an option for me. They don't provide service between my home area and my work area. I have my own expenses to own a vehicle, insure it, service it, and put gas in it. I believe that I am already paying my fair share for transportation. Why should I have to pay one more nickel for people who don't have these expenses, but don't want to pay the cost for their ride to and from work either. They expect me to cover their costs through government programs and taxes. This is a very sore spot for me and many others in situations similar to mine.
- Kim Baldwin

Who is to blame for the mass transit crisis? The list would have to include a series of governors and legislators who have failed to recognize the crisis or do anything substantive about resolving it. I would also have to blame the public for failing to hold elected officials accountable for their collective failure to take any action. Finally, let's toss in the mass media for failing to pay any attention to the story until it reached crisis proportions. During the summer and the spring more attention was paid by the press, CBS included, over who was winning American Idol and what was Brittany doing than reporting on the mass transit problems.
- Mark Nora

Why is it that the only solution to ones problem on how to get to work focuses on the government? What happened to neighbor helping neighbor? With all the cars on the expressways certainly one must travel by someone who needs a ride to work! Keep trusting in your government to provide your every need and you'll be popping anti-depressants like they're candy when you need to get another job just pay your taxes and feed your family!
- Kevin Hacker

It's not only CTA that the budget is effecting;  it's also those of us who utilize Metra and Pace.  Personally, I drive from Plainfield to a park-n-ride in Naperville, then board a Pace bus to the Metra train station.  On Monday, the buses that serve both of the park-n-ride facilities that feed the Route 59 Metra station will be eliminated.  There are many times when these buses transport 30-40 people per run.  There is insufficient parking at both Route 59 and Naperville train stations for the number of commuters.  There is also the social aspect of the problem, I have friends on the bus and I have friends on my train and those relationships will be sacrificed because I may have to use a different train line.  In researching the Heritage Corridor and Rock Island lines which would be alternatives, I've not been able to determine a schedule that will allow me to arrive at work on time and return home in the evening.
- Jamie Jones Mikesell

I say let the CTA rot.  I am tired of hearing about their woes everytime
something happens.  Every few years we go through this.  It doesn't
matter how much money the tax-payers give them, they still cry for more
and more.  I would have to say the CTA is fast becoming a nonentity and
should just go away.  Let some new charter company come in.  The CTA has several names, Crawling Transit (no) Authority, Cheated Trashed and
Abused, Corrupt Transit Authority, and much more.
- Robert Hansen

Corrupt Chicago politicians are responsible for ALL of Illinois' problems…recall all of them.
- Philip Huff

All the local units of government (City, County, and State) could have excercised more effective oversight over the management of the CTA, but they chose not to.  That said, the most important blame attaches to state government which has allowed State support of this essential public service to lag behind operating expenses and inflation.   Lawmakers from areas other than Chicago and those suburbs immediately adjacent are happy to hold mass transit hostage to a backroom deal on gambling and big capital expenditures.  In the middle and outer suburbs, they figure that Metra service will be more expensive but otherwise little changed.   The costs will fall on the young, the old, the less able, and the poor.  Air quality, especially in the eastern half of the Metro area will deteriorate seriously.   It is about to make me a Republican.
- Michael Barnas

To begin with, all the statements in this email are in my own opinion. With that, let's get on with it. The CTA is an extremely crucial method of transportation. I live in Indiana and on the weekends I'll go with some of my friends into Chicago to go hang out at Michigan Avenue and at other areas in the city. The Red line system and the multiple bus routes are extremely helpful to get around. If it's that helpful for a non-regular HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT to use, how devastating would it be to erase some of the major routes for the regular working people who need these routes to get to work? It would literally be a Doomsday.

If the routes for the CTA were cut, I would severely doubt that my friends and I would go into Chicago nearly as much as we do, because of how hard it would be to navigate the city.

The effects of the lack of funding being sent to the CTA would affect the city's economy, not just the CTA and the six hundred workers that would be affected. People would have to find alternative methods to get to work. Pollution potentially could increase.

I believe that security needs to be boosted. As seen in the news when the lady went undercover, a lot of these scam sales are being done at the stations themselves. The security that is present needs to be more aware.
- Kasey Zhong

I'm sick of all these politics with a needed service. I am in a wheelchair and its one thing for me to travel by myself in the warmer weather, but now winter is coming. I've had trouble with bus drivers hooking me in. And now, I'm supposed to worry about there not being any affordable way to get around. What are people supposed to do when they are on a fixed income?
- Kathy Globe

I live on the far southwest side of Chicago that is soon to be crowded with a lot of people from the lines that are being eliminated. I am referring to the 62H Archer/Harlem, 55N/55th Narragansett, 55A/55th Austin, and the 165 West 65th Street. I take the 63W West 63rd Street bus and come January they will be eliminating that one as well. Why every year do we have to endure this? My bus route will so very crowded going and coming home because it is the only route that will be in service. Frank Kruesi is most of the blame for this situation back three years ago. I did a petition back in 2004 to oppose the cuts that were supposed to happen then. The cuts did not happen and now it is crunch time to get it done down in Springfield. The governor, Mayor Daley and the reps down in the Capitol need to find a solution and stick with it. I have taken the CTA since I was in high school. My route was created because of the Orange Line being opened in October 1993. How do they expect us to get there to go to work? I have worked downtown for almost 11 years and at my current job for 8 1/2 years. I as well as everyone else do not want to leave my job. My area is the first to go all the time when dealing with these service cuts. This area by Midway Airport is growing and they want to do in the bus routes here. City workers, firemen and policemen/woman have to live in the city limits of Chicago. The area bounded by 65th Street, 63rd Street, Harlem to Cicero and Archer to Cicero. Town homes and single family houses are being built across the street from me.

I hope tomorrow will be progress towards a long term solution.
- Jeannine Lascola

Don't care. They should start cutting all the upper or top management's salaries.
- Arthur Seguban

I live at Addison and Lake Shore Drive. If the proposed cuts go into effect, both on the 4th and in January, the only CTA bus servicing the entire lakefront will be the 151. How exactly they expect that to work is beyond me. I am a rider of the 135 LaSalle express which is standing room only between 7am and 8am and that will be gone on Monday if there is no funding.
- Joanne Pass

The CTA's problems are a result of 50 years of auto-centric planning policy in conjunction with the massive misallocation of tax monies on all levels toward financing auto infrastructure; and planning and zoning policies that dictate sprawl that cannot be served economically by public transportation.

As a result, the CTA must be publicly funded and therefore is subject to the authority of overlapping and often conflicting bureaucracies. This overlap and the conflicting goals is extremely wasteful.

Additionally, the City of Chicago has neglected this most crucial civic amenity and has consistently underfunded the CTA - funding has stayed level at $3MM a year since the early 80s, which really means that it has shrunk massively in terms of inflation since that time. Our city authorities are lavishing hundreds of millions of dollars on monument-building at the expense of basic services, such as the $250MM, not including cost overruns, of the ludicrous Block 37 "super" el station at State and Washington. A serviceable and attractive station for the lines connecting at this station could have been built for a third this amount of money, which is almost sufficient to build another new rail line.
- Laura Louzader

Who is to blame? Obviously the management. I don't understand why the CTA doesn't go to a Metra style of zone paying for the trains. They do it in D.C. it seems to work there. Their system is in zones and the further out you are the more you pay unless you are going to a zone close by. It only makes sense.
- Kevin Fischer

I clicked on the link to explain how the cuts affect me. So far the X3 and X4 will be shut down. That will force me to walk 6 city blocks a day to get to and from work, as the #3 bus's nearest stop my work place is Indiana and Cermak.
- Warren Ayen

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