IF ILLINOIS has an unloved governmental stepchild, it is probably the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). To downstate legislators, it is likely to conjure up an impression of "gimmie" — a seemingly endless parade of CTA officials coming to Springfield looking for subsidies.
Even to hometown folks, the CTA is — for most -— a second best to driving one's own car. Because many feared that the CTA would dominate the new Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), most suburbs and all surrounding counties voted against RTA's creation.
But, if the CTA is a stepchild, it is an essential one, at least in the eyes of urban specialists who believe mass transit is a basic need for all big city areas and, as such systems go, the CTA is a bargain in terms of growth, jobs, business and industry.
The bare statistics tell much of the story: 2.3 million rides on an average weekday, more than 2,000 miles of bus routes, 205 miles of rail routes, 2,400 buses and 1,100 rapid transit cars. The statistic which makes the Chicago system the envy of most other areas is that, almost without exception, everybody in the CTA territory lives within three blocks of a CTA vehicle route. Another fact which usually gets lost is that the Chicago Transit Authority serves the city plus 22 suburbs (including those with city-sized populations such as Evanston, Skokie and Oak Park) and runs along the borders of 11 more suburbs serving in all four million people.
The CTA's primary business is getting people to and from their jobs. On any given weekday about 68 in every 100 CTA riders are on their way to or from work. Another 18 of every 100 riders are students, most of them of high school age, traveling at reduced CTA fares.
All battles over money are hard fought, but it is especially true over subsidies for mass transit. Whether it be Amtrak, the CTA, the RTA or a bus system in a small town, the opposition argument boils down to this: Why should I pay for a transportation system I rarely use or don't use at all? There is, of course, an answer: you and I constantly pay for government services which don't directly affect us. A non-farmer pays agricultural subsidies. A person with no children pays for schools. Many city dwellers have no cars but pay some costs for highways.
The point is that we live in a society with collective problems and we all, in one form or another, have to contribute our share. One of our more obvious collective problems is the energy shortage and the rising cost of fuel. This problem is in some ways being solved by the CTA.
By one estimate the CTA keeps 140,000 cars off the Chicago expressways in the rushhour. On a passenger per mile basis, CTA buses use only one-thirteenth as much fuel as a passenger car; the rapid transit train uses one-eighteenth. To those wanting the environmental problem solved, the CTA's lesser use of fuel means reduced air pollution.
Despite the obvious public need, mass transit has rarely been financially successful.
There are a lot of reasons for these financial problems. Before there was a CTA, Chicago had a number of separate elevated, bus and streetcar companies. Most were in bankruptcy as early as the 1920's, and public ownership was one suggested answer to the problem. World War II delayed action, but in 1945 Republican Gov. Dwight H. Green and Chicago's Democratic Mayor Edward J. Kelly successfully pushed for legislation which, two years later, produced the CTA.
The purchase price — some $100 million — for the privately owned, separate companies came from bonds sold to investors. The legislation also requires the system to charge sufficient fares to meet all costs, including money to replace equipment as it wears out, Another fiscal problem was added in the 1950's when the CTA, and many other transit companies, agreed to a cost-of-living clause in employee contracts. For a time, savings provided some balance.
By 1959, the world's largest streetcar operation was completely replaced by buses which provided greater flexibility and service and the need for one driver instead of the usual two for a streetcar. The system had started with 24,000 employees, but today's CTA work force is under 13,000.
At first the CTA met its financial obligations and after several years even paid Chicago for use of its streets. But, by 1970 this had all changed; it became clear that higher fares didn't mean more income. The fare increase reduced the number of riders to the point where less income was made than at the lower fare with more riders. Until 1970 Chicago got little outside financial help — less than $5 million a year for its deficit produced by reduced fares for students, Since 1966 the CTA has had to go almost exclusively to outside sources for funds to buy new equipment.
In 1974 almost one-third of the cost of operating the CTA came from city, state and federal sources. Now that the RTA is operating, it now meets most of the CTA's deficit. Ridership seems to have stabilized, perhaps even increasing. But, there is no end in sight to the problems of inflation adding to already high costs for manpower and equipment.
The nickel subway ride is gone forever.
February 1976/Illinois Issues/30