Your Turn

If Chicago politicians and some Chicago area special interests get their way because Gov. Jim Edgar does not intercede, taxpayers in every county of the state will be forced to foot the bill for a silly, expensive, money-losing trolley car project that will run a deficit of millions of dollars each year.

Federal and state tax dollars would each fund one-third of the so-called Chicago Central Area Circulator, a money loser the private sector would not consider touching. It would be financed largely by those who do not live in Chicago and would never use this expensive little toy in their entire lives. The remaining third would be absorbed by property owners unlucky enough to have their property in a special downtown taxing district, paying a special property tax of 12 cents per square foot.

On November 9, 1947, the Chicago Tribune's Clayton Kirkpatrick wrote an editorial opinion on page one ("Buses Superior to Street Cars; This Tells Why") explaining why the Chicago Transit Authority was spending $150 million to substitute buses for 3,000 street cars and abandon 700 miles of track by 1957.

Kirkpatrick stated that three of the city's top authorities on traffic movements considered street cars "a dangerous impediment to traffic — an impediment that may be eliminated by substitution of motor or trolley buses."

One of the three experts, George W. Barton, was quoted as saying, "The principal objection to the street car is that it is an obstacle in the middle of the street where it is desirable to have traffic move and move rapidly. The bus, on the other hand, operates next to the curb and leaves outer traffic lanes open for uninterrupted traffic flow."

Now, almost 50 years later, politicians and special interest groups are falling over themselves to saddle downstate and suburban taxpayers with of all things, a street car project — a billion dollar boondoggle featuring nineteenth-century technology — and the firm George Barton co-founded, Barton-Aschmann Associates, is recommending this trolley project as the "preferred alternative."

The street car route would begin its pointless journey at McCormick Place, wind its way through the Chicago downtown area, and terminate at the beautiful people's playground of North Michigan Avenue.

If ever there was an expensive project taxpayers didn't need, this is the one.

This is not a viable project, which is why no private firm would sink its own capital into this project. Once the billion dollars (including bond interest) is poured into the project, that money is gone forever. It will not be recouped. If private funds were used to finance this useless project, I would have no objection, but, as usual, it is taxpayers who would be stuck with the bill for a project unacceptable to the private sector.

Annual operating and maintenance costs are estimated to be $8.5 million (compared with $4.4 million that new buses would require). The added annual operating deficit would start at $1.6 million and would also be subsidized by taxpayers.

Assuming this project were even necessary, there are sane alternatives to this trolley-folly that would substantially lower the cost of the project:

• Buses would cost only one-sixth that of the Circulator, and travel times would be approximately the same;

•A high-speed, state of the art monorail system would cost $10 million a mile, compared with the $77 million a mile for this nineteenth-century trolley system.

The Chicago trolley would take taxpayers for a very expensive ride, and the land speculators, financial institutions and politically connected contractors reaping windfall profits would be collecting the fares.

Edgar should publicly oppose this shameless assault on taxpayers' pocket- books and work to defeat the state portion of the funding intended for construction. If the governor will oppose state funding, this trolley project will be transported into the oblivion it so richly deserves. 

Jim Tobin is president of National Taxpayers United of Illinois, an organization with more than 10,000 members and affiliations with more than 300 local taxpayer groups and homeowner associations.

Next month in Illinois Issues

Special election issue:

Edgar vs. Netsch Ryan vs.Quinn

And other races statewide, in House and Senate districts, and in Illinois congressional districts. 

10/September 1994/Illinois Issues