RTA Board meets with $771M budget shortfall looming with cuts forecast for CTA, Metra, Pace
RTA officials say at least four of eight CTA trains would be reduced or eliminated next year
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Trains and buses on the chopping block.
The government agency that oversees Metra, Pace and the CTA are worried about deep cuts to public transportation.
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"We have been facing chronic underfunding for decades, so it is a scenario that is really coming to a head," RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden said.
The recently released RTA report says this fiscal cliff is not a one-time event, but rather a "death spiral" for public transit in the region.
The RTA's Board of Directors says there is still time to avoid what they are calling a disaster.
RELATED: Major service cuts on Metra, CTA, Pace possible if $771M budget shortfall not solved: RTA
The Regional Transportation Authority's Board of Directors meeting for the first time since releasing a bleak report last week detailing the potentially devastating repercussions of a looming $771 million fiscal cliff, a scenario RTA's executive director is calling unprecedented.
"We've had doomsdays in the past, but they have been much smaller in comparison, so this is across all three service boards," Redden said. "It's going to impact, CTA, Metra and Pace in very real ways that really impact not just the riders of the region, but even the people who never get on a bus or a train.
State lawmakers have until May 31, the end of the budget cycle, to find a way to fill the gaping hole.
If that doesn't happen, the report says planning for sweeping cuts to the CTA, Metra and Pace begins promptly in June.
"That's kind of the critical nature of this May deadline that we are talking about with the legislature, because Beginning in June, we have to start both our budget work for our region but also fiscally described process for planning for service cuts and fare increases," Redden said.
According to the report, if these cuts go into effect, four of the eight CTA train lines would be reduced or eliminated.
Metra would eliminate early morning and late evening trains, slashing service by 40 percent.
Pace says all suburban weekend buses would be cut.
There would also be sweeping layoffs to public transit workers if funding doesn't come through.
The consequences for countless riders dependent on public transit like Evanston resident Steve Hiatt-Leonard, a disability advocate who uses Pace Para Transit, could be devastating.
"Not funding Pace or the CTA or Metra would be a detrimental issue to not only my quality of life but the others in my community," Hiatt-Leonard said.
"Mot funding pace CTA or Metra would be determine to quality of life but others in community in both who rely on pace to get places."
In the meantime, the RTA says it's working to find ways to reduce costs to hopefully prevent cuts to service.
Now, the RTA is calling on the state to invest $1.5 billion each year in public transit to avoid the impending fiscal cliff and to improve the public transit system for millions of riders.
If the RTA goes off the fiscal cliff, the report says one in five Chicagoans will lose access to the CTA, Pace and Metra in 2026.
