Editorial: Yellow Line crash is a harbinger of a CTA in crisis

Anyone glancing at a Chicago Transit Authority train map can see that practically all routes lead to the Loop, a legacy of the days when downtown office commuters were by far the most important — and predictable — riders. Now that the pandemic and work-from-home revolution have scrambled the map, the CTA needs to think big to adapt.

The transit agency unveiled its 2024 budget last month, seeking a 9.2% increase in spending. As for big, bold ideas, it’s closer to 0%, unless you think a new customer-service chatbot is going to somehow save the day. And the system always seems to be a heartbeat away from a crisis, as when a Yellow Line train struck equipment at the Howard Street Railyard last week, in an incident the National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy described Friday as “very serious.”

The major accident, involving snowplow equipment moving in the same direction on the same track as the passenger train on the former Skokie Swift line, left 38 people injured, three of them critically. Many questions remain and the NTSB is investigating.

But embattled CTA President Dorval Carter has not inspired a lot of confidence so far when it comes to speaking frankly or answering questions. And the first lawsuits regarding the crash already have been filed.

At a further briefing on Saturday, Homendy said a likely contributing factor to the crash was that the train was on a slippery track and there were systemic problems with its braking system. “The braking distance should’ve been longer,” she said. “They should have had 2,745 feet to stop that train; 2,745, not 1,780 feet. That is a design problem.”

And potentially an expensive one to fix.

That bad news comes at a moment when the CTA is especially vulnerable, thanks to the end of federal pandemic largesse.

The agency is forecasting a $50.4 million deficit in 2025, and a potentially crushing shortfall of almost $577 million in 2026. The three transit agencies, Metra, Pace and the CTA, together could be staring down a collective $730 million budget hole.

With that scale of financial disaster looming, the CTA nevertheless is still operating with a mostly business-as-usual mindset. The same people are trotting out familiar ideas. They know their trains and buses are heading straight for a fiscal cliff but so far haven’t managed to plot a new course around that mother of all funding holes just two years ahead.

Safe and efficient public transit is vital to the future of Chicago and thus we want the CTA to succeed. We also appreciate the incremental steps the CTA has taken to improve service since the depths of the pandemic, although these efforts pale in comparison to peer cities.

But let’s state the obvious: The transit authority needs a more creative strategic plan to prepare for a much different future — a future when growing fiscal pressure will force tough decisions and risk a doom loop of less service and reduced revenue.

Merge the three transit agencies to slash administrative costs and build connectivity? Partner with Uber and Lyft? Renegotiate contracts? Overhaul the fare structure? Look to better airport service, or tourist-friendly routes along the lakefront, for more revenue? Operate in far more efficient ways?

No one with the power to bring about change, it seems, is ready to deal with those and other controversial levers that could make a significant difference — apart from begging for more taxpayer bailouts, which are guaranteed to be No. 1 on the agenda of entrenched unions and management. But continuing to raid the bank accounts of productive citizens will never raise enough funding to keep the wheels turning in the same way they did in the pre-pandemic past.

How about embracing an idea for the future that can’t rescue the agency from its looming budget crunch but at least could help it plant seeds for a brighter future?

In a story earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune’s Sarah Freishtat spotlighted research from the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute, which reached the self-evident conclusion that downtown cannot depend solely on office workers anymore. It needs to be mixed-use, with amenities and open spaces that make people want to live as well as work in the urban core.

The study predictably found that “L” stations located near offices lost the most riders compared with 2019, as fewer white-collar workers commute to work five days each week. But stations surrounded by industrial uses and open space, such as parks, brought back a far higher share of riders. Stations surrounded by a variety of destinations fared better than those dominated by only housing or commercial space.

Along those lines, the transit agencies and local government can work together more aggressively to enact land use changes. The Urban Institute report urges the CTA to use its extensive, underutilized land holdings for new, high-density, mixed-use construction, in partnership with the city and state. That could bring in both ancillary revenue and new riders.

In California, for instance, state legislation has enabled San Francisco’s transit system to redevelop parking lots and vacant land at high densities even when local zoning regulations might be in conflict.

The Urban Institute also cited Chicago’s Connected Communities Ordinance, which reduces parking requirements and incentivizes affordable-housing build-outs near transit. The CTA is planning to incorporate new housing into land it acquired to help reconstruct the Red Line on the North Side.

“These approaches can generate much-needed funding for agencies through potential ridership increases and long-term ground leases,” the research report says.

Well, it’s a start.

We recognize the CTA has immediate issues that can’t be ignored: Discretionary riders won’t return to a system plagued by crime. Long delays and “ghosting” by trains and buses that never show up can drive commuters nuts. And anyone who drives in Chicago can see how many people have returned to their cars.

The agency also is struggling to hire new train operators and bus drivers, who tend to leave as fast as replacements can be trained, in no small part because they deal with abuse from passengers angry about the service problems.

What the CTA needs most isn’t just more drivers and operators with the patience of Job.

It needs to plot a realistic plan for its long-term future — starting now.

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