Transit bosses resist effort to combine agencies, say they need cash instead
The leaders of the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, Pace and Regional Transportation Authority on Tuesday laid out their strongest rebuttals yet against a proposal to combine them into a single agency.
In a Tuesday hearing on a state bill that could transform Chicago metro public transportation, the transit bosses argued they are already efficient and accountable — they just need more cash to improve the frequency of trains and buses.
"The governance model is not the problem here. ... The issue is getting the funding levels to where they're supposed to be," CTA President Dorval Carter said in the first of six public hearings to be held by the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee.
Without extra tax dollars by 2026 — when federal pandemic grants run dry — Carter said the CTA may have to cut service by 30%. Carter called it a potential "draconian" cut compared with the 10% service cuts CTA implemented in 2010 during the Great Recession.
The proposal to merge agencies was kick-started by the dire finances of the area's public transit agencies. The COVID-19 pandemic decimated transit ridership nationwide. It still hasn't recovered.
Chicago-area transit agencies have warned they face a self-described "fiscal cliff" when the pandemic grants end. The agencies forecast a combined $730 million annual budget deficit as soon as 2026.
State Sen. Ram Villivalam and state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, both Chicago Democrats, introduced a bill this spring to shore up the transit agencies with $1.5 billion in yearly funding. As the bill is written, that extra money would be provided in exchange for combining the area's four transit boards — CTA, Metra, Pace and RTA — into one entity called the Metropolitan Mobility Authority.
The legislators wrote the bill based on recommendations from a state-requested report completed last year that suggested lawmakers consider new taxes and consolidate the four transit boards, which have 47 members appointed by 21 elected officials.
The transit bosses argued Tuesday that the large number of board members is a strength of the current system.
"I do not believe that combining us into one organization will make us better," Pace CEO Melinda Metzger told the Senate committee. "First of all, we all have board members who are local, who understand the local needs, and they give us a lot of info. Secondly, we're all in different service areas."
She said the needs of suburban riders are different from riders in Chicago. The separation of agencies helps each of them focus on their riders.
"To put us all under one board, the needs of the suburban areas, and far away areas, would not be met," Metzger said.
Metra CEO James Derwinski pushed back against the assumption that combining agencies would reduce overhead costs and improve efficiency.
"We may be victims of our own success," Derwinski said. "We do operate the leanest system in the country. We keep making it happen when we don't have the right resources. And because of that, certain other things don't happen. ... I don't know where the savings would be."
All of the transit bosses argued that increased funding would increase ridership.
"Build it and they will come," Metzger said.
Kirk Dillard, chair of the RTA board, said the oversight role of his agency has kept costs down.
"It's very similar to an external auditor reviewing an internal auditor's work," Dillard said. "That's another reason we have the lowest operating cost per mile. ... [T]he RTA does help hold these folks accountable."
Villivalam, who led Tuesday's hearing, said agency consolidation is not inevitable. The purpose of the hearings, he said, is to explore all options to save the transit systems and improve them.
"We may move forward on" the bill to consolidate the agencies, Villivalam said. "If there's consensus, we may say — four agencies, 21 authorities appointing 47 different people that was put in place, you know, 40 years ago — nothing could change. I don't know. The reality, though, is that that question is being asked of us by our constituents. So it's upon us to ask that and get to the root of where we go."