**UPDATE: The CTA has scheduled a hearing on the proposed elimination of the No. 200 and the No. N201. The meeting will be held July 23 at 6 p.m., at the Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Avenue in Evanston.
Written comments may be submitted up to July 28 via e-mail or by writing to the Chicago Transit Authority.
What if your bus line was eliminated? Consider this: The CTA is mulling elimination of the No. 200-Main Shuttle, which travels along Main Street in Evanston to Skokie during rush hours.
The bus route has been logging fewer than 100 rides per day since January, when Rand McNally moved its headquarters to a different Skokie location, according to the CTA. The CTA plans to hold a hearing about the bus route this summer.
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What would you say to save your bus?
Despite low ridership, the No. 200 is a "much-needed bus," said Robert
Lewis, a Purple Line customer assistant who works at the Main Street
Station, which connects to the No. 200.
"People really depend on that 200 bus," said Lewis, who added he does not speak on behalf of the CTA. "I think it would affect a lot of people."
More bus cuts may be on the way--and not because of low ridership. The CTA is facing a $35 million budget shortfall and is "reviewing all options to fill the budget deficit," spokeswoman Sheila Gregory told RedEye. Specific service changes have yet to be announced.
In the meantime, we asked RedEye's Twitter followers this question: If the CTA chose to cut service, what would you say to try to convince CTA chief Rich Rodriguez to keep it going? Here are some of the replies.
@salkken cta cuts usually come down without regard to passenger protests. One question: can we have our .25% cta tax surcharge back?
@TerezBaskin If you want a riot in the streets? Go right ahead. The
N side and S side will finally unite just to tear this place apart.
@BlackCanseco CTA's been cuttin service 2 south/west sides for yrs... now that more "mainstream" folks are hurting it's an issue? ha!
@iaman Bus service is bad enough already, if it gets any worse I don't know many who'll keep using it.
@Nic2thaizzole c'mon Rodriguez, you know us Latino folk need our CTA!!
@alissas I would just ask: Would you like even MORE cars on the road during rush hour? And how do you plan to magically create the necessary parking?
@jrrtubbs To me, its common sense. "Cut the number of routes if you must, but rework and expand other routes to cover for it."
"People really depend on that 200 bus," said Lewis, who added he does not speak on behalf of the CTA. "I think it would affect a lot of people."
More bus cuts may be on the way--and not because of low ridership. The CTA is facing a $35 million budget shortfall and is "reviewing all options to fill the budget deficit," spokeswoman Sheila Gregory told RedEye. Specific service changes have yet to be announced.
In the meantime, we asked RedEye's Twitter followers this question: If the CTA chose to cut service, what would you say to try to convince CTA chief Rich Rodriguez to keep it going? Here are some of the replies.
@salkken cta cuts usually come down without regard to passenger protests. One question: can we have our .25% cta tax surcharge back?
@TerezBaskin If you want a riot in the streets? Go right ahead. The
N side and S side will finally unite just to tear this place apart.
@BlackCanseco CTA's been cuttin service 2 south/west sides for yrs... now that more "mainstream" folks are hurting it's an issue? ha!
@iaman Bus service is bad enough already, if it gets any worse I don't know many who'll keep using it.
@Nic2thaizzole c'mon Rodriguez, you know us Latino folk need our CTA!!
@alissas I would just ask: Would you like even MORE cars on the road during rush hour? And how do you plan to magically create the necessary parking?
@jrrtubbs To me, its common sense. "Cut the number of routes if you must, but rework and expand other routes to cover for it."
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5 Comments
Mary said:
I live very close to Rand McNally and didn't even realize there was a #200 bus going to the Main Street station during rush hour. Maybe advertising would help keep the route alive.
Tracy Swartz said:
Thanks for the comment Mary. The CTA hasn't set a hearing date yet for the No. 200 bus but I'll let you know when they do.
20fie18 said:
Tracy - In the case of bus lines - is it really necessary (from an ADA perspective) to have bus stops every 1/8th of a mile vs every 1/4th of a mile? Fewer stops means faster runs on the busses and potentially CTA could trim the number of busses running each day for each line. Second idea is to force the CTA to be transparent and show the public the usage data for all of their bus and train lines by station by day of week and by time. This is data that I hope they are collecting at the farebox or touchpoint in trains and busses. With the usage data, they'll at least know which stops are more used and which ones aren't. The point is that perhaps we have too many stops on the bus lines and by trimming them you could route the busses elsewhere. This is a zero cost option.
I think the head of the CTA needs to lead the organization out of the mindset that public transit plays second banana to private cars and taxis and instead of treating ownership of a car as a 'right', it should be a privilege. This means raise the fees on the City Sticker to fund more transit; raise the per-trip fares to encourage the use of monthly passes. Reduce the fare on a monthly pass - even give people an option to by 6 months at a time at a discount. The point here is that in transit, use of automation should be promoted. The CTA has come a long way but it can and must do more.
Other countries have had the luxury of building their transit infrastructure first and then taxing car owners later - we are a bit backwards but that can change. CTA has bonded with i-Go rental car system. That is something worth expanding.
So in the end, to save service, look within and see what can be done with what we already have out there and use the usage information that the systems in place already collected to make smarter decisions. Presenting that data to the public - even those customers that are impacted by the loss of "their" bus line will understand why the change had to be made.
Tracy Swartz said:
@20fie18 Good points. Have you taken the CTA transit survey yet?
CTA president Rich Rodriguez has said he's always looking for ideas, and there are a couple of places in the survey where respondents can share their views on funding and improvements.
Survey's at www.transitchicago.com and it's available through July 10.
20fie18 said:
Tracy,
Thanks. I did miss the deadline. I'm sure Rich has all of these ideas already previously presented to him. Now that 35M has been 'found' perhaps the pressure is a little off on the service cuts. I am a bit concerned over the news today about continued purchase of subway cars with more seats vs the maxi cars. To me the CTA should look at a seating configuration of a single bench running lengthwise along each side of the car (look at NYCity subway). It offers more room for the crowds as well as people with luggage. The entire thing seems a bit shortsighted even if riders don't want to change - face it people are very slow to change anyway so one has to lead us in the right direction for the sake of a better transit future. People were upset when tokens went away.
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