Merging Chicago area transit agencies could be just the ticket for riders

This editorial board has long believed the day of four separate agencies being in charge of the region's mass transit system has passed.

And now more than half of likely voters in Chicago and Cook County say they believe it, too, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Funded by the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition and conducted by the Global Strategy Group, the poll shows 54% of Chicagoans want to see the Regional Transit Authority, the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace merged into a single transit agency, while 27% are against such a move.

In the Cook County suburbs, 53% support a merger, and 19% oppose it.

The people are speaking. State lawmakers and the transit agencies themselves would do well to listen.

Something's got to give with public transit, which is facing a $730 million "fiscal cliff" next year when federal pandemic relief money dries up.

A way to ‘transform transit’

The results of the poll, which was conducted last month, found support among city and suburban elected officials who have been backing a proposal in the General Assembly, called the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act, which would replace the four transit boards with a single entity.

State Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, said a merger could halt the inefficiencies she saw as an RTA board member.

"What I was struck by when I was on that board was the lack of control that the RTA had over the region," she said. "There wasn’t a way for the RTA to require the three service agencies to work together. You either passed their budgets or you didn’t."

State Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, a Chicago Democrat who is the chief House sponsor of the bill, said the "first step in transforming transit is unifying these transit agencies."

Support among the 600 respondents rose to 72% when they were told a Civic Federation analysis estimated the merger could eliminate up to $250 million in overlapping administrative costs.

But is that number real? RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden pushed back against the $250 million figure. She told the Sun-Times, "We do not believe and have never seen data to support" that.

Along with the merger, the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act would provide $1.5 billion in state funding, and lawmakers are right to want consolidation and streamlining in exchange for that funding.

Without an infusion of cash from the General Assembly next year, transit agencies would likely cut service by up to 40% and substantially hike fares, according to the RTA.

Job 1: Serving the public

The RTA, CTA, Metra and Pace oppose the proposed merger, arguing the agencies are hampered by a funding model in which the state provides only 17% of the cash needed for their budgets. State governments in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts provide 40% to 50% of transit funding.

"So why all the fixation on governance?" CTA President Dorval Carter, Jr., asked the City Club of Chicago last month. "It’s an easy pill to swallow, and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper."

Perhaps. But the transit systems as they currently exist aren't fully serving the public, and that must change. Take Carter's CTA, which has had rampant complaints of "ghost" buses, less-than-dependable train service and chronic problems with cleanliness and safety.

And while this board supports the $5.3 billion CTA Red Line Extension that's slated to begin construction next year, we can't help but wonder if a consolidated transit agency could have at least investigated whether beefing up service and stations along the nearby Metra Electric line could have been a less expensive alternative that would still provide Far South Side residents with more service.

The CTA on Friday goes before the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning with a new budget for the Red Line project that includes a federally mandated contingency fund. That fund, if used, would push the extension's price tag to $5.75 billion — or $1.4 billion per stop.

Would merging the agencies automatically improve the region's transit service? If history has taught us anything, it's there are no guarantees when it comes to government in Cook County.

But there's no question a four-headed system with a combined total of 47 board members, separate fare collection systems — and competing against each other for transit funding — is no way to run a railroad.

Or a public transit system.

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