Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel MTA VS CTA

[BreeddekalbL]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-takes-big-dig-nyc-subway-crisis-article-1.3298095?utm_content=buffer45b5e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

i also quoted the ny times artice for anyone who can't get behind the paywall

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/opinion/rahm-emanuel-chicago-l-mass-transit.html

 

CHICAGO — On Thursday, in the wake of a subway derailment and an epidemic of train delays, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York declared a state of emergency for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the busiest mass transit system in America. That same day, the nation’s third-busiest system — the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority — handed out coupons for free coffee to riders stuck in the second year of slowdowns caused by repairs to prevent chronic fires.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, a recent survey found that 85 percent of passengers are satisfied with service on our transit system, the nation’s second most used.

The L, Chicago’s system, turned 125 this year. The elevated railway began as four wooden cars powered by coal and steam. Last year, more than 238 million rides were taken on the system, which, unlike the ones in New York and Washington, has not been troubled by systemic failures, breakdowns and delays. Even during a 28-day stretch of arctic temperatures in 2014, the L was never interrupted.

How have we done it? First, we put reliability ahead of expansion. We focused relentlessly on modernizing tracks, signals, switches, stations and cars before extending lines to new destinations. Unlike New York, which has spent billions to reach Hudson Yards, or Washington, which has concentrated on trying to reach Dulles Airport (both laudable projects), Chicago has improved the existing system.

Today, four of our seven rail lines are being completely rebuilt. By 2019, 40 stations will be reconstructed or brand new, and half of our tracks will be new. Chicago is the largest city in North America to offer 4G wireless throughout its system, and last month we broke ground on a factory that will manufacture the most modern fleet of rail cars in the country, the first cars to be built in Chicago since the historic Pullman factory closed in 1982.

Continue reading the main story

 

When the L’s $8.5 billion modernization is complete, Chicago will be able to run about 15 more trains every hour on our busiest lines, cut 10 minutes off a trip from downtown to O’Hare Airport and have trains run as fast as 55 m.p.h.

Second, our management structure works. Chicago riders have closer contact with the person whose job it is to make the trains run on time: the mayor. In New York City, it is the governor in Albany. In Washington, it is an agency consisting of officials from the city, two states and the federal government.

While there is no one-size-fits-all model, I am confident local control is essential to Chicago’s transit success. It strengthens accountability, focuses priorities and ensures the people most directly affected by decisions have more of a voice in making those tough decisions.

But even though we’re doing our best, Chicago — like every municipal transit authority — needs federal support.

Rather than tweeting about violence in Chicago, President Trump should be looking to Chicago as a model for the infrastructure investments and economic growth he wants to replicate across the country. Instead of embarking on his wrongheaded plan to privatize infrastructure construction, he should expand existing programs that have used local-federal partnerships to build transportation systems.

Chicago has modernized its system thanks in part to the Federal Transit Administration’s Core Capacity Improvement Program, which funds upgrades to existing corridors that are at or over capacity today, or will be in five years. Congress should double funding for the program to allow America’s busiest mass transit systems to meet rising demand. It should also expand the low-interest federal infrastructure loans that have helped Chicago to rebuild rail lines and airports, and to create the downtown Riverwalk.

And Washington should increase the portion of the Highway Trust Fund that supports mass transit to 25 percent, while also raising the gas tax by 10 cents. Yes, Americans would pay more at the pump, but it is a smarter alternative than the Trump administration’s privatization plan, under which we will all pay more in tolls and fees to the private investors who would own our roads and bridges.

Finally, local governments should look to innovative financing mechanisms like special taxing districts, known as TIFs — an idea Chicago borrowed from New York — to use growth in property taxes to finance transit improvements. Today we are using TIFs to match federal resources and modernize Chicago’s busiest rail lines.

Cities with reliable, modern mass transit are more economically competitive, have higher productivity, fewer carbon emissions and a better quality of life. And as we have seen in Chicago, mass transit not only connects people to opportunities, it also fuels growth. Modernizing our existing mass transit is one reason Chicago’s economy has expanded faster than the economies of New York and Washington, and faster than the national average for the last five years.

When Chicago’s elevated train first soared above the streets and between the skyscrapers 125 years ago, it captured the imagination of Americans and visitors from around the world who rode its wooden cars to the 1893 World’s Fair. It’s a lesson for us all: The only way to keep a city moving is to invest in its future.

 

his part about the rail car factory lol it's the chinese trains, HOY RAHM when your chinese trains break what you gonna say 2.2/5.

[RES2773]

I feel so blind. I have not even thought about how transit in Chicago is doing. They seemed to have figured it out.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[P3F]

Chicago:

• Tore down parts of an el, with no replacement (despite a new station being halfway through construction on the demolished part).
•  
• Took 24/7 service away from all lines except for two, with no plans to reinstate night service on the lines which lost it.
•  
• Runs the bare minimum of service in many areas, especially seen at the southern end of the Green Line and on the express portion of the Purple Line.
•  
• Charges an extra fare for passengers travelling from O'Hare Airport, and does not even provide 24/7 service to Midway Airport.

While there are some silver linings (such as the extension of the Red Line and the el rebuilds), I would much rather have the despite all its faults, than the CTA.

[Union Tpke]

Are you referring to what is now the Green Line to Ashland/63rd on the first point?

[P3F]

Are you referring to what is now the Green Line to Ashland/63rd on the first point?

I am referring to the Cottage Grove branch of the Green Line.

[B35 via Church]

Mayor Rahm there should be far more concerned about the fiscal situation his state is in.....

[Brooklyn]

I think the point is being missed here....

 

How were they able to get those billions and use those billions to upgrade its system so quickly while we haven't? This is question and the issue.

 

Well, they got many of those billions through the Federal Transit Administration’s Core Capacity Improvement Program,

 

Part of it is HOW we're using existing money too (as Emmanuel said, improvement of existing system rather than expansion). Part of it is the structure of the MTA--he thinks local control breeds more accountability.

 

Rather than it being a shot a NYC, it's more of a shot at the federal government and the president. Emmanuel writes: "Instead of embarking on his wrongheaded plan to privatize infrastructure construction, he should expand existing programs that have used local-federal partnerships to build transportation systems".

 

He also says the Feds should raise the gas tax by 10 cents and increase the Highway Trust Fund support of public transportation to 25%.

He wants low cost infrastructure loans from the feds as well as them increasing the Capacity Improvement Program.

 

Don't see how his op-ed could be interpreted as a shot against NYC....

______________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Is there a way we can get some of this Fed money? Or have we already?

 

Or maybe there's not enough money to go around, hence his call for the gas tax to be raised?

 

Do you think local control of the MTA would help get more results than state control? If more federal money were to be secured, would a local MTA handle it better than a state MTA? DO you think the 7 train extension was more important than using that money for improving the rest of the system? Or even the Q train extension?

 

This is a good place to start discussion.

[46Dover]

Mayor Rahm there should be far more concerned about the fiscal situation his state is in.....

And about the killings giving his city the nickname "Chi-raq"

[bobtehpanda]

I think the point is being missed here....

 

How were they able to get those billions and use those billions to upgrade its system so quickly while we haven't? This is question and the issue.

 

Well, they got many of those billions through the Federal Transit Administration’s Core Capacity Improvement Program,

 

Part of it is HOW we're using existing money too (as Emmanuel said, improvement of existing system rather than expansion). Part of it is the structure of the MTA--he thinks local control breeds more accountability.

 

Rather than it being a shot a NYC, it's more of a shot at the federal government and the president. Emmanuel writes: "Instead of embarking on his wrongheaded plan to privatize infrastructure construction, he should expand existing programs that have used local-federal partnerships to build transportation systems".

 

He also says the Feds should raise the gas tax by 10 cents and increase the Highway Trust Fund support of public transportation to 25%.

He wants low cost infrastructure loans from the feds as well as them increasing the Capacity Improvement Program.

 

Don't see how his op-ed could be interpreted as a shot against NYC....

______________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Is there a way we can get some of this Fed money? Or have we already?

 

Or maybe there's not enough money to go around, hence his call for the gas tax to be raised?

 

Do you think local control of the MTA would help get more results than state control? If more federal money were to be secured, would a local MTA handle it better than a state MTA? DO you think the 7 train extension was more important than using that money for improving the rest of the system? Or even the Q train extension?

 

This is a good place to start discussion.

 

Literally the only person phrasing it as us vs them is the OP. The NYTimes piece is much more measured.

 

New Yorkers are known for two things: complaining about New York and saying it's better than any other place in the world.

 

Local control would work, but it has to be decentralized local control; think county executives, boro presidents, and mayors as board members instead of State approved 'recommendations' from the counties. The MTA's chronic issue is that it depends on one person who may not give a shit about it; this was also a problem under City control. Chicago is a little different if only because Chicago has had much more stable control, first by the Daleys and then Rahm, all people who weren't downright malignant towards transit, whereas the current governor fancies himself as a 'car guy' and the Governor's house post-Spitzer was a revolving door.

[Brooklyn]

Literally the only person phrasing it as us vs them is the OP. The NYTimes piece is much more measured.

 

New Yorkers are known for two things: complaining about New York and saying it's better than any other place in the world.

 

Local control would work, but it has to be decentralized local control; think county executives, boro presidents, and mayors as board members instead of State approved 'recommendations' from the counties. The MTA's chronic issue is that it depends on one person who may not give a shit about it; this was also a problem under City control. Chicago is a little different if only because Chicago has had much more stable control, first by the Daleys and then Rahm, all people who weren't downright malignant towards transit, whereas the current governor fancies himself as a 'car guy' and the Governor's house post-Spitzer was a revolving door.

 

I was just trying to direct the discussion as to what Emmanuel actually said rather than have the discussion devolve into barbs, as you already noted :wink:

 

That's a fair and intelligent critique of Emmanuel--local control has only worked because local control has been stable where HE is. Who has control shouldn't matter as long as it's stable and partial to transit, right? I can't fault that assessment.

 

Another critique I can make is that it might take some expansion in order to improve the system as a whole. The Chicago train system doesn't have the same history as the NYC system where you had competing companies trying to one up each other and the routing reflects that.

 

For instance, I can't imagine how say a short one stop extension of the D in the Bronx to White Plains Road won't positively affect the 2 and 5 trains. I can't see how completion of a full Second Avenue subway won't positively affect the performance of the Lexington Avenue line. Maybe connect that line to Fulton st in Brooklyn, having the C train go express, you are doing a LOT to take pressure off the A and C.

 

So expansion (intelligently done) can improve capacity and other things (reliability, etc).

 

Maybe you can argue for a more robust federal program that allows for system expansion....