A citizens group that promotes greater environmental awareness in transportation met Thursday to discuss the state of public transit in Evanston, just 10 days after the Chicago Transit Authority board voted to increase its base fare by 25 cents, to $1.75, starting Jan. 1.
CTA’s first fare increase since 1991 will help close a budget deficit of more than $30 million, said Sheila Gregory, the CTA’s General Manager for Public Affairs, in an e-mail to The Daily. Gregory said the deficit was the result of the weak economy, which reduced sales tax revenue and prompted a drop in CTA ridership after five consecutive years of growth.
Discussion of the increase was not part of Evanston’s Transportation Future’s prepared agenda Thursday, but some members expressed concern that the change could have a negative impact on CTA ridership.
“In any business, when business is slow, when you raise the rates, business gets slower,” resident Charles Bartling told The Daily before the meeting. “It accelerates a downward spiral.”
Resident Richard Martin, the meeting’s moderator, also expressed concern that altering the CTA’s fares could hamper efforts to integrate the CTA and the Pace suburban bus system.
Under the plan approved last week, the prices of daily, weekly and monthly CTA passes will remain unchanged, according to a CTA press release. The cost of transfers will decrease by a nickel, to 25 cents.
The Chicago Transit Board also voted to eliminate the 10 percent bonus riders currently receive when they put $10 on their transit cards. The bonus will remain available only until CTA launches its new Chicago Card Plus program early next year. At that point the bonus will be available only to riders using the CTA’s Chicago Card or Chicago Card Plus.
At Thursday’s meeting group members also expressed support for Northwestern joining the CTA’s U-Pass program, which allows students at participating universities to have unlimited rides on CTA trains and buses for a fixed fee. The fee would be incorporated into NU’s student activity fee.
In the past NU administrators have said they do not think undergraduate students would use the service enough to justify the cost, but Bartling said he believed demand would grow if the program were adopted.
“If they had it, they would use it,” Bartling said.
In other business, the group heard reports from city, CTA and Pace representatives regarding various ongoing projects.
Pace representative Adam Eichenberger discussed the North Shore Study, a ridership survey the suburban bus system is conducting. Several group members said they were concern that local residents need to have greater input into such issues as who will be selected to participate in the study’s focus groups.
Donna Stuckert, an Evanston public information officer, presented a summary of citizen reactions the city has received to recent experimental changes to CTA bus routes in Evanston.
One major point of concern was the realignment of the 201 bus route, which no longer travels along Chicago Avenue in south Evanston. Resident Debbie Hillman said the change hampers the mobility of elderly residents in the area who relied on the route.
CTA representative John Paquet said ridership on that segment of the route was too low to justify maintaining the route as it was, and noted that the area is still served by the CTA’s Purple Line trains and the 205 bus route. Private shuttles run by retirement homes also serve the area.
The group set Jan. 8 as the tentative date for its next meeting, subject to space availability at the Evanston Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave.
