city council statement Dec 7, 2006

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Date:
Thu, 7 Dec 2006 12:55:17 -0800 (PST)
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[CHICAGOTRANSIT] Fwd: Here is your testimony


FOR SERIOUS STUDENTS OF CHICAGO TRANSIT
Chicago City Council Hearing December 7, 2006
For serious students of the Chicago transit situation, let me suggest these materials:
1. The resume’ some fifteen years ago of Stephen Schlickman, current RTA executive director and apparent architect of the MovingBeyondCongest ion project to expand transit funding. Among other things, it takes credit for securing funding for the southwest transit line. At the time Schlickman was executive director of the Central Area Circulator, the since canceled downtown trolley project.
2. The 1980 Southwest Transit Study, Phase I Report, Preliminary Alternatives Analysis, which rejected light rail at some length, ppIV-59 to IV-75, largely because of street congestion and costs comparable to heavy rail for similar capacity. It also rejected an approach to the Loop Elevated along the Rock Island commuter line, objecting to transit lines both east and west of Dearborn Park, which had barely turned a spade of dirt at the time. It twice said all traffic would be consolidated on the existing elevated structure, pp IV-37, 38. That was the same elevated line that had to be closed for several days in October 2006 because of a fire.
3. The 1995 Final Environmental Impact Statement for the $775 million trolley system, the "preferred alternative" to a $100 million busway. The project was to improve travel time from commuter stations to downtown points, as great as from distant suburbs to the commuter stations. But both projects took close to 20 minutes from the stations to N. Michigan, not much improvement over existing buses.
The only transportation advantage of the trolley was a claimed capacity of 11,200 per hour over 7,500 for the bus. (Roughly the Howard line’s peak load over the Ravenswood’s) To achieve this over 10 route miles and 19 track miles, the system would have 39 articulated cars (more or less equivalent to a CTA married pair) operating in 19 two car trains (or four CTA cars) on a two minute headway.
Let’s see. 19 trains on 19 track miles, a mile apart, operating on two minute headways. How fast do they have to go? A mile in two minutes? 30 mph?
The Dan Ryan averages 24 mph in the middle of the expressway with stations about a mile apart. Some Metra expresses do about 35 mph to outer boonies. At more normal trolley speeds in heavy traffic, two minute headways would require a fleet four or five times as big.
4. The talk on congestion pricing for highways, given at the Chicago logistics conference Nov. 21 by Jack Wells, senior economist for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Congestion pricing is charging for use of highways in peak periods. Among other things, it does cut congestion and resulting pollution, increases highway capacity, and produces additional revenue. I said this was a far more workable solution than spending billions on obsolete transportation technology, being sold to cut highway congestion. In the audience, at least for the beginning of the talk, was none other than Stephen Schlickman.
5. My CTA budget statement last month. An operating shortfall of $110 million ought to come out of rush hour service, not the off-peak. If the downtown interests do not think it is worthwhile to make up the difference, who should? Since then it has occurred to me that CTA is budgeting funds not yet appropriated by the legislature and violating the appropriation power.
$8 billion to get the rapid transit in good shape is like $80,000 to repair the old jalopy. Let’s look at something new, say, a monorail that can do a lot more for a lot less.
And 6. www.MovingBeyondCon gestion.com, their website, as contrasted to my blog,
http://beyondconges tionbetweenears. blogspot. com/
Also, on a similar transportation campaign in Virginia, Chapter 9, "You Get Taxed, They Get Rich: Why Big Business Loves High Taxes," of Timothy Carney, The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money.
William F. Wendt, Jr.