After years of contentious budget hearings about proposed service cuts, increases in the prices of unlimited ride passes and the rocky transition to the Ventra fare payment system, the looming public hearing for the CTA’s 2015 budget should be somewhat smooth sailing.
The CTA completed the switch to Ventra’s payment system in July, and there are no fare hikes or service cuts in next year’s budget. In fact, the CTA is proposing adding service on five of eight rail lines to the estimated tune of $1.5 million per year.
But North Side residents and an alderman plan to make some noise at Monday’s CTA budget hearing in the hopes of restoring a portion of the No. 11-Lincoln Avenue bus route that was cut in 2012.
“There are lots of people who are simply not able to get around any more because the No. 11 bus isn’t [fully] functioning,” said Ald. Ameya Pawar, whose 47th ward includes the portion of Lincoln Avenue that used to be served by the No. 11 bus.
Pawar said he’s heard from constituents, specifically senior citizens, who said they take more buses and trains to get around, increasing their travel time. Some residents said they drive more or take taxis to run errands while others said they have stopped patronizing businesses on Lincoln Avenue because it’s not convenient anymore.
The Lincoln bus cut was part of the CTA’s 2012 decrowding program to make buses and trains less crowded by adding service to 48 bus routes and nearly every rail line.
As a result of that additional service, about a dozen CTA bus routes saw partial or complete elimination, including the No. 11 bus.
Pawar’s office conducted a survey and found more than 80 percent of the 2,500 respondents said the cut to the No. 11 bus is leading to longer travel times as riders walk or bus to the Brown Line instead of taking the No. 11 bus to their destination.
The Lincoln bus used to travel on the North Side between Skokie and the Clinton Blue Line stop on the Near West Side.
The CTA eliminated the portion of service along Lincoln Avenue between the Western Brown Line stop in Lincoln Square and the Fullerton Red, Brown and Purple Line stop in Lincoln Park.
The No. 11-Lincoln bus still stops between Skokie and the Western stop and a new No. 37-Sedgwick bus route stops between the Fullerton and Clinton rail stops.
Ridership has decreased from 5,489 rides on a typical weekday on the original No. 11 bus to 3,152 weekday rides on the new No. 11 and No. 37 buses combined.
The elimination saves the CTA $1.4 million annually, CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase said.
The CTA has encouraged No. 11 riders to walk a few blocks to nearby stations along the Brown Line, where the CTA has added 15 weekday roundtrips in the past two years, or use one of 10 bus routes that serve the affected area. Service has been added to eight of those bus routes in the past two years, Chase said.
CTA president Forrest Claypool has said the agency does not plan to restore the No. 11 bus service.
“We have no plans to bring the service back,” Chase said recently. “We believe we have a robust amount of service in one of the most transit-rich areas of the city.”
Pawar said he met with the CTA on Friday to discuss options of bringing service back. He said he has offered TIF money, taxpayer money intended to spur development in certain areas, to pay for the service.
The CTA said TIF money can be used as capital money for station refurbishment (such as in the current Wilson Red Line and recent Morgan Green/Pink Line projects) but by law, cannot be used for operating expenses such as running a bus, Chase said.
Because the CTA is not budging on restoring No. 11 service, Pawar said he is his withholding support for a controversial CTA proposal to create a bus rapid transit line on a 16-mile stretch of Ashland Avenue, between 95th Street and Irving Park Road—which includes a stretch in Pawar’s ward.
The CTA still is determining funding for design and construction of the line, which would be built in 2016 at the earliest. The agency has received some support from riders who want faster bus service on Ashland Avenue but has also received backlash from some local businesses and residents who worry about an increase in car travel times because the CTA proposal would eliminate a car travel lane in each direction.
The CTA has proposed that the Ashland bus rapid transit line would stop every half-mile along Ashland Avenue on dedicated bus lanes, which would speed service on one of its most popular bus routes, the No. 9-Ashland bus.
The CTA said it would plan to run the local No. 9 bus to complement the bus rapid transit line to pick up riders at stops in between the bus rapid transit stops.
Pawar said he finds it “frankly, insulting” that the CTA has proposed to run dual service along Ashland Avenue but won’t offer both Lincoln Avenue bus and Brown Line service.
“At the same time, they cut the No. 11 on Lincoln Avenue because it was redundant to the Brown Line,” Pawar said. “This inconsistency in public policy is unacceptable.”
The CTA budget hearing will be held 6 p.m., Monday at CTA headquarters, 567 W. Lake St.
