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More Stress For Chicago !!!!!
By Jasmin Mitchell
Recently Forbes named my hometown, Chicago, America's most stressful city. This ranking was based on our high unemployment rate (7.3), high gas prices, poor air quality and high population. I would also like to mention our sales tax of 10.25% which is now the highest in the nation. Plus both of our baseball teams (Cubs, White Sox) just missed the chance to play the World Series. Now, to make matters worse, we have just got word that our public transit system (CTA) is proposing to raise fares and cut services. Currently CTA riders pay between $1.75 and $ 2.00 to ride buses and trains.There are also discounts those in military, disabled people, and seniors get to ride for free. Here is the basic breakdown of fares for the CTA from their website: Full Fares The full fare (bus and rail) is determined by the type of payment you use: Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus: Full fare is $1.75; transfer for 25 cents. Transfers allow two additional rides within two hours after the first boarding. Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus offer lower fares, quicker boarding, protected fares and a guaranteed bonus. Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus customers get a $2.00 bonus for each $20 of value added. Transit Card: $1.75 on buses; $2.00 at rail stations; transfer for 25 cents. Transfers allow two additional rides within two hours after the first boarding. Cash: $2 per ride on bus and rail; exact fare only; no change returned. No transfers issued when paying with cash. The Reduced Fare (bus and rail) is determined by the type of payment you use: Cash Reduced Fare: $1 per ride on bus; 85 cents on rail*, exact fare only. No transfers issued when paying with cash. *Cash not accepted at rail station turnstiles. See rail station Customer Assistant and add 85 cents value at the fare vending machine. Reduced fare Transit Card: 85 cents on buses and at rail stations. Transfer for 15 cents. Transfers allow two additional rides within two hours after the first boarding. Now, the CTA plans to increase fares to $2.00-$2.25. Basically that is a quarter increase which does not seem like much but it really adds up. Therefore, if you need to take a bus and a train to work the cost will be between $4.50-$5.00 a day. That's over $20 dollars a week depending on how many rides one needs. people-and many people can barely afford the current fares. Plus they are eliminating some of the bonuses for it's special fare cards (www.chicago-card.com). That means there is no real benefit for having this Chicago Card except for being able to add money to the card online. Also, the Chicago Card works by a touch system- a system which cost millions of dollars to implement. Was that money wasted? maybe so because many people might not use that card anymore since there are no more bonuses. Who knows? All I know is I keep seeing the fares go up and the quality of service stay the same or worsen. In fact, If the quality were a little better, I would not mind paying a little more to ride. However, CTA says it cannot improve unless it gets money from state. CTA also faults our Governor Rod Blagojevich with making matters worse by allowing senior citizens to ride CTA for free which has cost millions http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cta-cuts-web-sep09,0,7790861.story Now, I am not exactly sure who is to blame. Whether it is the state's fault for not intervening or whether the CTA has mismanaged funds over the years. It is probably a little bit of both and now both have to come together to agree on a solution-because raising fares a quarter probably is not the solution. If raising fares has not worked in the last 10 years, how can it work now? Basically, I see a lot more walking, carpooling, and biking in Chicago's future. Although CTA is the still the cheapest and most convenient (but not so efficient) ticket in town, many people are fed up with it. We are tired of paying more for less. By the way, CTA has just launched a new website (ctagifts.com) that sells all types of stuff that most people I know don't want. We already ante up to get on a train or bus that is dirty, crowded, slow, has no security (buses have surveillance, train cars do not)- I do not think we're gonna be buying any CTA gear soon. Also check out http://weblogs.redeyechicago.com/ctablog/ to hear stories and see pics from riders.
This intel first appeared on: http://hubpages.com/hub/More-Stress-For-Chicago-Public-Transit-Riders
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cta-cuts-web-sep09,0,7790861.story
| http://weblogs.redeyechicago.com/ctablog/
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