Opinion: The CTA’s Bright Future
I’m an avid user of Chicago’s public transportation system. Many weekends, I’ll spend 3+ hours on the Red Line, Purple Line, and various bus lines. Despite the vast hours of my life spent riding the CTA, my time has been far from perfect. Very often, the ‘L’ trains reek of tobacco and marijuana due to people actively smoking during their ride. People struggling with homelessness and mental health issues will often use the CTA as a form of cheap, emergency housing, creating a sense of discomfort on the trains and buses for other passengers. And on top of that, the trains are commonly very delayed or completely missing—a “ghost bus”. From my experience, the CTA system feels broken and unsustainable. While the situation may be dire, I truly believe that we should still hold hope for a better future, especially with the election of Brandon Johnson as mayor of Chicago.
With overwhelming support from youth voters and communities of color, the progressive Johnson defeated the more conservative Vallas for the position of mayor of Chicago. And while Johnson has yet to take his position in City Hall, his proposed policies give me optimism for the future of Chicago. To get into more specifics, I’ll delve into one issue—public transportation—and his specific actions that he has listed on his website to make Chicago a better city.
Transit Operators
In the current state of the CTA, as I’ve discussed, many trains and buses are delayed or missing. This phenomenon of ghost buses is due to a lack of operators for the trains and buses. Put simply, we need more drivers and train operators to have a fully functional public transit system. By making clear that he will hire new operators and “pay them fairly,” Johnson is making clear how he wants to increase the number of people working for the CTA, making it operate at a higher quality. Johnson is trying to get us the transit operators that we need into the CTA system.
Accurate Schedule Information
The worst time that a ghost train impacted me was when a CTA train failed to come, and I had to wait for over 40 minutes at the train station. For a city as large and modern as Chicago, it is ridiculous for so many people to be fooled by the CTA’s own train/bus reporting and waiting for delays to be resolved. With Johnson vowing to revamp how buses and trains are reported to riders, the issue of people waiting for ghost trains/buses can be eliminated.
Transit Investment
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CTA was granted a significant amount of additional funding. This funding, however, will soon not be regranted, so the CTA is about to lose a lot of income. Johnson, however, is already preparing for this drop in funding. Johnson is promising that the budget of the CTA will be sound, not facing massive failures as it could when this funding runs out. By being aware of changes that will occur to the CTA’s budget, the shocks of these changes are likely to be mitigated.
Safety
Very often while riding the CTA, one will not feel safe. The problems of crime, homelessness, and mental health are all paramount to this lack of public safety. Johnson has put forth specific measures to restore the feeling of safety in the CTA. First, Johnson proposes to hire more staff at night; when there are more workers around you when you’re riding the CTA, you’ll feel more safe. To decrease the number of people facing homelessness using the CTA as emergency shelter, Johnson says he will work to increase affordable housing; if these people had a home, they wouldn’t need to find all their shelter with the CTA. Finally, to combat the problem of mental health issues on the CTA, Johnson is promising to increase the accessibility of mental health treatment in the city; by having these individuals struggling with mental illness in places where they can get help instead of the CTA, the CTA will benefit along with these people.
As the CTA currently stands, there are many massive problems. However, I look forward to Johnson’s administration with cautious optimism. By outlining what Johnson’s proposed solutions are to the problems facing the CTA, the possibility of Chicago’s public transit system improving in the next few years seems like a real possibility.
"Chicago CTA Trains Passing" by H. Michael Miley is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.