Cyndi Loza

The CTA will end the Yellow Line and Purple Line Express routes and increase fares to as much as $3.25 by mid-September unless there is new funding to balance its budget, CTA President Ron Huberman warned Thursday. More than 63 bus routes and 840 jobs also would be cut under the plan, which was requested by the Regional Transportation Authority in case state lawmakers don’t come through with $110 million in extra funding to plug the CTA’s budget shortfall by July 1.

The CTA’s latest doomsday threats came hours before the RTA unveiled a plan to raise $452 million a year in operating funds for the CTA, Metra and Pace with a quarter-percent sales tax hike for Cook and the collar counties, and a 0.3 percent increase in Chicago’s real estate transfer tax.

Without additional funding, the CTA will have to cut bus and rail service by 13 percent, including bus routes now offered as alternatives for North Side L tracks under construction, Huberman said.

Fare increases would range from 25 cents to $1.25 under a new tiered-pricing structure that would cost riders more during rush-hour commutes. Cash fares are now $2 per ride. Chicago Card users pay $1.75.

Under the proposal, rail fares would jump to $3.25 for rush-hour riders paying cash and $2.50 for off-peak rides. Bus fares would increase to $2.75 during peak hours and $2.25 for off-peak.

The CTA would also divert nearly $57 million in capital funds that would have been used for the renovation of buses and trains.

Huberman said all of the proposed changes would generate $97.5 million for the CTA but likely cost the agency 260,000 of its 1.6 million weekday bus and rail rides.

“None of these are ideal scenarios,” he said. “We hope we don’t have to make any of these cuts.”

Charlene Washington — a rider of the Yellow Line, which stretches between Howard and Dempster — hopes so, too. “So many people depend on getting from Skokie to downtown,” Washington said. “That is ridiculous.”

Rider Gary Solovyov, 20, called the threatened fare increase “a bluff.”

“It’s already at $2. I can’t imagine it would increase,” Solovyov said.

Roughly 2,000 and 9,000 rides are taken each weekday on the Yellow and Purple lines, respectively. The Purple Line runs from the North Shore to Howard, with express service south from Howard.

Threats of service cuts and fare hikes come from the CTA nearly every year — and sometimes the threats are hollow. But when the agency followed through in 1997 — cutting service by 10 percent to save $25 million — ridership plummeted.

This time around, the CTA is pairing its doomsday scenario with a plan to shore up the agency’s dwindling pension reserves by requiring employees to make a larger contribution toward their pension and retiree health care benefits, saving the CTA $32 million a year. But the CTA’s bus and rail unions are against the changes because they say it punishes workers for the CTA’s failures.

Before the CTA board votes on the proposed doomsday cuts, the CTA will hold a series of public meetings in June.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has said there’s no support among House Democrats for raising state sales or income taxes, but he might consider the RTA’s proposal to increase sales tax in the six-county region. “It’s only a regional tax. So there might be a different result. But I just wouldn’t know right now,” he said.

CTA doomsday plan

The CTA is threatening to make the following changes by mid-September to balance its budget:

• No more Yellow Line and Purple Line Express trains.
• Elimination of the 63 bus routes that currently do not have Sunday service.
• Rush-hour fares would increase to $2.75 for bus riders and $3.25 on the L.
• Off-peak fares would increase to $2.25 for bus and $2.50 for rail.
• The price of the 30-day pass would increase to $122, from $75.
• The cost of transfers would double from 25 cents to 50 cents.
• Nearly $57 million in capital funds would be diverted to the operating budget, delaying maintenance for buses and rail cars.
• Pay raises for non-union employees would be deferred.

Past warnings the CTA has made:

• February 1997: CTA threatens elimination of bus routes and an end to late night “owl” service on some buses and trains, including the Green, Purple and Blue lines. The cuts went into effect within 15 months.
• May 1999: CTA boss Frank Kruesi warns “we’ll have to shrink our operations” without Gov. George Ryan’s proposed transportation funding bill, which later passed.
• August 2002: CTA officials say they can’t rule out a 2003 fare hike because of the sluggish economy. The hike was avoided.
• October 2003: Kruesi announces plans for first fare hike since 1991 — boosting standard fare from $1.50 to $1.75 — to cover budget shortfall. The increase is approved a month later.
• June 2004: Mayor Daley warns of another fare hike and drastic service cuts without help from Springfield. By October, the threat widens to stopping all overnight trains and axing 30 bus routes and 1,000 jobs. The plan was shelved two months later.
• April 2005: CTA board sets a summer “doomsday” deadline to lay off 2,000 workers and cut service by 40 percent, including ending the Purple Line Express. Cuts avoided with $54 million state bailout in June.
• October 2005: Facing a budget shortfall and rising fuel costs, CTA proposes $2 fares. The hike is approved a month later.
• May 2007: New CTA boss Ron Huberman warns that without Springfield’s help, the Yellow Line and Purple Line Express trains will die and fares will be hiked to as high as $3.25 in September.