Riders for Better Transit attends CTA and Metra budget hearings

Over the last week, representatives from Active Trans' Riders for Better Transit campaign attended both the CTA and Metra public hearings about their proposed budgets for 2012.

We made sure to tell the transit agencies that our riders need fares to stay low and that we can’t face any more service cuts.

It seems like every year there’s a doomsday scenario when transit agencies are faced with the dilemma of increasing fares or cutting service, and our only option as riders is to try to adjust.

We told Metra and CTA it’s time to end this cycle.

Unfortunately, some key players were missing from the hearings—our elected officials!

To really solve the problem, we need to look at the way public transportation is funded by our elected leaders at the local, state and national level. Transit in our region has been significantly underfunded and riders are suffering today as a result.

Thanks so much to our Riders for Better Transit members who came out to the hearings with us!

Representatives from Mercy Housing, DePaul University student government, the Mikva challenge and the Natural Resources Defense Council—our partners in this effort—came to show their support and add their voices.

Check out these pictures of the CTA hearing—it was a packed house!

It’s clear that riders in Chicago care about the state of our public transportation. We need to use this energy to focus on getting results and winning more funding for transit!

Comments about the CTA budget will be accepted until tomorrow: Friday, November 11th. Metra is set to vote on their budget on November 11th. So now is your chance to get in any last comments!