Budget Cuts for Public Transportation

CTA President Richard Rodriguez said that longer waits for buses may be coming due to a new $35 million budget shortfall , but he couldn't yet say exactly what service would be affected.

"Everything is on the table," Rodriguez said after speaking at the City Club of Chicago. "I can't necessarily stand here and say specific routes are going to be eliminated or weekend service is going to be eliminated or any of that."

He said one possibility is that instead of having five-to-seven minute headways between buses on some routes, it could be 10 to 15 minutes.

Rodriguez said he is first trying to see what can be cut internally "without sacrificing quality."

"We have to look at who's going to be impacted, who's more transit dependent . . . and where we can afford to reduce service and not necessarily eliminate service," Rodriguez said.

The shortfall, caused by a fall in both sales tax and real estate transfer tax revenues, is on top of an already announced $155 million reduction in the CTA budget.

Metra will suffer a $19 million hit, while Pace would lose $7 million.

Also speaking after the City Club lunch Wednesday, RTA executive director Stephen Schlickman said that any service cuts would have to go through a public comment period first, and so would not likely take effect until later in the summer or early in the fall.

A Metra spokeswoman said the shortfall would not cause service cuts or fare increases.