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What will it take to bring back the CTA?
The indispensable public transportation system has been in crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic descended on our city.
I ride the CTA daily, sometimes several times a day. Ridership has been up in recent months, and there have been some improvements, but the service remains substandard. The bus tracker is frequently inaccurate. Safety issues persist as the system is plagued by crime. One morning predawn last week, I had to duck as a group of unruly young women threatened a CTA employee, then jumped the turnstiles at a Red Line subway stop.
What are agency leaders doing about it? They could start by getting on their buses and trains. When it comes to using the system, many of the agency’s top executives are missing in action.
Eight members of the CTA’s top brass, among the agency’s highest paid officials, “used their unlimited work cards to swipe onto the system on less than 50 days each in all of 2021 and 2022,” Block Club Chicago reported on July 14. One executive never used her pass in a two-year period, according to a Block Club analysis of CTA records.
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In May, the news site revealed that the agency’s boss, President Dorval R. Carter Jr., “used his work card on 12 days” in all of 2021 and 2022, ″with only one swipe recorded in 2021.”
If you want to run a railroad, you should be on it. These fat-cat elites are far removed from the real life of public transportation. The biggies are too busy, their matters too important, to bother with the CTA. They have no clue about what it’s like to search for safety on a train car as the thieves and miscreants prey on riders. They don’t face the fear of standing in a bus shelter, alone at night, waiting for the ghost bus that never comes.
Many CTA muckety-mucks earn six-figure salaries. Many CTA passengers are working-class, essential workers who must rely on the broken system to get to their jobs.
Back in May, CTA spokesperson Brian Steele told Block Club that the agency’s log of swipes from Carter’s card is “not a full reflection” of his use of the system.
“Like a lot of CTA employees, from field personnel to executives, President Carter often does not use his card to gain entry to rail stations or board buses,” Steele said in a statement. “Some of the time, CTA employees do not tap their ID cards on the card readers, as field personnel recognize them and open gates on their behalf or let them on a bus. Or, staff enter facilities through work entrances.”
Yeah, right.
Carter has led the agency since 2015. In late 2021, as Chicago was emerging from the pandemic, the board unanimously voted to give Carter a 33% pay raise to reward him for his leadership, boosting Carter’s salary to $350,000.
At that time, CTA board Chairman Lester Barclay “touted Carter’s work before and during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
“Running a transit agency during normal times is a herculean task,” he was quoted as saying. “Doing so during a global pandemic was nothing short of remarkable.”
Now, transit advocates and elected officials are fed up. Commuters Take Action, an advocacy group led by transit riders, has repeatedly called on Carter to resign.
[ Commuter advocates: Chicago needs a CTA board that cares about holding agency leadership accountable ]
Last year, aldermen blasted Carter for failing to appear at Chicago City Council meetings. (Maybe he missed his bus.)
“If you’re running the CTA, you should be riding it,” Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, said in response to the Block Club report. “You got to understand the experience of Chicagoans who must use it every day to get to their jobs and around the city. … Setting that expectation starts at the top with the president.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson could have a lot to say in the matter. During the 2023 mayoral runoff campaign, I interviewed Johnson at an event hosted by Block Club. I asked Johnson if he would change “leadership at the top of the CTA” if elected.
Chicago Tribune Opinion
“There is a leadership problem there,” Johnson said in March. “Under my leadership, here’s what I expect: People to be compassionate, collaborative and competent. And if you can’t demonstrate those very basic fundamental traits of a leader, then we will have to look elsewhere to find that.”
Carter is still in charge.
Johnson likes to tout the fact that he rides the CTA, often from his home in the Austin community.
“Great ride on the Green Line this morning,” Johnson tweeted on July 21. “One of the many lines and routes serving people, so that people can better serve and enjoy our city. I’m committed to our commuters and transit workers, and to making public transit safe, efficient and reliable to keep Chicago moving.”
The tweet includes photos of a smiling Johnson walking through a station turnstile, flanked by several police officers.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at LauraLauraWashington@gmail.com.
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