Chicago's RTA - Two reports

Chicago IL - Two news stories on the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) which oversees the transportation services in Chicago and the Suburban Chicago area literally contradict each other.

The first report is from the Chicago Tribune tells of an audit that shows what a disaster the RTA really is. The second report is from the Chicago Business site tells us that the Chicago Transit Authority, PACE and Metra needs to concede power to the RTA if it wants the money it needs to operate.

First off, the RTA is what I call an "umbrella agency" which does little beside skim off much needed money from the actual transit system. It is basically extra administrative layers of red tape that needs to be waded through to get anything accomplished. This red tape ends up wasting money in the long term and public transit can't afford to be wasting money on mega-administration agencies that do nothing to put service on the street.

In theory, such agencies are to handle paperwork for funding and expenditures but in reality, they produce rules, policies and dictates which do nothing but create more ways to waste precious operating money and skim off of any funding they do receive on behalf of the transit systems that they are over.

The audit which is reported on by the Chicago Tribune tells of wasteful practices, poor leadership and screwed up priorities at the RTA but State Representative Julie Hamos (D) wants to give this screwed up umbrella agency even more power according to the Chicago Business report. This doesn't surprise me when a Democrat wants to give more power to a screwed up bureaucratic agency as the two go hand in hand since Democrats think government is the answer to all the problems.

The RTA has literally created a situation where the CTA, PACE and Metra fight over everything. Instead of working together, the RTA has inserted wedges between the groups. Again, this doesn't surprise me at all since the RTA is strictly a bureaucratic red tape machine.

The Chicago area would do better to disband the RTA and let the CTA, PACE and Metra do their own thing. They will work together if given the opportunity but the RTA doesn't create the political environment to let them work together. To give the RTA even more power will only serve to make things worse for public transit in the Chicago area.

What is happening at the RTA in Chicago should be a warning sign for other cities that are planning on creating a regional transit authority which will act as an umbrella agency over the existing transit systems. These umbrella agencies create waste and ultimately become corrupt, ineffective and too powerful as time goes on.