Program Overview
Ken Davis is joined by Regional Transportation Authority Chair Kirk Dillard for a discussion about the serious fiscal shortfalls the RTA is experiencing in federal and state funding. There’s at least $20 billion in unmet capital needs just to repair or replace equipment and facilities that have exceeded their useful life, and about ten billion needed over the next decade for proper maintenance of the most heavily used equipment in day-to-day operations. Dillard says that the RTA is working with Metra to study the possibility of using expanded Metra Electric service instead of a full-scale Red line extension to 130th Street, and he’s trying to convince legislative leaders and the governor that Illinois needs to raise its gas taxes to fund mass transit. The State, he says, is a deadbeat in funding transit, because it owes the RTA more than half a billion in allocated funds that were never delivered. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).