CTA Is Fail

One of my favorite things about living in Chicago is the public transportation, and now one of my maost hated things about living in Chicago is also the public tansit system. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is a pompous monstrosity that is, simply put, a giant fail on the concept of free market/government subsidized model.

The CTA operates on no rules. None. They have schedules that are suppose to follow, but they simply pick and choose when they want to do so. On mornings when there is a -10 degree windchill, the CTA decides that it will run multiple express trains so as to maximize the potential frost bite of those stranded on platforms. Employees laugh heartily when you ask for help, then outright accuse you of lieing when you question the system. Customer Service Reps attempt to charge you when their cards and systems fade and stop working.

CTA is broke. Not in the financial sense, although they like to pretend to be every now and then to get some more money from local governments. They are broke as a service organization. Many stations are decrepit with no hope of being fixed. Buses plug along while drivers are fully aware of how poorly they have been maintained. Employees either are not trained on how to service customers or simply don't car, most likely both. There is nothing productive about what they do.

This all boils down to the pathetic nature of its structure. It's part private, part public with none of the benefits of either. If it were completely private, there would be some tangible chain for consumers to file complaints and actual punishments laid out to inept employees. If it were purely a govenment run system, we could follow proven political tactics to force change. But it's neither, and both. And it fails in all aspects.

I'd love to have the Olympics here, but the CTA would be central to that effort and they are simply horrific and would be an utter embarassment to this city.