New
Report Highlights Public Transportation Expansions at Stake
Chicago, IL
- A study released today by the Illinois Public Interest Research Group (Illinois
PIRG) highlights the benefits of boosting transit funding statewide, and the key
public transportation projects that could give commuters more choices as they
struggle with rising gas prices and increasing traffic congestion.
The study, entitled: Key Public
Transportation Projects and Their Benefits for Illinois, comes as Springfield lawmakers
debate a state capital plan that will determine whether public transportation
will have the resources to meet growing demand.
“The decisions made by lawmakers this week will determine the
future of public transportation,” said Brian Imus, Illinois PIRG State
Director and a co-author of the report. “There are expansion projects
that could give commuters choices and curb congestion. But that won’t
happen without a meaningful commitment from state lawmakers so Illinois can compete
with other states for limited federal new start dollars.”
“The report today underscores why Illinois needs a capital investment plan
that prioritizes public transportation,” said Senator Martin Sandoval,
Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. “Funding projects like high
speed rail and expanding transit will pay real dividends for Illinois families and generates more jobs
than other types of transportation capital investment.”
In 2006, public transportation in Illinois saved approximately 276 million
gallons of oil, saving consumers more than $723 million that would have
otherwise been spent at the pump.
“Gas price volatility and worsening traffic congestion hurt
family budgets, which are already stretched to their limits,” said Jacky
Grimshaw, Vice-President with the Center for Neighborhood Technology.
“Expanding public transportation in Illinois will give commuters choices,
relieve congestion and ultimately save people money.”
Key projects and their benefits
highlighted in the report include:
- Extending the CTA
Red Line to 130th
Street to improve public transportation in Chicago’s far
South Side neighborhoods. Improved transit could both spur job creation in
the economically disadvantaged area and relieve congestion on the
expressways that serve the region.
- Connecting Chicago’s
suburbs to each other through the Suburban Transit Access Route (STAR)
Metra Line.
- Restoring Amtrak
service in northwestern Illinois through Rockford to Dubuque,
Iowa, to reduce congestion
on I-90 and bring better transportation options to a growing area of the
state.
- Extending the Yellow
Line “L” to Old
Orchard Road to encourage transit-oriented
development in areas ripe for growth
- Creating a new train
line to serve Hyde Park, the University
of Chicago, and the
South Side on existing Metra commuter tracks to improve public transit in
a chronically underserved area.
- Building a new
Southeast Service Metra line to serve the southern suburbs from the South
Side of Chicago all the way to quickly developing Crete.
- Upgrading Pace bus
service with bus rapid transit along the Cermak Road corridor.
- With Chicago as a Midwest hub, build on the current
passenger rail system to create a fast and efficient high speed rail
network to better link Illinois
cities and reduce travel time by 50 to 70 percent.
To meet growing demand for transit and address many of the problems
facing Illinois’
transportation system, the report recommends establishing a long-term
commitment to expand public transit by investing $2 billion a year for the next
30 years.
“Illinoisans are drive more miles, spend more on gasoline,
experience more congestion, and produce more global warming pollution from
transportation than they did two decades ago,” said Imus. “A
capital plan by state lawmakers now could begin to make the investment needed
to build 21st century transportation that addresses these problems.”
Getting-on-Track.pdf