CTA looks to address hiring, spending on security in 2023 budget proposal

The CTA is planning no changes to base fares or pass prices in 2023, as ridership remains below pre-pandemic levels and the agency continues to rely on federal pandemic relief money.

The transit agency’s 2023 budget proposal also focuses on hiring and retention efforts and boosts funding for security contractors amid persistent service and safety concerns.

The CTA unveiled its $1.8 billion operating budget proposal Thursday, marking a 4.6% increase over the $1.75 billion 2022 budget.

The proposal comes as the CTA has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels of riders, recently reaching an average of more than 900,000 riders on weekdays, down from about 1.5 million pre-pandemic. Bus and train service has been unreliable, which CTA President Dorval Carter attributes to a shortage of bus and rail operators, and the CTA has faced concerns about violence on the system.

With ridership down, revenue from fares is expected to be just over half of 2019 fare revenue. The agency gets also gets money from a variety of other sources, like sales taxes, but traditionally fares have made up about half the budget.

During the pandemic, the CTA has relied on federal COVID-19 relief funding to make up for lost revenue, including $390 million this year to close a budget gap. The CTA is expecting the federal relief funding to run out after 2025, after which CTA officials said the agency will need to find additional state or federal funding to make ends meet.

In 2022, as the CTA looked to lure back riders from pandemic lows, the agency made permanent price cuts to daily and monthly passes and eliminated transfer fees. Though ridership remains below pre-pandemic levels heading into 2023, no additional changes to prices are proposed, though some passes will now be available to riders of suburban Pace buses at no additional charge.

“We remain watchful on … the growth coming back to the system, which is really predicated on employment trends, so we continue to watch those as well,” Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Fine said.

CTA riders have contended with long, unpredictable wait times for buses and trains, and Carter has said the agency would adjust schedules to take into account a limited number of bus and train operators, which could mean “marginally” longer wait times.

The current budget keeps the same level of service the agency is currently providing. The agency intends to ramp up service as it hires more operators, and efforts to recruit and retain employees are underway, spokesman Brian Steele said.

The CTA is down about 650 bus drivers and about 100 train operators from 2019 levels, according to the agency.

The CTA has also put more money toward contracts for security guards, upping the amount to $41 million in 2023 from $26 million budgeted in 2022. The money would go toward private unarmed security, K-9 teams and a program that allows off-duty police officers to work on the CTA.

Chicago police also patrol the CTA. Multiple times this year, the CTA and police have said they would boost security and police presence on the system in response to violence.

Along with the budget, the CTA proposed a $3.4 billion spending plan for capital improvements, like construction, for 2023 through 2027. Among other projects, the plan would put money toward electrifying buses, efforts to eventually make all CTA stations accessible to people with disabilities, and the planned 5.6-mile extension of the Red Line south to 130th Street.

The CTA is also seeking other funding for the Red Line project, including City Council approval for a transit tax district. The special transit tax increment financing district would allow tax revenue increases from one designated area along the south portion of the Red Line to be used for the construction farther south. A similar transit-specific taxing district is in place for the ongoing Red-Purple modernization project that is rebuilding tracks and stations along the north end of the Red Line.

sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com