CTA to raise price of transit passes, add surcharge to rides from O’Hare
 

The CTA had no qualms on Tuesday about a group of riders it's targeting to
balance the budget: tourists.

The transit agency wants to raise the one-way trip from O'Hare on the Blue Line from $2.25 to $5 for riders who don't have single-day, three-day, seven-day or monthly passes.
The $5 O'Hare tab would bring Chicago more in line with big cities around the
country — although some cities, such as San Francisco, offer faster, cleaner
rapid-transit options for the extra cost.
New fares would take effect Jan. 14 after two public meetings — Dec. 10 at CTA Headquarters and Dec. 17 at Westinghouse College Prep — and with the approval of the CTA board and the RTA board next month.

Tons of workers ride the CTA to Rosemont or Cumberland, what a bad deal for them. Ditto all the airline workers I see getting off at Irving, Logan and Belmont. It mentions, daily, weekly, monthly passes as being exempted. Does this also apply to pay-as-you go Chicago Card users (like me)??

That's a really good point. I don't like the add-on fee, but ultimately it will affect me to tune of may $40 a year. Those who make a daily commute to ORD will be much harder hurt. I hope they show up in full force at the hearings.

(Interestingly, the surcharge doesn't seem to apply to MDW trips. I wonder why.)

Won't most who make the daily commute for work have a monthly pass already? Same for many others who ride the cta routinely to get to work in other parts of the city. Still seems like an okay deal given the difference in price relative to taxis and the ability to avoid rush hour traffic.

Good point. The last time I did a daily CTA commute, monthly passes didn't even exist, so I forget about them.

Here's a link with more details:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...ses-cta-riders

I'd guess that's because the MDW station is used far more often by local community residents than the ORD station. The MDW Orange Line station is very conveniently located to some residential neighborhoods and is also a connection point for local city bus service. Many of the passengers at the MDW Orange Line station have nothing to do with the airport itself.

So a surcharge there would penalize local folks in a way the ORD surcharge would not. Perhaps some local alderman/community leaders spoke up on their behalf, or perhaps the CTA wisely decided not to even pick that fight to begin with.

Whereas nobody would ever use the ORD station if you weren't specifically using the airport, so it doesn't really have the same impact on locals.

Another note: The surcharge is an extra $2.75 for leaving O'Hare, but is not levied on people arriving at O'Hare from downtown. So if you fly to Chicago, and use the Blue Line both ways, you're really only facing an extra $1.38 each way. That's really not too bad, though it would be nice if they (finally) got around to offering express service.

Last time I had to get from ORD to downtown, you can not purchase a one day ticket at the airport station, only 3days or more. To get a 1day pass, we bought a single-ride pass and got off at Cumberland, and walked over to Dominick's to get the one-day pass (the hotel was right there anyways). It was still less then a 3day pass, and an adventure, yet for people leaving ORD for less then 3days this is a pita.

It's not like express service is something they can just "get around to". It would take significant construction money to make that happen. CTA has much more important projects to spend capital money on than an O'Hare express.

Ya think? :rolleyes:

My comment was tongue in cheek.

This is from the article:

As for the new $5 fare on Blue Line trips beginning at O'Hare, customers who use monthly passes, Chicago Cards set up as monthly passes, or one-, three- and seven-day passes will be exempt from the fare hike. Reduced-fare riders also will not pay more, officials said.

So it sounds like people with true monthy passes won't pay a the higher fare, but people like me who have a pay-as-you go Chicago Card will. Most ORD workers probably use the monthly pass option, but I'm sure many of the airline employees I see on the train who are only in town a few times a month probably don't.

Ironically, raising the price of the 1-day pass to $10 may allow them to put it back into the machines at the 'L' station (there has been no official word on this point). The machines used to have 1-day passes when they cost $5, however they were removed when the price was increased to $5.75. The reason: The special vending machines that they installed for unlimited ride passes do not accept coins. (The standard Transit Card machines accept coins, but not the unlimited ride pass machines.)

One of the best-kept transit secrets at O'Hare Airport are the two Pace bus routes that serve O'Hare. You can reach the buses by riding the ATS to the end of the line in Parking Lot E. The Pace bus fare is $1.75 and they accept CTA Transit Cards (but not 1-day, 3-day, or regular 7-day passes). It's less convenient, but you can use a Pace bus instead of paying the $5 'L' fare. If going downtown, you can transfer to the Yellow or Purple 'L' lines from the Pace route 250 Dempster bus. The transfer charge is only 25 cents if you have a Transit Card (which can be purchased at the O'Hare 'L' station).

Note: Google maps does not know about any Pace bus routes.

Isn't your time worth something? That 250 bus is not a fast option. In traffic you'd be looking at close to an hour to the Yellow and hour 15-20 to Purple, then another 45 to an hour to get downtown.

The real option with the 250 if you could swing it timewise would be to take it to the Des Plaines Metra station. That could end up faster than the Blue Line.

data point

As of 11/22/2012
CTA station at ORD has 2 passes machine (that only sell Passes) <- 1 was out of order
and I think 6 Fare card machines (no changes)

We bought 5 3-day passes ($14 each) no problem

As a bonus, Chicago Greeter free service gave us 1-day Pass too (x 5 ppl), nice!

Another problem with the CTA is the machines do not give change.

It is a common theme in many cities to cheat airport passengers.