"The current state of transit ridership in Chicago is relatively depressing," concludes the report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based research agency whose backers include the world's richest nations, among them the U.S.
The report found a lack of coordination among the four transit agencies and their four separate boards as well as insufficient accountability. Those issues intensify the economic impact of congestion on Chicago, estimated at over $6 billion in 2011 by the Texas Transportation Institute, the report said.
Although the new study largely echoes previous critiques of the area's transit system and contains no startling findings, it offers a view of Chicago from a global perspective. And in doing so, the report gives an unflattering assessment of a transportation network that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other leaders have aspired to be world-class.
The report is a follow-up to the organization's 2012 study requested by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. That study found the area's potential for economic growth is stymied by fragmented and uncoordinated economic development efforts and wasteful border wars among Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Although the report doesn't rank Chicago in comparison with other cities, its author, Olaf Merk, told the Tribune: "My own impression of the Chicago transit system would be that it is surely below the best urban transit systems in the world."
The report is part of a larger look at transportation in several metropolitan areas, including Athens, Greece; Marseille, France; and Frankfurt, Germany, that is scheduled for release this year.
The Chicago area's transportation is hamstrung by a proliferation of local governments, the "irrational organizational structure" of the Regional Transportation Authority and the service boards and an antiquated formula by which transit agencies are funded, the report found.
"Underlying these structures is a continuous battle between city and suburb, enforced by political divides along these lines," said the study, repeating a refrain in several previous reports.
One of the findings bolsters a recommendation made this year by the Northeastern Illinois Public Transit Task Force: that a single superagency should replace the RTA and oversee the CTA, Metra and Pace.
Merk, administrator of the organization's International Transport Forum, spent a month researching Chicago's transportation system and interviewing local experts.
The report draws heavily on previous research by two influential civic groups, the Metropolitan Planning Council and Metropolis Strategies, formerly Chicago Metropolis 2020, which recently dissolved.
Peter Skosey, executive vice president at the planning council, said the study "highlights what many reports before it have pointed out, that if we were organizing a regional transit system from scratch, we wouldn't come up with the system we have."
Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation expert and head of DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, said the study "provides a clear-headed look at the Byzantine nature" of Chicago's transportation network.
Because of the hundreds of local units of government, the Chicago area is "generally considered to be one of the most institutionally fragmented metropolitan areas in the United States — and indeed worldwide," the report said.
Citing Metropolitan Planning Council research, the report noted that a smaller share of Chicago commuters use transit than did in 1980, and that the system carries 20 percent fewer passengers than that year.
RTA data show the system provided 651 million trips in 2013 versus 814 million trips in 1980. The only ridership growth since then has taken place in Chicago's central neighborhoods, the report said.
The report blames a lack of coordinated service and agencies that follow "jurisdictional" considerations rather than ridership needs. "The system is neither suited for city-to-suburb traffic nor for suburb-to-suburb traffic," the report said.
Chicago spends less on transit capital needs than it did 20 years ago, but Chicago's per capita transit spending is falling behind other cities in the U.S. and internationally, the report noted.
London spends five times more on transit per capita than Chicago, while New York spends three times more, the report found.
Both New York and Philadelphia have a single board that oversees and appoints managers of transit operations, the report noted.
The report also pointed out there is no single fare card for public transit in Chicago, even though the Ventra card has been adopted by the CTA and Pace. The card is not compatible with Metra, although Metra officials say they are working toward that goal.
State law requires that all three agencies accept a single fare card by 2015.
The report found a lack of accountability at the top of the transit system. "Public transit in Chicago is organized such that it is difficult to identify the main actor to hold accountable for underperformance," it concluded.
Taking aim at the governance structure of the RTA, the document noted the "supermajority" voting requirement —12 of 16 board members — which it said allows factions such as the five Chicago representatives to block the board's decision-making process.
"The current governance structure of public transport allows agencies to point fingers at each other when there are problems," the report said.
"In addition, the sheer number of board members (47) creates a heavy management structure … as all of these are political appointees, not elected by the general public like in some other U.S. metropolitan areas," the report added.
Transit agency funding is based on outdated formulas rather than priorities, giving the CTA the bulk of state and federal capital funding, the report said.
The document relied heavily on input from local experts, including Stephen Schlickman, executive director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and former head of the RTA.
The report "validates the conclusion that the transit governance scheme represented by four agencies, with four separate boards, and 47 board members, needs to be changed to one agency with one board of directors," Schlickman said.
Spokesmen for the RTA, Metra and Pace said officials had not read the 20-page report and had no comment. As it has previously, the CTA said last week that it opposes transit agency consolidation, as does Emanuel.
A superagency would be an unnecessary bureaucracy unaccountable to commuters that would divert dollars from train and bus service, said spokesman Brian Steele.
"Over the past three years, the CTA under Mayor Emanuel's leadership has made unprecedented strides to provide Chicago-area customers a world-class transit experience — including the largest capital investment in the CTA's history, new buses and rail cars, implementation of technologies to assist customers, and financial and managerial discipline that's led to four years of balanced budgets without cutting service or raising base fares," Steele said.
The area's highways are also beset by jurisdictional confusion, the report found. Segments of the same road might be the responsibility of a municipality, a county or the state, depending on location.
"The road network in the Chicago region follows a completely incomprehensible pattern of mixed responsibilities," the report said.
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