Daily Herald opinion: Another risk facing public transit: As hearing showed, lawmakers need to deal with public safety as much as with financial security

A state House committee hearing last Tuesday put an unexpected but important imprint on the debate over how to help the Chicago-area public transportation agencies avoid a $770 million budget shortfall next year: Public safety.

For more than a year, the discussion over the impending fiscal cliff awaiting Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority and the Pace bus service when COVID-era federal money runs out in 2026 has focused on consolidation, efficiencies and revenues. Tuesday’s hearing chaired by Des Plaines Democrat Marty Moylan examined another reason passengers have been abandoning public transportation. They’re worried about violence.

As testimony Tuesday demonstrated, it is a justified concern. And, as Republicans and Democrats alike commented, it is relevant to the search for solutions for public transit’s financial problems.

“I’ve witnessed (the system) go from a strong police and undercover presence to nearly none,” Keith Hill, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241, told the panel.

“Look at all the people who aren’t riding the trains,” said Democratic Chicago Rep. Marcus Evans.

“(The situation is) just insane,” said Rosemont Republican Rep. Brad Stephens. “It seems unfathomable that somebody’s not taking this a little bit more seriously.”

And Moylan insisted, “We have to get a full-time police force on these systems as soon as possible.”

An inherent obstacle to such a remedy, of course, could be whether the measures the legislature is considering — primarily at the moment either a full consolidation of the three agencies with the Regional Transit Authority or a reorganization giving the RTA greater control over them — will leave enough money available for stronger police presence or any other security measures that may be needed.

There will be no better time than now for that conversation. Some may argue that safety and solvency are two distinct topics, but as the harrowing tales recounted by witnesses Tuesday indicated, they have an unavoidable connection. The evidence is clear that the transit agencies have had trouble luring back riders who became accustomed to commuting by car during the pandemic, but it is also obvious that ongoing reports of shootings, robberies and assaults are going to make that objective all the harder to achieve.

Moreover, any suggestion that dealing with violence must take a back seat to dealing with organizational structure ignores the urgency of the safety concerns and leaves open the possibility that they will become lost in the future shuffle as the General Assembly proceeds, as it is wont, to focus attention on the issue of the moment.

Montgomery Democrat Matt Hanson promised the witnesses Tuesday that that is not going to happen.

“There’s going to be some tough love on all the agencies and the way they do things,” said Hanson, who is also a BNSF Railroad engineer, “but it’s not going to be on your backs. It’s not going to be at the expense of your safety.”

The end of the current General Assembly session is barely more than a month away. Lawmakers have repeatedly been warned of the financial risks of failing to act. It is important that they realize failure also carries substantial public safety risks.