http://abc7chicago.com/travel/i-team-commuter-crunch/3384097/ thoughts, solutions?
Send money!
mo money!
Why? It’ll just line the politician’s pockets instead of what it needs to be spent on.
less money goes to the politicians too and the system continues to wear out. Corruption is the price of doing business.
The state is so broke (over $16 BILLION in debt) is considering not selling lottery tickets because it cannot even guarantee to meet the payment requirements (3rd paragraph of the article) https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/chicago-bar/2018/03/the-illinois-budget-crisis-edition-how-the-did-this-happen/
Perhaps a Metra-area gas tax to fund the rail lines, or legalize recreational marijuana. Either one would bring in much-needed revenue.
The downside to a gas tax is that it really hurts those that must drive to work and do not happen to be one of the elite big-city workers that can take the taxpayer-subsidized train.
The upside to legal pot is that if one does not partake, one does not pay extra taxes. In 2017 alone, pot sales in Colorado topped $1.5 BILLION, and the state realized over $247 MILLION in tax revenue (aka: profit).
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/revenue/colorado-marijuana-tax-data
If the state doesn’t take some sort of action, backruptcy is a possibility.
Just hope you aren’t driving on the Dan Ryan when a stoner that thinks he drives better after a few tokes gets on the freeway the wrong way coming at you driving stupid. Happens frequently since that stupid law kicked-in and the cannabists ignore that scary reality.
My complaint on the topic - we don’t know about weed what we know about alcohol (ie, how drunk is drunk) and there are no guidelines or tests to determine same.
When they come up with a “blow in the tube” test for it and start making DWI arrests for it, I’ll be more satisfied.
Ehy can’t they borrow cars from other commuter railroads or Amtrak as a short term fix? Too logical I guess.
And leave those operations unprotected? …and leave their planned maintenance a shambles?
(lean & mean can go to starving and stupid mui pronto when you have beancounters & political hacks instead of real railroaders managing the operation)…and will the head end decision-makers of METRA learn from this? I know where I’d be placing my bets![:-,][:-,][:-,]
SHEESH! [:-,] You guys are so cynical! [:-^] I keep reading that the political class seems to think that anything Canabis related is the ‘next big answer’ for their revenue problems! [(-D]
While M.C & Zardoz said:
zardoz
“Perhaps a Metra-area gas tax to fund the rail lines, or legalize recreational marijuana. Either one would bring in much-needed revenue.”
M.C said “The upside to legal pot is that if one does not partake, one does not pay extra taxes. In 2017 alone, pot sales in Colorado topped $1.5 BILLION, and the state realized over $247 MILLION in tax revenue (aka: profit).”
"Just hope you aren’t driving on the Dan Ryan when a stoner that thinks he drives better after a few tokes gets on the freeway the wrong way coming at you driving stupid. Happens frequently since that stupid law kicked-in and the cannabists ignore that
We already have a sales tax in the RTA area that goes to the CTA, Pace, and Metra. But gas tax (neither State nor Federal) has not been raised in years.
Yet gas prices continue to operate in their own world, divorced from supply and demand models.
I’m no more in favor of driving high than I am of driving drunk. Both activities are self-centered, irresponsible, dangerous, and just plain stupid!
Holiday = higher prices… Actually, that’s been that way for years…
Was last Tuesday a Holiday? Our gas Tuesday morning was about 11 cents higher than it was Monday night.
Jeff
Refinery production is constrained by the winter to summer gas reformulation, plus there is a fire today at the Superior, Wis. refinery, so don’t expect cheap gas.
I believe we saw the same thing here.
Don’t recall seeing anything in the news about anything that would make it jump. It just seems like around here where a major travel holiday arrives, higher gas prices arrive, too.
The cheesepickers blew up their solitary refinery earlier this week, did that affect the supply?
Tuesday wasn’t a holiday and the next holiday is nearly a month away - Memorial Day!