MEMORANDUM

Fr: William Wormwood

  1. Fare Chaos. As you no doubt remember, between April and July we made no fewer than five announcements regarding “experimental fare” plans, each more confusing than the last. In April we came up with the plan in which all fares were cut by 50 cents but transfers were eliminated. Three announcements later, in late June, this plan had mutated into a complicated three-tier structure with different fares for rush hour, off-peak, and weekend buses and trains. Finally, as you may remember, this operation was successfully completed with the “That and a quarter will get you a ride on the el” program, which has put the bother back into CTA travel by guaranteeing that even pass users have to worry about having exact change.

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »

In the year ahead you can look forward to several new initiatives from our department, including expansion of the Flapping Windows program as we discussed last month. I’ve been talking with some of the bright young people down in Maps and Signs and I think we’ll have some innovative proposals soon. And, of course, we’re all looking forward to the launch of Operation Vomiting Drunks.