[Doady]

I think Chicago's biggest failure in terms of growth and expansion, and it's biggest gap compared to Toronto, is in the bus network, not just of CTA but also of Pace. Compare the growth of Pace to that of Mississauga Transit and Brampton Transit since the 90s. In 1996, Brampton Transit was around 1/5 the size of Pace, carrying less than 19k riders per weekday, but by itself it is now larger than the entire Pace system, carrying 144k riders per weekday in 2016. Mississauga Transit carried 100k riders per weekday in 1996, and by 2019 the system doubled in size, carrying 201k riders per weekday. That's growth of over 220k daily boardings for just these two systems. In comparison, Pace went from 125k to 135k, only 10k growth for a much larger service area.

You think we need to focus less on "sexy" transit improvements? Not focus so much on "new miles of rail transit"? Maybe look at Pace instead. Old systems like CTA and Metra are not up-and-coming systems like TTC, GO, Mississauga, Brampton because they have such a huge rail system that they have successfully maintained and kept running, so of course they must be given credit for that, but that doesn't explain the failure of Pace Suburban Bus. 8% growth since 1996 is just pathetic. Pace serves a population of 4-5 million but ridership is lower than King County, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Orange County, Honolulu. Even with a "miserly attitude" towards transit, Chicagoland can do a lot better, as all of these other places show.