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Illinois House Committee Wants To Limit Senior Free Rides
Produced by City Room on Thursday, October 29, 2009

Old CTA logo. (Photo by Max Klingensmith via Flick.)

An Illinois House committee agrees to restrict free public transportation rides for seniors. The committee wants to limit free rides to low income seniors. All other seniors would pay a discount. Representative Elaine Nekritz from Northbrook says it could help offset fare hikes and service cuts statewide.

NEKRITZ: The affordability of the free rides for seniors impacts every transit rider at this point, if we're going to be making service cuts and fare increases, and so we have to balance those things in a way that will make for some unpopular decisions.

The Chicago Transit Authority says scaling back the free rides program could save the agency about $37-million. The CTA faces a $300-million budget deficit.