CTA shined bright during the DNC, so why not every day?

The city's public transit system managed to perform nicely during last week's Democratic National Convention. Now the goal should be to make that the case every day.

CTA trains between downtown and the United Center — the site of the convention — and to and from O'Hare ran timely and often. Stations were cleaner, and buses were rerouted around the United Center security perimeters without much undue delay.

But now that the Big Show has packed up and left town once again, a significant "leave behind" this time should be the beginning of an improved public transit system. That happened in 1996, when the city spruced itself up for that year's Democratic National Convention. And some handsome streetscape improvements on the West Side and new street signage downtown were among the party favors left behind when the convention ended.

This time around, the stakes are higher. Fixing public transit, which took such a big hit during the pandemic, will require more money from Springfield. That's a tough ask, particularly if Gov. J.B. Pritzker holds fast to his position that the CTA needs an "evolution of leadership" — which means dumping the agency's imperiled boss Dorval Carter, Jr., — before coming downstate with hat-in-hand.

Carter deserves plaudits for bringing construction funding into the system, but it's clear the CTA needs a chief that's far more concerned about day-to-day operations.

As Carter said earlier this month when the CTA board approved the team that will build the $5.3 billion Red Line extension: "The special skills that I have — they’re not fixing a broken bus, they’re not in running a train, they’re not in rebuilding a track — they’re in getting money."

But neither the CTA board nor Mayor Brandon Johnson seem inclined to move against Carter. And with the CTA, Metra, the RTA and Pace facing a $730 million fiscal cliff at the end of 2025, canning Carter might have to take a backseat to making sure the transit agency gets on sound financial footing.

Speaking of Metra, the commuter rail ran hourly trains from its little-used O'Hare Transfer Station to Union Station during the convention.

Located on the Metra North Central Service line, trips from the station to downtown took about 35 minutes, and at $3.75 was a fraction of cabfare or rideshare to the Loop would cost.

If only such an arrangement could become permanent, providing a regular rail connection to O'Hare in addition to the CTA's Blue Line.

But to do so, according to Metra, would require hammering out an agreement with Canadian National railroad, plus a host of costly infrastructure improvements along the line.

Metra did receive a $750,000 federal grant to study ways to improve the transfer station. That's a move in the right direction.

“We’re going to try to market the heck out of this, to try to see if people really would use that service," Metra CEO Jim Derwinski told NBC5. "I’ve got a tremendous amount of interest in trying to build that type of service."

The Democratic National Convention was only a week long, but it showed that the city and the region — when it wants to — can efficiently move people to and fro, and look good doing it.

Now it's time to equip and fund the CTA and Metra so that they perform for Chicagoans as well as they did for visiting conventioneers.

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