What the mass transit funding bill means for riders, agencies
For months, Illinois transit leaders have warned of a doomsday scenario that would hobble the region’s transit systems.
Dozens of bus lines were on the chopping block, they warned, as well as entire portions of the “L.” Thousands of workers were threatened with dismissal. Transit advocates have warned that service cuts would have broad consequences for Chicago’s economy and environment.
Friday morning, this scenario seems to be behind us.
After several legislative proposals failed, state lawmakers finally secured a transit funding deal Friday morning. Gov. JB Pritzker has said he intends to sign the measure into law.
In addition to raising about $1.5 billion, the deal will overhaul the Chicago area’s transit system by creating a new governing body to oversee the CTA, Metra and Pace, called the Northern Illinois Transit Authority.
The agreement includes various initiatives intended to strengthen the safety of the region’s public transportation systems. This appears to put the brakes on tariff increases planned for next year.
Perhaps most important for passengers, the agreement will avoid planned service reductions and layoffs at the CTA next year, according to the agency itself.
“This legislation represents the most transformative change to our transit systems in the state of Illinois in five decades,” said Sen. Ram Villivalam of Chicago, a Democrat who helped lead transit reform and funding.
The legislative effort addresses what experts have called transit’s “fiscal cliff,” a financial crisis that was looming when the CTA, Metra and Pace began to run out of aid they were receiving from the federal government during the pandemic. At the same time, passenger numbers simply haven’t returned to 2019 levels, meaning agencies aren’t making as much revenue from fares as they used to.
Agencies faced a structural budget shortfall that would begin next year and reach more than $800 million in 2027 and beyond.
The deal provides enough money to close the budget gap each year and provide additional funding on top of that, which area transit agencies said they would use to improve service.
Here’s what Chicago-area transit riders need to know.
Where does the money come from?
The new bill funds mass transit without the taxes and overhead that seemed to plague previous versions of the legislation.
The largest amounts of money come from diverting funds that would typically be used for road construction projects to mass transit. That includes $860 million from fuel sales tax revenue and $200 million from interest earned on the state highway fund that would now be dedicated to public transportation.
Another $400 million would come from authorizing a 0.25 percentage point increase in the sales tax issued by the Regional Transportation Authority of Cook and Colliers County.
To compensate for money diverted from road work, the bill also includes a steep increase of 45 cents per toll on the Illinois Tollway.
Does this mean there will be no service cuts at the CTA next year?
There will be no service cuts or layoffs within the CTA, according to the agency’s interim president, Nora Leerhsen.
“With these funds, we will expand our bus and train service, invest in new technologies and implement new strategies to support our riders and employees,” Leerhsen said in a statement Friday.
Before the legislation passed, Leerhsen said the agency was poised to make “the largest reduction in transit service in the modern history of the Chicago Transit Authority.” Cuts to bus and train services are expected to begin next August.
But when the CTA prepared its 2026 budget, it laid out three plans: an austerity budget, a status quo budget and a best-case budget, assuming state lawmakers budgeted about $1.5 billion for regional transit.
In this best-case budget, the CTA outlined what it described as an “ambitious plan to take transit service to a level never before seen in Chicago.” It is unclear whether the CTA plans to follow this budget directly to the letter, particularly due to the uncertainty surrounding planned rate increases.
In that plan, the CTA said it would provide more frequent train service, with the goal of achieving intervals of eight minutes or less on all train lines, all day, every day. The agency also announced it would add more bus routes to its frequent network and devote resources to eliminating the scourge of slow zones on train lines.
What about Metra and Pace?
Neither Metra nor Pace had planned to cut bus or train service next year, although both had warned that without more money they would have to do so in 2027 and beyond.
In a statement, Pace Executive Director Melinda Metzger said the agency will now be able to “provide more service, increased frequency, expanded shoulder bus operations, new bus rapid transit corridors and innovative solutions to meet growing demand.”
Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said the commuter rail agency “looks forward to working with lawmakers, our fellow transit agencies and all stakeholders to deliver on the promise of this important legislation and establish the world-class system our constituents and riders need and deserve.”
How much will it cost to ride the CTA, Metra and Pace next year?
It’s not clear.
The CTA, Metra and Pace all planned to raise fares by about 10 to 15 percent next year, whether or not lawmakers found more funding.
The RTA, which oversees the three agencies, mandated them to do so to help close the looming budget deficit. At the CTA, for example, a planned fare hike of 25 cents per ride was expected to generate between $30 million and $35 million in revenue.
The new legislation, however, prohibits any price increase during the first year following its date of entry into force. Given that the bill takes effect in June, it does not appear that it would explicitly prohibit the CTA, Metra and Pace from implementing their planned fare increases, which were to take effect on February 1.
But lawmakers said their intention was to end the rate increases, which would be the first the agencies would take on in years.
Villivalam said that while the bill doesn’t explicitly prohibit fare hikes before June 1 of next year, lawmakers didn’t want transit agencies to implement them.
“I believe there is consensus in the Illinois General Assembly that fare increases should not be implemented until service is stabilized,” Villivalam said.
A spokesperson for state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, a Chicago Democrat who was a key architect of the legislation, also said the measure was intended to prevent rate hikes next year.
The RTA did not directly respond to a question about banning fare increases.
In a statement, the agency said it “continues to review the bill and will share more in the coming days, including how it will impact the 2026 budget process.”
What about public transportation reforms?
The bill will replace the RTA with a new entity called the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, or NITA, which is supposed to act as an empowered version of the RTA with the ability to set fares and service standards throughout the region.
The NITA board would have 20 members – five each from the city of Chicago, suburban Cook County, Collar and the governor’s counties.
The CTA, Metra and Pace would also continue to have their own boards.
Did anyone object to the deal?
Upstate Republicans strongly opposed the legislation, which they say would divert more than $400 million a year — money largely intended for road projects — to the Chicago area’s transit needs.
But lawmakers ultimately approved the deal by a vote of 72-32 in the House and 36-21 in the Senate just after 4:15 a.m. Friday.
What else is in the bill?
The 1,044-page bill contains a plethora of smaller reforms, changes and suggestions for the region’s transit agencies.
For example, he is asking Metra to study the possibility of extending its Metra power line to Kankakee.
In terms of safety, the bill provides for the creation of a public transport ambassador program intended to improve safety on public transport. Transit ambassadors would be trained, unarmed personnel stationed on buses, trains and transit stations.
A law enforcement task force led by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office is charged with studying safety best practices on the region’s transit systems. And within a year of the law taking effect, the NITA board is expected to vote on creating a crime prevention program for public transportation law enforcement officers, according to the measure.
The bill also includes a provision that would allow Forest Park, Oak Park, Rosemont and River Forest – all municipalities served by the CTA’s Blue or Green lines – to be reimbursed by NITA for the costs of police, paramedics or other first responders they deploy to train stations located within their boundaries.
Transit insiders praised the package Friday.
“This legislation is a total paradigm shift and a welcome shift toward a truly unified system that will be focused on working together to provide safe, clean and reliable public transportation,” said Tom Kotarac, who represents Chicago on the RTA board. “The next few months will be complicated but exciting. »
