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CITY HALL — The Chicago Transit Authority’s leader once again sounded the alarm Wednesday over looming service cuts to train and bus routes if state lawmakers don’t help close an almost $800 million budget gap for the region’s transit system.

Nora Leerhsen has been serving as the CTA’s acting president since longtime system chief Dorval Carter retired in January.

She gave testimony and answered questions Wednesday in front of the City Council’s transportation committee as part of regular quarterly hearings with CTA leadership, where she provided data on agency staffing, ridership and other system initiatives — including combatting smoking on trains and buses.

Last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order to direct city departments to deploy mental health workers to the CTA to intervene with on-board smokers.

That came a month after Ald. Bill Conway (34th) introduced his own resolution to City Council calling on the CTA to work more closely with law enforcement to better enforce current smoking rules and release citation data. That resolution was advanced by the transportation committee ahead of Leerhsen’s testimony.

Wednesday’s hearing, however, was mostly dominated by funding concerns for the CTA and Chicago region in general.

The Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the CTA, Metra and Pace, is facing an estimated $770 million fiscal cliff next year that could cut area-wide transit service by 40 percent and possibly eliminate CTA bus and train lines, experts have warned.

State lawmakers failed to pass a bill earlier this year that would have reformed the regional transit system and provide funding to transit agency budgets. The bill passed through the state Senate but stalled in the state’s House of Representatives before a June 1 deadline.

The measure could now be revisited during the legislature’s fall veto session. Gov. JB Pritzker and state lawmakers said this month that a special standalone session otherwise does not yet seem likely.

Leerhsen said she and her team continue to lobby Springfield for a funding solution, and that she’s been heartened to see recent “unprecedented” transit advocacy.

But if the money does not come through, Chicagoans would face significant consequences for their daily CTA routes next year — including to four of the city’s eight train lines and 65-70 buses, Leerhsen said.

“To put it plain and simply, public transit in our region needs to be funded or we will face drastic service cuts,” Leerhsen said. “At CTA, we are actively planning for several potential scenarios that could come about. These are stark and sobering analyses for us to see, and the economic and social impact that cuts could have on our city and our region are staggering.”

In her remarks, Leerhsen touted system-wide improvements that have occurred since the COVID-19 pandemic, when the CTA experienced widespread issues with staffing, reliability, safety and cleanliness.

Over the past two years, the agency has hired more than 5,000 people and currently has more bus operators than it did before the pandemic, Leerhsen said. Rail staffing is at “95 percent” of pre-pandemic levels, she added.

That’s led to improvements in service and a decrease in “ghost buses” — those that appear on the schedule for a route but never arrive.

“We are consistently carrying more than one million people a day and hitting that number with a regularity we have not seen since before the pandemic,” Leerhsen said.

But that progress is at risk with the looming fiscal cliff. The estimated $770 million shortfall the RTA is facing “could be refined,” as the agency continues its 2026 budget process, Leerhsen said — but no matter what the final numbers are, the impact on service without state help “would be broad and sweeping.”

“We do not have enough funding for 2026 as an agency, and we need to work with Springfield to come to a solution,” Leerhsen said.

Alderpeople at Wednesday’s hearing questioned Leerhsen about a slew of broad and specific projects and issues, from bus electrification to the cleanliness of CTA stations.

Several also asked agency brass how they could assist in their state lobbying efforts while stressing the importance of a fully funded transit system to Chicago and Illinois’ economy.

“If people are riding buses or trains in Chicago and spending their dollars in our business districts or going to work or producing revenue for our city, that’s going to impact the entire state,” Humboldt Park Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) said. “Chicago being successful economically means that we need a successful transit system. It means that they are also going to be successful across the state.”

Those concerns were echoed by almost every public commenter at the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing, as they urged alderpeople to call on state leaders to hold a special legislative session this summer to fully fund Chicago transit.

Leerhsen also provided data about anti-smoking initiatives on the CTA, following questioning from Conway and discussion over his resolution.

The system has reported more than 2,800 smoking citations so far this year, up from about 2,100 during the same period in 2024, Leerhsen said.

In March, the CTA launched “anti-smoking missions” where Chicago police and security officers board trains to check for smokers. So far, 24 such missions have taken place and led to more than 200 citations for smoking and other violations, Leerhsen said. Since then, the CTA has also seen a decrease in smoking complaints made through its chatbot system.

The CTA’s “Rules of Conduct” state that violations like smoking or vaping can lead to penalties ranging from a $300-plus fine to 30-plus hours of community service to “suspended riding privileges.”

Conway’s resolution calls for the CTA to work more closely with law enforcement to better enforce current rules to stop smoking scofflaws and “provide more transparency” about instances of smoking on public transit. It still needs to be approved by the full City Council.

In contrast, Johnson’s executive order focuses mostly on expanding mental health outreach programs on trains, although the mayor did say last week his administration was “exploring every option” to curb smoking violations — including banning repeat offenders.

Conway mostly praised Leerhsen’s efforts at Wednesday’s hearing, especially after she agreed to make data around smoking on the CTA “more public.”

“I hope that as it comes to smoking and all crime, that it continues to be done in a data-driven manner, so we can really get after the problems,” Conway said. “I take you at your word that you’re focused on it. I will also tell you that we still get complaints on it all the time.”

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July 30, 2025 at 02:58PM