About a dozen transit workers, union leaders and riders rallied Thursday afternoon outside LaSalle Street Metra Station in Chicago, urging lawmakers to pass a critical funding bill next week in Springfield to fund Chicago-area transit.

“This will effect millions of people,” said 30-year Metra conductor Cederick Fuller. “We need money for public transportation.”

Fuller was joined in a press conference just minutes after the Regional Transportation Authority’s board meeting wrapped up down the street, where board members called the fiscal cliff a “six-alarm fire.”

RTA officials project the budget shortfall will skyrocket to $834 million in 2027 and nearly a billion dollars in 2028, as transit advocates and the RTA are lobbying lawmakers for a $1.5 billion funding package.

Pennie McCoach, President of ATU Local 308, a union representing CTA rail employees, said workers are “scared for their jobs, scared for their families, scared for their futures,” as the funding solution remains unsolved with half of the two-week veto session in Springfield over.

“Transit workers are in limbo,” McCoach said. “We need bold action now, not after the next crisis. Illinoisans want safe, reliable, fully funded public transit.”

RTA board members mulled heading to the Capitol themselves next week to lobby lawmakers to pass the bill before next week’s deadline.

Transit advocates said they will be there as well.

“We can’t afford to leave Springfield without a bill that includes both revenue and reform,” McCoach said. “We’re out of time, so let’s get this done.”

Leo Wong, who spoke at the RTA meeting, spoke again at the press conference, telling the story about his own layoff from CTA over a decade ago.

“I am deeply concerned,” Wong said at the press conference after the meeting. “The uncertainty and the mental stress alone … it’s truly scary [for workers].”

“We’re asking Springfield to consider this [bill],” Wong said.

Audrey Winnink of the Metropolitan Planning Council warned that without transit funding, the system would collapse, with 1,700 positions among CTA, Pace and Metra being cut by the summer, with layoff warnings likely coming spring.