The Illinois General Assembly approved a bill this week that would direct a total of $1.5 billion to Chicago area transit systems. The legislation would also strengthen transit oversight and potentially clear the way for service improvements in Evanston.
The approved bill kept in place much of the original Illinois House bill introduced last Wednesday. It renames the Regional Transportation Authority the “Northern Illinois Transit Authority,” strengthens the NITA’s oversight powers over CTA, Metra and Pace, and gives NITA responsibility for fares and large-scale purchases.
Under this proposal, the governor would appoint the NITA director, who previously would have been appointed by the speaker of the house and president of the senate.
One major change was how the state would come up with an extra $1.5 billion a year for the four transit systems. The initial ideas to raise taxes and fees on streaming and live entertainment, expand speed cameras and tax unrealized income on investment assets, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker spoke out against, are not in the final bill.
Tax changes and the new composition of transit boards won’t take effect until next June and next September, respectively. Some of the newly minted NITA’s expanded planning and regulatory powers would not take effect until at least 2027.
CTA, Metra and Pace are currently finalizing their budgets for next year. RTA asked them to come up with two versions of the budget — one that assumes a funding bailout from the state and one that doesn’t. CTA also went a step further and came up with a third budget scenario that assumes the four transit systems will get $1.5 billion. While the budgets are scant on details about potential service changes, all three agencies have indicated they will increase service — bus service in particular — with extra money from the state.
Metra previously indicated that the Union Pacific North line, which serves Evanston, would be among the lines that would get more frequent service, though that’s contingent on still-fraught negotiations between Metra and Union Pacific Railroad. Pace would be able to implement its ReVision system-wide route revamp. While the draft plan is still being developed, one of the common features among all drafts released so far is that Pace service would be eliminated on the section of Chicago Avenue between Davis and Howard streets.
Northbound Union Pacific North Metra train races along Green Bay Road in Evanston. Credit: Igor Studenkov/Contributing Reporter
The funding solution is particularly significant for paratransit services. Money for paratransit has already run out, and RTA had to transfer funds to temporarily bail it out. The proposed paratransit budget assumes that, without a funding solution, it would have to cut all but federally-required essential services.
Funding changes
The fiscal cliff is the difference between the amount of funding available and the cost of Chicago area transit operations at current service levels.
So far, federal stimulus funds have filled in the gaps left by declining fare revenue. While RTA originally projected that the three transit agencies would run out of that funding by next year, stronger-than-expected sales tax revenue pushed off the CTA’s fiscal cliff to mid-2026, Metra’s fiscal cliff to late 2026 and Pace’s fiscal cliff to 2027.
The $1.5 billion figure represents twice what RTA originally estimated it would take to avert the cliff.
The final transit bill approved by the General Assembly keeps an RTA sales tax increase, which will increase by 0.25 percentage points, going up to 1.25% in Cook County. It also keeps a change to the fare box recovery ratio. Chicago area fare systems have been required to make at least half their revenue through fares and other passenger-related fees. This requirement was suspended during the pandemic, but it would’ve kicked back in next year. The transit bill lowers the fare recovery ratio to 25%.
The major change compared to the original version of the bill is where the rest of the funding would come from. The bulk of the funding would come from the Motor Fuel Tax — the sales tax on gas and diesel purchases, which is usually goes to road projects. The bill redirects sound $860 million to public transportation operations. Another estimated $200 million would come from interest accrued in the Road Fund — a state fund that is typically used for road construction projects but can also be used for transportation purposes under the state constitution.
In a smaller but notable change, transit agencies won’t be allowed to transfer operating dollars to capital expenses. This issue came up when Metra released its budget draft. Before the pandemic, the commuter rail agency moved some funds from ticket sales and sales tax to the Metra Capital, or MetCap, fund to provide a local match for federal grants. The practice was paused during the pandemic, but Metra Executive Director Jim Derwinski has pushed to bring it back to help address billions in infrastructure maintenance backlog.
This led to a rare split vote on the usually routine motion to release the draft budget. Romayne Brown, who represents Cook County at large on the Metra Board of Directors, said that, given the uncertainty over transit funding, it would be better to keep as much money as possible in operations.
CTA, Metra and Pace will approve the final versions of their respective budgets later this month, and the RTA Board of Directors will vote on them in December.
Public safety
The bill makes several reforms to improve public safety. It establishes a NITA Law Enforcement Task Force, which will be headed by the Cook County Sheriff and include representatives from the Chicago Police Department, Metra Police, Illinois State Police, collar county sheriff’s departments and municipal police departments throughout the region. It will be “dedicated to combating violent and other types of crime with the primary mission of preservation of life and reducing the occurrence and the fear of crime” on all three transit systems.
“The objectives of the Task Force shall include, but shall not be limited to, reducing and preventing violent crimes and other illegal activities,” the bill states.
The task force will develop solutions and best practices for a program that will put sworn police officers on CTA and Pace buses and trains and at train stations, complementing the Chicago Police Department’s existing mass transit unit. The task force will dissolve no later than June 2029.
Ambulances lined up Thursday morning along Chicago Avenue near the CTA train yard north of the Howard Street station for injuries from a Yellow Line incident. Credit: Alex Harrison
The bill also creates the NITA Office of Transit Safety and Experience to develop public safety policies and solutions on an ongoing basis. It will work with a newly created Coordinated Safety Response Council, which will include representatives from law enforcement agencies, transit agencies, labor organizations, social services organizations and local and state social service agencies.
Other provisions call for NITA to set regional safety standards for transit vehicles and stations, and require transit agencies to equip all buses with “bus shield” security barriers — which is already standard on CTA buses.
The bill requires NITA to establish a transit ambassador program by July 1, 2027 “to increase safety for passengers and personnel, provide passenger education and assistance, and help passengers navigate all transit systems.” CTA, Metra and Pace will be responsible for developing these programs for their systems and hiring the ambassadors.
The bill also adds a provision requiring NITA to reimburse the villages of Forest Park, Oak Park, River Forest and Rosemont for the cost of providing ambulances and other first-responder services when incidents occur on the L or at L stations within their borders. This notably excludes Evanston, Skokie and Cicero, which also have their own train stations.
Transit bailout includes public safety reform, could lead to service improvements is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston’s most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.
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November 1, 2025 at 09:58PM
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