Public transit disability programs are set to receive some of the new money brought in by the state’s historic transit funding bill passed last week in Springfield, officials said Thursday in a special meeting of the Regional Transportation Authority.

The bill awaiting Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature is set to pump an additional $1.5 billion a year to the state’s money-starved transit systems. But the additional revenue won’t kick in until the last half of 2026, when new taxes are expected to raise nearly $320 million for transit by year’s end, officials said.

That’s not enough money in 2026 for the promised “transformational” change to the public transit. Officials say to expect that in 2027, when a full $1.2 billion in extra funding is expected for the CTA, Metra and Pace. But there is enough cash expected next year to shore up the system’s workforce and revive a disability ride-share program that was on the chopping block.

The RTA board on Thursday signed off on tweaked budget numbers for 2026 that allocate $56 million to Pace’s Taxi Access Program and Ride-share Access Program, known as RAP and TAP. The programs subsidize taxi and ride-share trips for people with disabilities, in an effort to reduce the demand for Pace’s ADA paratransit service.

The new money means RTA can raise its monthly cap on rides — which was cut to 30 in August — to 40 to 50 rides, said Maulik Vaishnav, RTA’s senior deputy executive director of planning and capital programming. Pace was anticipating to cut those programs next April if the General Assembly did not pass a funding bill.

Vaishnav said the RTA needs to take separate action on those RAP and TAP funds later, and must work with Pace to set a date to begin the new cap.

The revised budget estimates pump an additional $141 million to the CTA, which was the first transit agency expected to run out of funds next year when federal COVID-19 grants run dry.

Metra and Pace, which were expecting layoffs and cuts in early 2027, will receive an additional $27 million and $18 million next year, respectively. Vaishnav said this money would remain as a projected line item for next year’s budget, and may require an additional budget amendments next year to disperse the funds.

The region’s transit agencies are finalizing their budgets this month and will present them to the RTA, which must approve them in December.

It may take time for riders to see increased bus and train service, Vaishnav said. Transit agencies will use the initial money to bolster its workforce. But “it takes a pretty long window to get to a point where you can add service or bring on some of these investments that riders will begin to see,” he said.

The transit bill goes into effect June 1, overhauling the region’s transit and replacing the RTA with a more powerful agency called the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, or NITA. The RTA on Tuesday said it was scrapping planned 10% fare increases, meant to delay the so-called “fiscal cliff,” after pushback from lawmakers instrumental to passing the bill.

The largest chunk of the new funding, $731 million a year, is from the sales tax on motor fuel that will go to transit starting July 1, 2026. The bill also allows the RTA to increase its sales tax in the Chicago area by 0.25%. But the agency can’t vote on that measure until June 1, and it will go into effect 60 days later.