The Chicago Transit Authority’s board approved a 2026 budget without a fare increase, while board members questioned when the agency would receive its first chunk of new state transit money still needed to fund dream projects such as overnight Orange Line service.

The board’s Wednesday budget vote closes the door on a potential fare increase after the Regional Transportation Authority walked back its 10% fare hike requirement last week for CTA, Metra and Pace. The RTA did so after the state legislature passed a $1.5 billion transit bailout last month, sparing the agencies from drastic service cuts.

Without the CTA’s 25 cent fare hike for bus and train tickets, the agency expects to lose nearly $30 million in additional revenue next year, according to budget figures shared at the board meeting. Those lost funds will be made up by $141 million in extra money from the transit bill, which Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to sign.

But the CTA’s approved 2026 budget does not include part of an expected $300 million in additional state money from the bill, which is needed to fund projects such as the expanded Orange Line service and bus service.

The additional money could be doled out by the RTA sometime next year, after the agency determines exactly how much more money it will collect from a 0.25% increase in the RTA sales tax, which would kick in as early as August, and the state’s sales tax on motor fuel, which will be redirected to transit in July.

The RTA said last week it would seek amended budgets from transit agencies sometime next year to include the additional $300 million. The body said agencies would not see the $1.5 billion in additional revenue until 2027.

CTA board members on Wednesday seemed concerned that the public may be eager to see service improvements next year before that new money gets allocated in the last half of 2026.

Lester L. Barclay, CTA’s board chairman, asked for monthly updates from the agency CFO Tom McKone on when that extra money could be expected.

The “public thinks that we got a lot of money to do a lot of these creative things … and I don’t think that’s quite the case,” Barclay said. “This is our wish list. This is what we hope will happen. But it’s subject to RTA. … It’s going to take time to plan those things out and implement those things.”

Board member Roberto Requejo asked McKone to get specific about when the additional money and service could be expected.

McKone couldn’t not give a specific timeframe, but said an amended budget would be proposed as soon as possible. After that, it could take time for the board to plan expanded service.

“It takes a while to schedule” additional service, McKone said. “You can only put service in place at certain points throughout the year. We want to make sure that we know that it’s coming as soon as possible so that we can plan for that expansionary scenario.”