Riders of mass transit in the region received an early Yule present when Gov. JB Pritzker signed the latest overhaul of the system into law on Dec. 16, unlike users of the tollway system who got coal in their Christmas stockings.

The gift was CTA, Metra and Pace commuters will see no impending fare increases. Some transit riders haven’t seen ticket hikes since 2018.

Tollway drivers — mainly suburbanites in the six counties of Lake, Cook, DuPage, Kane, McHenry and Will — on the other hand, face 45-cent toll increases, which will increase the cost of driving between open-road tolling junctions and ramp plazas up to 90 cents and more. Commercial vehicles, aka semi rigs, are expected to be hit with 30% toll hikes.

How many remember when 10-cent tolls were supposed to be temporary when the original three tollways opened in 1958? Once the highways’ construction bonds were paid off, motorists were told they would become like other state roads: Free in order to roam the magnificent miles of Illinois.

That never happened as the toll-supported system expanded into an interconnecting 12-county, 292-mile regional expressway grid where construction seems unending, like current work on the Tri-State Tollway around the hub with the Reagan Memorial Tollway (Interstate 88). Auto and truck traffic has grown exponentially with an enlarged tollway footprint.

That is why the pockets of suburban drivers were picked by the Democrat-led supermajority in the Illinois legislature to give mass transit an annual $1.5 billion injection of state cash. In addition to higher tolls, gasoline-tax receipts and interest money from the state’s road fund will be redirected to mass transit, along with an increase in the regional sales tax by .25%.

A lone suburban Republican, state Sen. Seth Lewis, R-Bartlett, who represents mainly DuPage County, voted for the massive law, which replaces the Regional Transportation Authority with the Northern Illinois Transportation Authority and takes effect on June 1, 2026. Headline writers across the region now have to replace RTA with NITA over future newspaper stories about mass transit.

We’ve gone from three letters to four in our transit acronyms. Now that’s progress.

A few Lake County folks may recall that the bill authorizing the original RTA was drafted by John Conolly, a Republican state senator from Waukegan. That was back in the early 1970s and was in reaction to passenger bus companies stopping service and railroads seeking to end commuter rail runs.

Pritzker crowed during the bill signing at Chicago’s Union Station that the law, “makes transit safer and more reliable.” Tell that to the eight passengers on the CTA whose lives were snuffed out in 2025 while on city Els.

Riding CTA trains and buses must be some of the most dangerous exploits in Illinois. So perilous in fact that the administration of President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding if the CTA didn’t come up with a security plan to keep passengers safer.

The threat by the Federal Transit Administration earlier this month came after a female CTA passenger was badly burned after being set on fire by another rider. Federal officials said that incident and other violence on the Chicago-centric system merited the action.

To tackle violence across Metra, CTA and Pace, the Cook County sheriff’s office is forming a task force to coordinate law enforcement response as each agency currently is in charge of its own security network. Also, as part of the anti-violence campaign, the Chicago Police Department will up its manpower commitment to patrols on CTA trains and buses, and at platforms and bus stops.

Yet, the Chicago Tribune reported late last week that despite the perception that riding the CTA seems perilous, violent crime is actually down 5% in 2025 on the million or so trips taken by commuters during the year. Ridership across the NITA system, though, remains below figures tallied before the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the lame-duck RTA board approved 2026 budgets for the trio of agencies at its Dec. 18 session, Chairman Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, a former state lawmaker, echoed Pritzker’s words: “Safety is our paramount concern right now. Now that our bill is passed, it’s all about safety.”

That and waiting to spend that newfound money, thanks to Democrat lawmakers. The budget, promising no service cuts, appropriates $4.32 billion for operations and $9.25 billion in infrastructure improvements.

No service cuts and no fare increases. What better way to greet the new year for the region’s commuters? Except for those using the tollways.

Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor. 

sellenews@gmail.com

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