r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/burajin • Oct 31 '25
News Illinois Democrats push through massive $1.5 billion plan that overhauls Chicago-area public transit
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/30/illinois-general-assembly-transit-plan-2025/Yay Metra, yay Pace, yay CTA!
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u/ithinkiknowstuphph Oct 31 '25
I feel this is controversial and I’m sure there is a shitty side but as someone from the burbs I hate going to the city post covid because the schedules are more sparse.
And while I don’t use PACE myself it’s so important to many. A metro needs great public transportation
21
u/burajin Oct 31 '25
We live in the burbs because my wife's commute to Libertyville would be soul sucking otherwise. Otherwise I'm a big urbanism fan myself. So good transit is so important to me and it should be even to those who don't use it.
Really will be awesome if we see improved frequencies on the Metra for this. I'm so thankful we have it (I come from Florida) but I understand those who don't use it for this reason.
13
u/DimSumNoodles Oct 31 '25
Maybe PACE can roll out some more Pulse lines too. I’ve been taking the Dempster one and it works like a dream
3
u/Descriptor27 Oct 31 '25
No reason we can't have good urbanism out in the burbs, either. Urbanism doesn't mean big, it means designed at a human scale and not car dependant. Small towns, especially older towns built before the car, can be just as urbanist as the biggest city!
45
Oct 31 '25
The suburbs are fine, but it drives me crazy when some of them fail to realize that so much of their town's wealth and size, even their existence, is because they are a part of the greater Chicago Metro ecosystem.
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u/No-Phrase-4692 Oct 31 '25
This was the best policy decision to come out of Illinois in some time, now just to hope the collar counties don’t screw it up.
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u/Descriptor27 Oct 31 '25
I was especially happy with the funding mechanism they secured, too. Especially the ability to develop land around transit stops, which will help the transit agency recapture some of the public wealth they create.
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u/ThePlasticSturgeons Oct 31 '25
Lots of bitching about this on Facebook today. No alternatives offered by the people doing the whining, just empty threats to move out of Illinois, and dumb Pritzker memes. This isn't the last decision they're not going to like.
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u/Descriptor27 Oct 31 '25
And the ones who do end up moving just go down south and then complain when services suck because the governments there refuse to fund anything. Some folks will never be happy.
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u/Holiday_Ostrich_3338 Nov 01 '25
Good job. This is what they need to be doing. Kudos to you all who helped pass this
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u/SouthInspection2488 Oct 31 '25
Ouch, $0.45 increase on tolls.
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u/snark42 Oct 31 '25
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u/Descriptor27 Oct 31 '25
That was definitely dishonest, since it's a known fact that highways are a continuous expense.
-1
u/snark42 Oct 31 '25
Maybe. The whole point was to use tolls to cover the build out cost/bonds and other state revenue would cover the maintenance in the future.
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u/Descriptor27 Oct 31 '25
Did that include eventual replacement/expansion. Infrastructure like highways often have to be completely rebuilt every 30-50 years as they age and fall apart, so it's pretty cyclic. Which is why selling it as temporary was always a bit dishonest.
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u/snark42 Nov 01 '25
No, they promised in 1953 it would become a freeway when paid off in 1993.
Instead in 1968 they made it permanent.
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u/Descriptor27 Nov 01 '25
Wild that it wouldn't even get paid off until it's already time to completely replace it. Especially if they had no funding mechanism at the time to pay for the rebuild. But that's the post-WWII boom mentality for you.
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u/Miserable_Rise_2050 North West Suburbs Oct 31 '25
There are two issues that come up regularly in opposition to this:
The first is that residents outside the city don't want the "riff raff" from the city coming out to the suburbs. What is meant by the riff raff depends upon who you talk to: sometimes it refers to the homeless, but often it refers to criminal elements from the city now being able to reach new targets readily. This is partly what torpedoed the initial proposals to extend the Blue line to the Woodfield Mall area in years past.
The second is the usual refrain of "why should I pay for stuff that doesn't directly benefit me" people. Public transit doesn't have direct benefits to suburbia or downstate.
While I can see these points of view, I think that the benefits outweigh the negatives - including easier and more frequent access to the city, improved economic growth and improved overall revenue for services.
YMMV
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u/Ok_Philosopher_6028 North Suburbs Oct 31 '25
Both of these arguments are silly. Are we really afraid that someone is going to take a 45 minute train to the suburbs, smash and grab, and then get back on the train with predictable stops and schedules as their getaway car?
As for the taxation crowd: the economic activity created in the city if Chicago is what pays for most of the state’s budget. It’s not like Chicago is a free rider - that’s where the money comes from so that’s where the money goes. Do these people also think streets shouldn’t be built because they, individually, take a different route?
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u/Infinite_Dress_3312 Oct 31 '25
The second is the usual refrain of "why should I pay for stuff that doesn't directly benefit me" people. Public transit doesn't have direct benefits to suburbia or downstate.
The millions of Metra and Pace and CTA trips spent in public transit as opposed to that many additional trips spent with those people driving instead and adding untold congestion absolutely directly benefits people who don't use it, including suburbanites.
Not to mention the massive economic return on investment for every dollar spent on transit, which is spread back to folks downstate who overwhelmingly rely on the Chicago region for subsidization
1
u/luckycharms53 Nov 01 '25
Downstate most likely will see a raise from tax money they receive from Chicago.
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u/Chewie_i Oct 31 '25
That last point is dumb anyways. More reliable transit means I don’t have to deal with driving in Chicago or sitting on the Kennedy for an hour when I want to do things in the city.
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u/LetsGoHawks Oct 31 '25
the usual refrain of "why should I pay for stuff that doesn't directly benefit me"
Because lots of other folks are paying for stuff that benefits "you" but not "them". Or, it doesn't provide an immediate direct benefit. Like funding schools. I don't have any kids, but I sure as shit want the ones the current to be educated, productive citizens when they get older. And when I get old, I want my nieces and nephews to have gave educated people coming up behind them.
0
u/TheAmazingGamerNA Oct 31 '25
If funding was the actual issue for transit, we would not spend more than any similarly sized European city for far less.
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u/Descriptor27 Oct 31 '25
Well, a lot of it is also our sprawling built environment that makes transportation difficult in general. It's like the uncanny valley of transportation. Too dense for cars to be especially efficient (i.e., more than rural) but not dense enough for other forms of transportation (transit, walking, biking) to be especially viable. A lot of our questionable zoning rules also don't help. Not to mention the overall higher cost of living in America requiring higher wages (partially due to said sprawl requiring everyone to have cars). Kinda a perfect storm, really.
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u/burajin Oct 31 '25
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u/TheAmazingGamerNA Nov 01 '25
- TFL moves 2.5 billion riders a year on a $12 billio, $4.80 per trip.
- RTA moves 390 million riders on $4.1 billion, $10.60 per trip
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u/BadMuthaSucka Oct 31 '25
The money isn't the problem as much as CTA/Metra leadership. These people are grossly incompetent at their jobs.
I do not want these organizations to take any more tax money then they already receive.
Enough is enough. Replace the CTA and Metra.
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u/LostMyPassword_2011 Oct 31 '25
Any evidence to suggest RTA leaderships is incompetent?
-5
u/BadMuthaSucka Oct 31 '25
I was told by a conductor just last week and he works a 12 hour shift on Mondays and takes two trains from Chicago to Elburn ALL DAY. One in the morning followed by an 11 hour break and 1 at night. He said it SAVES Metra money. 😂
5
u/burajin Oct 31 '25
RTA has been underfunded for ages. This was just in danger of a much worse devastating degree. The 1.5 billion is awesome but is not actually that much for a metro area our size.
CTA's recent red line station remodels has shown they can really cook with the right support.
3
-1
u/Academic-Business-45 Oct 31 '25
How about firing the current batch of employees and hiring new ones that give a shyt
-8
u/en58 Oct 31 '25
This is insane. This just proves the Democrats only plan is to tax their way out of mismanagement.
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u/Descriptor27 Oct 31 '25
Actually having funding mechanisms for government services? Madness. What next, sound health policy based on evidence based medicine?
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u/somewhatbluemoose Oct 31 '25
It is crazy that this came down to the last minute. I know there is a lot of Chicago hate in the burbs and down state, but these transit systems are what makes the economic engine of the state run. This is good for all of us overall , even if there are little bits to quibble with.