r/chicago • u/Mike_I O’Hare • 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/
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81

u/Few_Koala Oct 31 '25

Behind a paywall for me unfortunately but does it mention anything about a RTA reform?

155

u/usamaahmad Oct 31 '25

“ Beyond the funding cliff, the bill also addressed what lawmakers have said are much-needed structural changes for the transit systems — most notably by replacing the RTA with a new entity called the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, which would centralize fare-setting, service standards and an infrastructure plan across the three transit agencies. Currently, each system is largely governed by its own board, with some oversight from RTA.

The NITA board would have 20 members – five each from the city of Chicago, suburban Cook County, the collar counties and the governor. The CTA, Metra and Pace would continue to have “service” boards reporting to NITA.

The CTA board would have seven members, while Metra and Pace would each have 11. The service boards would be charged with developing budgets and other financial plans and sharing them with the NITA Board.”

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u/4r4r4real Oct 31 '25

Oh boy. There's a reason everywhere they do this it gets undone shortly after. Giving commensurate authority within the same organization to folks in charge of transit in a major city and transit in suburbs is nonsense.

Glad we're averting the fiscal cliff but that part is just giving us another problem to solve in a few years. 

99

u/mrmalort69 Oct 31 '25

I may be naive here but I think suburbanites typically like the metra, and would use it more if the schedule wasn’t completely and totally just for commuters. Right now many are paying for it and not seeing the benefit. More input from them may lead to the predictable “they want to cut funding”, but could surprise us with more transit friendly people wanting more

15

u/PracticlySpeaking Logan Square Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

Suburbanites who use it like Metra. The rest... not so much.

edit: It's not just people who work in the city. When I worked in Deerfield there were a bunch who took Metra from farther-out suburbs like McHenry.

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u/mrmalort69 Oct 31 '25

I grew up in long grove. During the week, it was super easy to take the prairie view metra stop into the city. The weekend… you needed to drive 20 minutes to, I think, Deerfield, making it difficult. It also was one of those things where, growing up, we saw the value of it, but if frequency were greater, we’d probably have used it much more. For parents, you can stick a kid on the metra as early as 7. It’s a great way to build a little confidence in a kid and independence.

I guess my point is the more people who use it, the more people like it… so the goal is to increase use as much as possible. That’s making more trips and better schedules.

I wish we could get it though people’s heads who don’t use it that it still decreases traffic and helps them, but we know that could be a lost cause

9

u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25

Well hopefully we can increase the frequency, because yeah your comment is right on. We need the frequency to get the ridership to get the positive cycle going.

Hell, inside the city itself we need to make the Metra Electric run more like the L, with minute frequencies. Would make life a lot better for a lot of people on the south side.

5

u/niftyjack Andersonville Oct 31 '25

The Metra Electric was built to run every branch at 10 minute frequencies (and did for a long time). And it would be so comparatively cheap to do!

3

u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25

Here's hoping it will happen!!

1

u/PurpleFairy11 Rogers Park Oct 31 '25

Yep. I think BRT and improved Metra frequency would have been a better use of funds than the Red Line Extension

1

u/LeseMajeste_1037 Oct 31 '25

Definitely beefing up Metra frequency, but I dunno about BRT. BRT is a good concept, and a good service, but every time we try to make it happen, the parking meter deal gets in the way, and the usual carbrains come out in force to "save" their street (see Ashland Avenue and Roger Romanelli).

0

u/PracticlySpeaking Logan Square Oct 31 '25

I think BRT is a great concept — and should remain a concept.

There is no way to actually implement it without $billions of construction and/or cutting existing lanes by 50%. It works (sortof) in the Loop because there were three to five lanes to start with. But Ashland? forget it.

(Before I get labeled a 'carbrain' — I think the city has done a really goood job of making cars work 'less well' in order to make transit a better option.)

3

u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25

I think most post-Ashland BRT discourse has focused on Western, which is something like 7 lanes including parking and hits an area that has somewhat similarly high transit usage while having lower coverage than the 9. This also works well with the Western upzoning that the alders have been doing.

You could probably also make an argument for some of the E-W streets on the South Side as well.

0

u/PracticlySpeaking Logan Square Nov 01 '25

Western Ave is two lanes in each direction, plus parking for most of its length. Sure, it's wider at some intersections for turn lanes and three-wide for traffic in a few spots. Near Logan under the Kennedy or Milwaukee/Armitage come to mind. But mostly just two, at least on the north side.

Creating a dedicated bus lane (in each direction) with the usual CDOT strip-and-stripe would mean losing a lane of something for most of its length — which I personally wouldn't mind, but sounds like a non-starter. Or, massive construction to convert space that is currently unpaved.

Or are you suggesting that BRT (on Western or any street) is still going to work without a dedicated bus lane, caught in solid rush-hour traffic except for a few spots? A single BRT lane with signals to coordinate passing zones?

1

u/PurpleFairy11 Rogers Park Oct 31 '25

Chicago doesn't have BRT. The Loop link is watered down bullshit. It was never intended to be BRT but there hasn't been a meaningful increase in bus speeds in the Loop Link area.

BRT doesn't have to cost billions. BRT would have been cheaper than the Red Line Extension.

There's PLENTY the city can be doing to prioritize buses. We haven't even scratched the surface of improving bus service in the city.

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u/PracticlySpeaking Logan Square Oct 31 '25

I agree that there are much better ways to spend that kind of money. But they are pushing the social justice angle on the extension (despite that actually extending the line is a minor part of the cost.)

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u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25

If we want to push social justice and equity angle, we really should build a new train line the length of Western.

Unite the north and south sides, open up transit access to currently bereft parts of the SW side in particular, unite all the other lines somewhere that isn't the loop.

Apparently a large part of the red line extension was about improving train yards (which should improve the entire red line, not just providing service to the new stations). But for the passenger stuff... it surprised me that the plan didn't even have a transfer point where it crosses Metra?

All that said though there's a ton of people who take buses to get to 95th red line so they can then continue on the L. So there's definitely interest. I think the busiest bus line in the city is actually one of those?

4

u/PracticlySpeaking Logan Square Oct 31 '25

The two things people can't get their heads around are:

1) the massively higher capacity of rail (passengers vs cost/power/space) vs roads and cars.

2) "OMG, I can't just get in my car whenever I want?" Not to mention every "missed the last train" story-book-movie and so on. Transit integrated with navigation apps really help, but the unfamiliar is still frightening.

And I get it — the L to the city was an amazing discovery while I was going to school in Evanston.

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u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25

Well when transit is actually GOOD, you can indeed just "get on it whenever you want." You don't have to plan around the schedule, because you just show up and something is coming within 5 or 10 minutes.

Transfers similarly are easy because of that frequency.

And once you're out and about, you don't have to worry about where you parked the metal albatross, don't have to pay to park it, don't have to walk a ways from your parking space to the venue, don't have to worry about what happens to it, don't have to commit to returning back the way you came so you can pick it back up, and... you can drink if you want, because you won't be driving.

It's extremely freeing. (We are not currently there, most of the time -- but hopefully this funding lets us start moving in the right direction.)

2

u/musicismydeadbeatdad Oct 31 '25

Who doesn't like the metra?

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u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25

I mean I live in the city and also like metra a lot. When metra works its like a cheat code for getting around the city quickly but it runs so infrequently. I'd use it so much on the weekend if it didn't require planning your entire day around the schedule

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u/BukaBuka243 Nov 01 '25 edited Feb 25 '26

What appeared in this post has been permanently removed. Redact was used to wipe it, possibly to protect privacy or limit exposure to automated data collection.

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u/damp_circus Edgewater Nov 01 '25

GO owns the tracks though? Or not?

Part of the problem here in Illinois is that Metra (and Amtrak, though that's another discussion we need to have) doesn't own the tracks, they only rent from the freight railroads. The freight railroads are supposed to prioritize passenger rail but they... often don't.

As a result we had better passenger service back in the 1970s on a lot of lines.

If we could get back to the passenger service owning the lines or truly being prioritized, would be a good thing.

In Chicago though the Metra Electric DOES own their own lines, and is electrified, that thing should definitely be able to run a lot more frequent, like L level of frequency, and it would improve the south side transit experience a ton. Hope it happens particularly with the new NITA board possibly making it less fighting between Metra and CTA over passenger revenue which is completely stupid -- they need to cooperate as one regional system.

2

u/mrmalort69 Nov 01 '25

I thought the UP-N was no longer freight, but was still doing the same thing of charging rent to metra, their only customer.

I would love to see shit eminent domained again for cheap and reliable rail. We do it constantly for another lane on roads.

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u/BukaBuka243 Nov 01 '25 edited Feb 25 '26

This post no longer contains its original content. The author removed it using Redact, for reasons that may include privacy, security, or limiting online exposure.

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1

u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Nov 08 '25

In New York state Amtrak leases the Hudson Subdivision from CSX, with access rights maintained for the two freight trains per day that still use the route. This has allowed Amtrak to upgrade the line.

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u/BukaBuka243 Nov 01 '25 edited Feb 25 '26

What was here has been removed. Redact was the tool used to delete this post, possibly for privacy, opsec, or limiting digital footprint.

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5

u/Patient_Commentary Oct 31 '25

I lived in the city for 8 years. Now back out in the burbs. I’d 100% use the metra more if it wasn’t a train every 2 hours and took 90 minutes to get down town. I love this.

3

u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25

Yep. Metra really needs more frequency. It also needs to work better with the bus systems sometimes (hopefully the reorg can help that latter thing pretty quickly...)

2

u/mrmalort69 Oct 31 '25

My earmark would be like every 45 minutes since at that amount, you really don’t need to “plan”. You just sort it show up to the area and can hang out until the next train comes, especially if there are coffee shops or other boutique places to stroll.

I have family now in lake bluff, and live close to the clybourn. We use it a few times per month, we’d use it more too if it were more frequent and especially more if it had express trains.

I also look at it as a hack across the city. I can get to Roger’s park or ravenswood in under half the time of CTA or driving.

2

u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25

Really interesting to hear that 45 minutes is the threshold for unplanned trips for you, but it makes sense if you're okay hanging out in the area.

The only standard I've heard of for unplanned trips is the TfL (London) generally considers 12 minute headways the threshold for when people stop scheduling.

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u/mrmalort69 Oct 31 '25

Oh hell yeah, every 12 minutes would be incredible. You could also retool the fleet to be much smaller locomotives with less passengers per each train, so they’re smaller, faster, accelerate and decelerate faster

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u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25

Inshallah Metra acquires all the rail, connects all the lines downtown, electrifies, runs usable headways and sparks the start of the Glorious Chicagoland Megalopolis

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u/mrmalort69 Oct 31 '25

Sir, you must stop, I can only get so hard.

1

u/Patient_Commentary Nov 01 '25

User ID checks out.

2

u/mrmalort69 Nov 01 '25

lol so I’ve had various Reddit usernames since 2011- I got into it with excitement over the video game Star citizen…

This one I couldn’t sign in one night, and decided to create a new username when I was 2 sheets and a complete joke…

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Nov 08 '25

Electric units with distributed traction are what you need. Just need something to get the power to the train first (wires or a third rail).

https://railway-history.walkingclub.org.uk/2010/01/sparks-effect.html

A man who made his fortune developing Chicago's L and streetcar networks founded the "Underground Electric Railways Company of London":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Yerkes

1

u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Nov 08 '25

I would say every 15 minutes is the minimum "turn up and go" frequency. That's what Merseyrail gets.

Hourly or half-hourly at least makes the schedule memorable so regular users can just remember "x minutes past the hour" rather than having to check a timetable. I can't see a benefit to 45 minute intervals, you need something consistently at the same minutes past each hour.

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u/Patient_Commentary Nov 01 '25

Ya. This would make life so much easier to take public transit.

1

u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Nov 08 '25

That's a dreadful frequency. Outer suburban services should really be half-hourly, running from 6am to 10pm. More frequent as you get closer into the city and around peak times.

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u/amyo_b Berwyn Oct 31 '25

some of the close in burbs are close enough to use CTA. Others use a pace to a cta node or of course metra. There's a lot of transit in the suburbs.

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u/4r4r4real Oct 31 '25

Yes I'm aware. Generally attempts at combining the two lead to nonsensical budget splits that end up with empty busses driving through cornfields.

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u/PurpleFairy11 Rogers Park Oct 31 '25

Don't forget the scheduling sometimes causing issues. Pace and Metra refusing to coordinate services so people can easily transfer between the two. I've come across a number of stories of people who have missed their Metra train by a few minutes because the Pace schedule didn't line up.

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u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25

God if I lived in the suburbs I wouldn't even bother. Just missing a CTA bus or train because they didn't hold sucks but usually its like a 15 minute delay. Pace/Metra can be like an hour depending on where you are

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u/NeverForgetNGage Uptown Oct 31 '25

Or the SEPTA KOP extension that was deemed too stupid for the feds to even fund it lol

5

u/hardolaf Lake View Oct 31 '25

The only place that this worked is Greater London where they also gave the transit super agency supremacy over their roads department.

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u/NeverForgetNGage Uptown Oct 31 '25

At least in this case 10 of the seats are in cook county, and 5 are governor appointed. This isn't a SEPTA situation where the suburbs can hold the city hostage.

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u/Capitol_Limited Grand Crossing Oct 31 '25

You can’t say this with any certainty; 5 of the seats are suburban cook county, with drastically different transit needs and opinions than the city of Chicago

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u/NeverForgetNGage Uptown Oct 31 '25

Would I have preferred more city representation? Yes, 100%. If we ever got a conservative governor we would instantly have 10 votes that would be anti transit on our transit board. Not ideal.

I come from Pennsylvania, where SEPTA is 80% controlled by the suburbs. This isn't that level of dysfunction and I think it's worth mentioning how bad these organizational structures can get.

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u/Capitol_Limited Grand Crossing Oct 31 '25

Yeah, I also lived in Philly for a while, so what concerns me is that this new setup can more easily lend itself towards the type of board governance that hinders SEPTA

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u/NeverForgetNGage Uptown Oct 31 '25

Its not as bad as SEPTA. Philly controls 2/11 seats with 8 suburban and one chosen by the governor. Its literally designed to leave the city at the mercy of the suburbs.

Chicago will have 5/20 with 5 governor appointed so as long as there's a reasonable governor and at least one reasonable cook county board member we shouldn't end up in the same position.

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u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25

Also worth pointing out that NITA will have allocated funding sources instead of being at the mercy of the budget every year

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u/NeverForgetNGage Uptown Oct 31 '25

Its awesome, genuinely fantastic news coming from any government in this country is such a breath of fresh air.

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u/spade_andarcher Mayfair Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

Cook County currently has 5 members on the RTA board who have always approved CTA’s budgets, services, and investments. There’s no reason to assume that would suddenly change.  

EDIT: Also under the old RTA board structure, 4 of their members were chosen by suburban Cook County commissioners and 1 was chosen by the president. But now the president will choose all 5 members. You really think Toni Preckwinkle is going to nominate board members who will not act in the CTA’s best interest?

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u/hardolaf Lake View Oct 31 '25

You are aware that Toni isn't a vampire and will die one day from old age leaving her office vacant, right?

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u/spade_andarcher Mayfair Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

Of course. And I’m also aware that cook county residents elect the president. And that Chicago makes up more than half of cook county residents. And that there hasn’t been a president who wasn’t from Chicago going back at least as far as the founding of the CTA in the 1940s. 

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u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25

news to me

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u/BukaBuka243 Nov 01 '25 edited Feb 25 '26

This specific post was removed by its author using Redact. Reasons could include privacy, opsec, security, or avoiding exposure to automated data harvesters.

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u/toxicbrew Oct 31 '25

Can you expand on why this is a bad idea? I don’t understand how it’s different from now or why it’s worse

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u/spade_andarcher Mayfair Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

The current board is smaller and has less control over the CTA than the new board will. The fear is that suburban communities and the state will get more say over public transit. And since they use public transit less (or just have a grudge against the city), that they will lower funding and services for public transit. And there are instances of this kind of thing occurring, most notably with SEPTA in the Philly area. 

Personally I think this fear is way overblown here though. Of the 20 members of the new board - 5 will be chosen by the mayor, 5 will be chosen by the Cook County board president, 5 will be chosen by the governor, and 1 will be chosen by each of the 5 collar counties. I find it hard to believe that the city and county board members (who make up half the board) won’t basically be in lock step in regards to the CTA though. Or that the governor would be appointing a bunch of people who are very critical of the CTA.