The Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace are facing a potential $770 million shortfall after Illinois lawmakers failed to pass any substantial transit funding legislation by the end of their spring legislative session on May 31. The three transit agencies predict that 40% system-wide service cuts will be inevitable if their budget gap is not filled by 2026, when all the federal pandemic grant money will finally run out.
This could spell the shutdown of half of CTA’s rail lines and up to 74 of its bus lines, the loss of Metra’s Electric Blue Island service and the end of weekend Pace bus service, along with worker layoffs numbering in the thousands.
“The (Illinois AFL-CIO and the Labor Alliance for Public Transportation) have never seen anything of this magnitude in their lifetime,” said Alyssa Goodstein, communications director of AFL-CIO Illinois. “The way I see it, we are really disabling people’s abilities to get to and from work … We’re working with the Illinois General Assembly and legislators so they know what is at stake.”
Several bills attempted to remedy Chicago’s transit budget gaps, such as the Labor Alliance for Public Transportation’s United We Move bill. Backed by Democrat State Sen. Ram Villivalam, the bill would have created a unified transit agency with Metra, CTA and Pace known as the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, replacing the Regional Transportation Authority. It also proposed a $1.50 tax on food and delivery services to pump more than $1 billion into the NITA to offset the budget deficit.
The bill passed 32-22 in the Illinois Senate, but faced severe opposition from business-oriented legislators and ultimately stalled on the House floor. Even if Illinois lawmakers were to reconvene over the summer or during the fall veto session to vote on a new bill, it would now take 60% approval for anything to pass instead of the simple majority that was required during the spring session, according to the Illinois Constitution.
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In the meantime, service cuts could happen as early as January 2026, beginning with Metra.
“At the end of the day I expect that legislators want to get this done,” Goodstein said. “We want to make sure that our workers are protected and that people can get to where they need to go, whether it’s to a doctor’s appointment, work, childcare … We’re putting the hardworking people that move Chicago and the suburbs first, they really are the circulatory heart of our system. That is something that we believe the general assembly recognizes.”
