RTA proposes universal fares, more trains, cost cuts to counter merger plan

Amid a $770 million budget gap facing Metra, Pace and the CTA, and a proposal to merge the three into a supersized agency, Regional Transportation Authority leaders have issued their own transit rescue plan.

“We want to create a seamless integrated system for our region that’s been long overdue,” RTA Chair Kirk Dillard told the Daily Herald in an exclusive interview Monday.

The “Transforming Transit,” program, to be announced Wednesday by Dillard in a speech to the City Club of Chicago, envisions strengthening the RTA to take on more administrative and planning powers, which could result in $50 million in annual savings.

The RTA’s oversight role would be expanded to include control over fares, service quality and capital investment.

“Frequency is freedom. Freedom to walk to a transit stop or station and trust that a bus or a train will be there shortly. With $1.5 billion in annual funding, the ‘L” will run every five to 10 minutes every day."

—  RTA Chair Kirk Dillard

A strengthened RTA means “freeing up the service boards to do what they do best which is operating buses and trains,” RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden said.

A key benefit would be a regional fare policy, long sought by riders frustrated by separate apps and ticket systems.

The RTA would develop a universal fare payment app and rider hub for all fare and customer service issues, ensuring riders have access to simple, easy-to-understand fares and integrated information at stations and stops, Dillard said.

But officials are tying improvements to increased funding from the state and local sources, seeking a $1.5 billion boost in annual operating funds.

“We rate dead last in the United States in terms of state support for mass transit. No one is as low in funding as Illinois,” Dillard said.

The RTA cited transit systems in New York, Boston and Philadelphia that receive 50% of their funding from state government while Illinois gets 17%.

Those new revenues would allow for more frequent service on all three systems, cutting wait times for passengers by as much as 50%, the RTA projects.

“Frequency is freedom,” Dillard said. “Freedom to walk to a transit stop or station and trust that a bus or a train will be there shortly. With $1.5 billion in annual funding, the ‘L” will run every five to 10 minutes every day."

In the city and suburbs, Metra’s evolving rail system would run every 30 to 60 minutes on selective lines, increasing from 90 trains daily up to 120.

“Bus service would be fundamentally transformed (with a) rapid bus service running every 10 minutes or less in the city and every 15 to 30 minutes in the suburbs,” Dillard said.

To ensure service levels are improving, CTA, Metra, and Pace would be required to give quarterly reports. If not meeting standards, the RTA could withhold funding.

RTA planners anticipate increased frequency and more service on weekends and evenings would increase security on the system.

Another innovation would be more on-demand ride services to fill gaps caused by timing or the distance to a Pace bus stop, for example.

Meanwhile, RTA leaders warned that the consequences of inaction would be dire. The $770 million shortfall is set for 2026, when federal COVID-19 aid expires.

With the budgeting process for 2026 beginning in May, the General Assembly needs to act this spring, Redden said.

Without funding certainty, “the three service boards will have to begin a very prescribed process of service cuts,” she said. “It’ll be a doomsday that no one’s ever seen before.”

Metra officials have projected a 40% reduction of trains would be required to meet decreased revenues in 2027.

However, the RTA anticipates consolidation and a potential 10% systemwide fare increase could contribute $100 million in annual revenues.

RTA officials said they are working with lawmakers on Transforming Transit legislation.

It would bump up against a bill seeking to dissolve the boards of Metra, Pace, the CTA and RTA, and create a 19-member Metropolitan Mobility Authority board, which has caused pushback from the collar counties.

Dillard said he’s optimistic about the agency’s vision.

“Where transit is improved and expanded, ridership grows and access to jobs and opportunity grows, and we all reap the benefits of it,” he said.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250115/transportation/making-its-move-rta-proposes-universal-fares-more-trains-cost-cuts-to-counter-merger-plan/