Chicago’s transit agencies are nearing the edge of a fiscal cliff.
Ridership plummeted at the start of the pandemic, and it’s struggled to return in the years since. Where exactly those missing riders have gone—and why—is up for debate, but that lost revenue has put transit agencies, which rely on ridership fares to fund roughly half their operating costs, in the hole.
Illinois used $3.5 billion in federal COVID relief dollars to keep the Chicago area’s transit agencies afloat during the worst of the pandemic. But, when that funding expires in 2026, the agencies face a $730 million shortfall. Riders will likely face severe service cuts if the state doesn’t fill that gap.
In April, state lawmakers proposed a bill to merge the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, and Pace into one transit agency, along with their overseeing body, the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). This new agency, the Metropolitan Mobility Authority (MMA), would operate all public transit in the Chicagoland region with a new collective board and a four-year consolidation timeline. It would also give those agencies an additional $1.5 billion in funding each year, alleviating looming financial problems while expanding service.
The process is complicated and unprecedented, and the 500-plus-page bill itself is unwieldy. Here’s a breakdown of what it does and what changes it could bring to transit in the Chicagoland region.
Why do Chicago transit agencies need money?
Without more money, regional transit systems will likely have to significantly cut service, hike fares, or both.
Agencies are also facing higher operating costs since the start of the pandemic, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). Inflation has risen, but CTA fares have stayed the same (Metra and Pace fares went up, but they have far fewer riders than the CTA). This means the CTA is now getting fewer riders—and less money from each one.
If nothing happens, we fall off that fiscal cliff. The 2026 deficit would force the RTA to cut service by 30 to 40 percent, according to CMAP. Cuts that steep could keep riders from coming back to public transit altogether, which would mean even less revenue.
The MMA Act would also permanently end the 50 percent farebox recovery mandate, an Illinois law dating back to 1974 that requires Chicago’s transit agencies to earn half their revenue through ridership fares and was meant to impose fiscal discipline. With pandemic-induced ridership drops, it’s become impossible to meet that mandate over the past few years, especially since some reasons for declining riders, like the rise of work-from-home jobs, are outside agencies’ control.
Advocates for the MMA Act, like the Metropolitan Planning Council, the Civic Federation, and multiple environmental groups, argue dramatically increasing service will keep Chicago-area transit agencies from a “death spiral,” where service cuts and fare hikes drive passengers away and force transit agencies to implement more cost-cutting measures.
What else would the MMA Act do other than increase transportation funding?
MMA Act supporters, like the Civic Federation and Metropolitan Planning Council, argue that consolidation will make Chicago’s transit agencies more efficient and force them to plan for the whole region instead of just their local bases of operation.
A combined MMA could lead to benefits—like fare integration between the CTA, Metra, and Pace—and it could incentivize collaboration over competition. Former mayor Lori Lightfoot, for example, once blocked a plan to lower fares and increase service for Metra users on the south side because the city believed it would compete with CTA ridership, even though the plan had support from business and transit advocacy groups. That may not have occurred if they were part of the same agency.
However, merging transit agencies’ cultures, processes, and existing contracts could be extremely difficult.
How would governance change under the MMA?
A unified, 19-member voting board would replace the current RTA, CTA, Metra, and Pace boards. MMA board members would be selected as follows:
Three voting directors chosen by the governor
Five voting directors chosen by Chicago’s mayor (four appointed by the City Council plus the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities)
Five voting directors chosen by the president of the Cook County Board
One member chosen by each of the county chairs of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties
One chair chosen by the MMA directors
Under the current system, Chicago’s mayor has majority control over appointments on the CTA board, while the suburbs and collar counties have greater control over Metra and Pace’s boards. The MMA board would give Chicago, Cook County, and the collar counties equal representation but would also cede some power over the local systems that serve their constituents.
What alternatives are coming forward?
The CTA, Metra, and Pace leaders have all opposed merging their agencies and instead want more state funding. At the first of six public hearings held by the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee, CTA president Dorval Carter argued that “the governance model is not the problem here”—chronic underfunding is. Metra and Pace executives also argued against consolidation, saying the issues of suburban and collar county riders would go ignored under a single board.
The RTA has proposed a competing plan to meet the $730 million shortfall and increase funding by at least $1.5 billion from current operating levels. It would give the agency significantly more power and oversight over the three regional transit agencies but would keep them separate. Historically, the RTA has had limited control over the operations of its transit system compared to other major cities.
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