CHICAGO — The Regional Transportation Authority is scrapping plans for fare increases by Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority, and bus operator Pace in the wake of passage of Illinois legislation providing new funding for the transit operations.
Given budget deficits and uncertainty over state funding, the RTA had required all three operating agencies to include fare increases of at least 10% in their 2026 budget plans. Metra had come up with a plan with increases of 13% to 15%, depending on the fare [see “Metra budget for 2026 …,” Trains.com, Oct. 10, 2025]. Those increases were planned for February. The bill passed last week prohibits an increase during its first year, but it will not take effect until June 2026, meaning the February increases could have gone forward.
But in a Tuesday statement reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, RTA spokeswoman Tina Fessett Smith said “riders and frontline employees can expect no service cuts, no fare increases pending RTA board action this Thursday, and a renewed emphasis on operational improvements to service quality and experience.”
The RTA board will hold a special meeting about the transit bill on Thursday, Nov. 6. That meeting, set for 8:30 a.m., will be livestreamed here.
The bill passed in the early morning hours of Oct. 31 provides $1.5 billion in funding through a package of reallocation of existing tax funds and a sales tax increase in the six-county area served by the RTA [see “Illinois legislature passes bill …,” Trains.com, Oct. 31, 2025]. It also calls for restructuring the RTA into the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, which will have the power to address fares and scheduling across the three operating agencies. Metra, CTA, and Pace currently can address those matters individually.
Legislators involved in the bill had suggested any fare increases should be left to the new NITA.
So now the increased subsidy will fall entirely on the taxpayers instead of those who use, and work for, the system. Glad I don’t live in Chicagoland. (For more reasons than this one.)
Robert — I ride subsidized trains, in the current years are Amtrak, METRA, Denver RTD, and MBTA. Most people reading these words ride subsidized trains. If I recall your posts correctly, you also do.
In return for the subsidy, I propose the following:
(1) Reasonable salaries and benefits, which on many systems would mean a reduction.
(2) No tolerance for fare jumpers. No more free rides (Milwaukee city trolley) or systems where paying fare is voluntary (Milwaukee County buses).
(3) No more silly garbage like the Milwaukee trolley, which cost $70 Million and isn’t worth 70 cents. No half–baked proposals like Colorado front-runner or Charlotte suburban trains. No more proposals which look like they come out of an urban planning class in middle school.
(4) End work-from-home. Yesterday, the dental hygienist, store clerks and auto mechanic. This morning, the garbage collector. Later today, the church choir director. Last Sunday, the priest. They don’t work from home. Neither should a lawyer or a corporate manager.
Looking at the last sentence, that means “any fare increases” will be accrued to the suburban counties.