Illinois lawmakers to propose merging Chicago’s area transit agencies
MPC Senior Director Audrey Wennink shares an article written in anticipation of the transit consolidation legislation introduced on April 29, 2024. Three bills (the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act, the Transportation Choices Act and the Zero Emissions Vehicle Act) plus the Transit Appropriations bill are being introduced as the omnibus Clean and Equitable Transportation Act.
The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition is advocating for all of the bills in this package (MPC is part of that coalition). MPC is also part of Partners for Action on Reimagining Transit, which is advocating for the transit bill. That coalition also includes Illinois Environmental Council and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club and Cook County.
Illinois lawmakers to propose merging Chicago area’s transit agencies, amid CTA complaints and looming budget woes
The proposal is part of a broader look at the future of transit, as the region’s agencies brace for federal COVID-19 relief funding to start running out in the coming years.
Published April 29, 2024
by Sarah Freishtat, Chicago Tribune
The Chicago area’s public bus and rail systems would be combined under a measure Illinois lawmakers are expected to introduce, which would eliminate the CTA, Metra and Pace as separate agencies.
The legislation comes as complaints have mounted over the Chicago Transit Authority’s struggles to provide frequent, reliable and safe service, and days after Gov. J.B. Pritzker called for “an evolution of the leadership” at the CTA. But it is linked to an earlier report laying out recommendations about what Chicago-area transit could look like in the future, and marks a decision to pursue the more comprehensive of two options outlined in the report to overhaul oversight of public transportation.