* Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Chris Welch spoke at the annual Illinois Manufacturers’ Association/Illinois Retail Merchants Association lobby day last week. Among other things, they were asked these questions: “How do you see the transit playing out? Is it something that gets done this spring? Is it a Fall issue? Does reform come first and maybe revenue second? How do you see the transit solution coming together?”…
Harmon: Well, I have said from the onset, the cliff can be a crisis, or it can be an opportunity. And my starting point in this has always been we need to build the transit system for 2050, not try to rebuild the one from 1975. It’s just a very different world and we need to internalize that and make sure we’re thinking about the rider. And so for those reasons, I’ve been relatively agnostic on governance. Reforms are necessary. The rider-focused reforms. Any of our constituents should be able to walk out their front door and get anywhere in the RTA service area without worrying whether they were on a CTA bus or a Pace bus, CTA, L or a Metra train. They should have one app on their phone or one card in their pocket and one schedule. All of this needs to be focused on the rider, because you all need people to get to work. You need people to shop. You need people to be able to get around. So Senator Villivalam, our Transportation chair has been leading hearings on the Senate side, and has done a very good job. He certainly makes a case timing wise, that sooner is better than later. I would say that even if we tackle the reforms, I don’t know that there’s going to be a check cut on May 31st to the transit agencies. We are going to need to hold them accountable to reinvent the system so that it serves the people that we all represent who work for you all.
Welch: Let’s also make sure folks understand that when we talk about transit, we’re not just talking about the Chicago area, the Chicago metropolitan area, we’re also talking about downstate transit. We’re talking about transit systems throughout the state. And I think transit is extremely important to the business community. It’s important to labor and the workforce. It’s important to the environment, less cars on the road, if you get get the busses and trains running right. And so this is something in the House that, you know, we put a working group together last year that’s led by Eva-Dina Delgado and Kam Buckner, two of the leaders on my team that are really passionate about the transit issue. They’ve had a number of meetings with all of the stakeholders at the table. By all reports that are coming in to me, those conversations are going well. They’ve been some real tough conversations, and they listened to the charge that the President and I gave them, and they’ve been addressing reforms and governance first. I don’t even think you can talk about money at all until they agree on what those revenue, those reforms and governance issues are going to look like. […]
I think we’re on the same page in the sense that we’re not looking to give anyone a blank check. We don’t have blank checks to give out. We have to be able to leave here and explain it, you know, to a sixth grader. You know, here are the reforms. Here’s the governance structure that is in place that now makes sense compared to what was there. And here’s what we have to do to provide reliability for riders. Here’s what we have to do to make sure riders are safe. Here are the things that you know people have demanded, and we’re giving it to you. I think if we can demonstrate that people will will understand that you have to pay for it.
Harmon: Recognizing your point that this is a statewide issue. We are focusing to some degree on the RTA region because of the peculiarities of that system. I can walk out my back door a half a block to a CTA bus stop, or a half a mile to a Pace bus stop that will take me to either a CTA L line or to a metro station. It shouldn’t be that complicated. And the accountability issue is a huge one. There’s a deep lack of trust. I think it was more than a decade ago we mandated a unified fare card so that you didn’t have to get a different ticket for each of your transfers. That still hasn’t been done. So perhaps the greatest accountability is cutting off the checks, and I think that we’re trying to build into this, the funding comes only with rider focused reform.
Please pardon any transcription errors.
…Adding… Hmm…
Senate Transportation Chair Ram Villivalam and Assistant Majority Leader Marcus C. Evans, Jr. will provide an update on transit negotiations and the General Assembly’s work to address Illinois’ $770 million transit fiscal cliff.
If left unaddressed by May 31, Illinoisans could experience disruptions or discontinuation of transit service, increased commute times via car and public transit, and potential job losses for the thousands of transit workers in our communities.
The impacts of failure will be felt statewide, and cuts to service cannot be easily reversed, even if funding is restored later.
Who: Illinois Senator Ram Villivalam, Illinois State Representative Marcus C. Evans, Carrie Lee Patterson (Actor/Director), Tiffany Rebb (CTA Bus Operator), and Orlando Rojas (Metra Conductor)
When: May 15, 2025
8:00 a.m.-8:30 AM
* More…
The Chicago City Council Committee on Transportation and Public Way today voted overwhelmingly to support a resolution calling on the Illinois General Assembly to invest $1.5 billion in transit to avert the impending transit fiscal cliff and reform Northeastern Illinois’ transit system to ensure transit is fast, frequent, reliable, clean, and safe. In response, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition released the following statement:
“With just over two weeks left for Illinois lawmakers to act on the transit fiscal cliff that will result in a massive 40% cut to all public transit trains and bus service, the Chicago City Council’s overwhelming support of $1.5 billion in transit funding and significant reforms reflects the dire need for a monumental solution to the current crisis. Approximately one million Chicagoans and visitors rely on public transit daily to access jobs, healthcare, retail, and recreation throughout the Chicagoland region; the public transit system is a major employer providing essential services; and public transit delivers significant environmental and climate benefits.
“The current status quo stands in the way of taking Chicagoans where they want to go safely and affordably, and alders and Chicagoans across the region alike agree that $1.5 billion in funding is needed this spring to close the funding gap and transform the system to deliver a world-class public transit system for Illinoisans across the Chicagoland region.”
- Remember the Alamo II - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 9:19 am:
I think the average person that commutes to work everyday doesn’t generally care about governance. They care about convenience, reliability, cleanliness and safety.
That is the challenge that needs to be met.
- DS - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 9:33 am:
I don’t like these responses at all. Reform yes, but leaving financials for later runs the risk of not getting to them at all. And that would be a catastrophe.
- hmmm - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 9:39 am:
I don’t think these guys have used public transportation. Fares are reciprocated across the system, at least between CTA and Pace.
Metra, no. But that’s commuter rail.
Anyway, the comment about seeing a Pace bus half a mile away and a CTA bus down the block when he leaves the house is very telling. I believe the President lives in Oak Park. Oak Park is where the City turns into the suburbs. So it makes sense that buses from both systems may operate near him. I’m not sure what that point was. Anyway, I’m trying to be optimistic but I don’t feel so good Mr. Stark.
- Center Drift - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 9:46 am:
With due respect to these leaders a few comments. 1, You really can’t project that far into the future.
2. Population density drives mass transit so the focus must be on population centers. Rural transit is a whole other challenge.
3. How nice of politicians to say we need to get rid of cars. When I see them doing it I’ll take their advice more seriously.
4. Most people I know would far prefer small individual vehicles for transportation from a safety perspective.
- phocion - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 9:46 am:
Boom!
- Transpocalypse - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 10:23 am:
The greatest accountability comes from cutting off the service, not the checks.
We learned that during the Rauner years.
As long as the service continues, we will hobble by.
If transit agencies respond to an elimination of payment with an elimination of service, then it will get real, real fast.
- ChicagoBars - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 10:26 am:
CTA & Metra should probably accept reality and hold a special board meeting to approve some fare hikes by July 1. With State revenue projections revised downward would be nice to finally see them pull a revenue lever they both fully control before they come back asking for more tax dollars.
Kennedy work has traffic awful in lot of north side again at rush hour. If they can’t get riders back now then current transit leadership is hopeless to turn things around long-term.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 10:36 am:
What a giant disappointment. This Mayor’s Office is one of the most venal in recent memory, and they have no ideas for how to make government better. Any average leader would see this as an opportunity — listen to some advocates, make some changes, secure some more long term funding. Instead, we have whatever this is.
- Cool Papa Bell - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 11:30 am:
I’ve been following the congestion pricing/tax in NYC over the past few months. And NYC and Chicago aren’t close when it comes to mass transit and density. But it is telling that a tax on drivers, to fund mass transit is working to change habits and increase ridership and drive down car traffic in areas of lower Manhattan.
I don’t think that a congestion pricing scheme would work the same way in Chicago, but again taxes and increase costs will change behavior. I’ll be curious if anyone has the fortitude to try something like that here.
It would be helpful, if the CTA would begin by making the ‘L cleaner and less of a nuisance to use. If people trusted the service more, it would be used more.
- Annon'in - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 11:49 am:
Still waitin’ for someone to ’splain how “reform” gets the trains and buses to take people where the need/want to go in the 2020s. Haulin’ 1 millon a day to the Loop is not is needed, but it IS what ya got.
- Dupage - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 12:00 pm:
As prices of everything goes up, the RTA sales tax revenue also goes up. Has this been taken into consideration?
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 12:04 pm:
===Has this been taken into consideration? ===
Yes.
- Michael McLean - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 12:38 pm:
===So perhaps the greatest accountability is cutting off the checks===
They would never do this to motorists. The double standard for transit riders is palpable.
- @misterjayem - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 1:10 pm:
“We are going to need to hold them accountable to reinvent the system so that it serves the people that we all represent who work for you all.”
I’m a motorist who looks forward to the day when highways and automobiles are held to this standard.
– MrJM
- Just Me 2 - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 1:11 pm:
The service agencies should just bite the bullet and raise fares. They’re going to have to do it regardless. The RTA should also send out new budget estimates for more state money not coming.
The mistake made in 2007 (remember the doomsdays) was an assumption the state would eventually come through. Let’s not repeat history.
- ChicagoBars - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 1:49 pm:
The Chicago City Council resolution if anyone needs a good chuckle at it’s robust suggestions for funding the system in the future.
https://occprodstoragev1.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/matterattachmentspublic/e3f40986-04bb-4ab4-882b-326e01e52baf.pdf
- Jon Knecht - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 1:50 pm:
Despicable. I am one of Chicago’s fiercest advocates, but even I would consider leaving if transit was left in the dust.
This MUST be solved. Chicago (and Illinois) cannot afford to lose its transit.
- Naqiy McMullen - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 2:33 pm:
Chicago is the economic heart of the entire Midwest. The vast economic concentration of jobs and industry is due to the transportation efficiencies provided by the public transit system. Allowing our public transit system to fail would have dire consequences for working families, local and national businesses, and the entire economy of the Midwest. Leaders simply cannot allow the devastating transit cuts to move forward if they care about the State’s future.
As someone who moved to Chicagoland to be able to live without an automobile, failure to fund transit would force our family to move and I’m sure many others would have to make the difficult decision to relocate if they could no longer depend on Chicago’s transit for transportation. The economic costs from lost tax revenue would be far greater than the costs of funding transit. We need revenues and reform, but not providing essential funding for transit is simply not an option unless leaders want to destroy the entire economy of Illinois.
- Joseph M - Wednesday, May 14, 25 @ 2:47 pm:
“Reforms are necessary. The rider-focused reforms. Any of our constituents should be able to walk out their front door and get anywhere in the RTA service area without worrying whether they were on a CTA bus or a Pace bus, CTA, L or a Metra train. They should have one app on their phone or one card in their pocket and one schedule.”
This is the right attitude. The purpose of a transit agency isn’t to let Metra/CTA fight over rider profits, or even to provide jobs. It’s to take people from point A to point B quickly and efficiently. Anyone who doesn’t start off conversations with a focus on RIDERS and how service will improve is missing the point. RTA has had years to unify the fares and they haven’t done it despite a state mandate. There is no excuse for this. Revenue AND reforms. Not one. BOTH.