* Tribune transportation reporter Talia Soglin…

Regional transportation officials agreed Thursday to transfer $74 million from Pace and Metra to the CTA in an effort to delay catastrophic transit cuts in Chicago next year.

After an at-times lively discussion, Regional Transportation Authority board members unanimously approved the measure, which is a bid to buy more time as they hope state lawmakers will pass long-term funding for public transit during a legislative veto session in October.

The Chicago region’s transit agencies are facing a budget shortfall in the hundreds of millions next year as federal pandemic aid runs out. If lawmakers — who failed to pass transit funding during their spring legislative session — don’t come to their rescue, the CTA, Metra and Pace will be forced to cut service up to 40%. But the CTA was expected to run out of federal dollars first, months before Metra and Pace.

The decision to shift funds around means the CTA is now expected to hit its fiscal cliff in the middle of 2026. Metra is expected to hit its cliff mid-to-late 2026, with Pace’s cliff not expected until 2027, according to the RTA.

* Daily Herald…

Director Brian Sager, who represents McHenry County, worried about the “vagueness” of the recommendation and lack of guarantees it would only be a one-time diversion.

“What will Metra and Pace be sacrificing?” he asked. […]

Sager argued the fiscal cliff “is here today and by taking this action we are continuing to postpone … that agony. Why isn’t it better to force our legislators right now to see the reality of where we are today with CTA?”

The transit system is intertwined and major cuts to one agency impact the whole, RTA Chairman Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale noted.

“If you have a Pace bus show up at a Metra station and there’s no Metra train, that’s a problem,” he said. “We’re one region — all three service boards (need) to be working as one system, more today than ever.”

* The RTA directors also discussed fare increases and caps on a popular but over-budget rideshare program. Streetsblog Chicago…

As Chicagoland faces a $771 million transit fiscal cliff, the disability community could be particularly hard-hit by service cuts. And already the Regional Transportation Authority is trying to address an ADA Paratransit budget shortfall for the 2025 fiscal year. Today the agency’s board of directors voted to fund this year’s shortfall. “2025 ADA ridership will exceed budget by 1.3 million to 1.8 million rides, producing a potential shortfall of $35 million to $65 million in the absence of mitigating actions,” the agency explained in a blog post today.

RTA says it has developed an ADA Paratransit Action Plan with the goal of mitigating, “the continued, unsustainable growth in RAP and TAP ridership and costs.” These are Pace’s Taxi Access Program and Rideshare Access Program, which subsidize these modes as an alternative to traditional transit and Paratransit. The action plan called for the following changes, which were approved by the RTA board in June as part of the plan (their language):

• “Pace establishing a 30 ride per month cap for both RAP and TAP”

• “Restoring the current $2 RAP and TAP fares to match traditional ADA at $3.25″

• “Offering free rides on all system-wide fixed route service to ADA-certified riders, which is currently offered only on Pace fixed routes”

These changes, discussed at six July community meetings, will go into effect on October 1.

* Evanston Now…

[Marla Davis, who has two adult sons with intellectual disabilities], and about 15 other riders or their relatives urged the RTA not to limit the number of trips. […]

RTA board members were sympathetic, but said only about 5% of the system’s nearly 300,00 RAP/TAP riders take more than 30 monthly trips, and subsidizing more than that could jeopardize the entire service.

RTA chair Kirk Dillard told the advocates that “we have to make adjustments so the program remains sustainable.” […]

Originally, the idea a few years ago was to get paratransit users out of the more expensive fixed-route vans, and into taxis and rideshare vehicles.

But about a third of RAP/TAP users turned out to be new riders, not those switching from fixed route vans. So the savings never materialized, and the expenses went up, to $2.3 million per month just for the additional third.

Thoughts?

* More…

* ABC Chicago | Illinois lawmakers call for special session to address $771M public transit shortfall: [W]hile some lawmakers would like to see the governor call a special session before the end of the month, that is considered unlikely. “We talk to state legislators every day. They know the importance of mass transit. They know there’s a fiscal cliff. They’ve had a lot of pressures on them, but I’m confident they’re going to come up with a solution that’s workable and viable,” Dillard said.

* Tribune | As CTA tax district rakes in huge amount of taxpayer money, decision looms over what to do with it: The district has already taken in just under $400 million since 2017. It is on track to pay off a major facelift of four Chicago Transit Authority stations and the century-old infrastructure connecting them way ahead of schedule and estimated to bring in just shy of $100 million annually by 2031. The billion-dollar question is whether the CTA will keep receiving cash infusions from the district to help pay for future projects once the first phase is paid off, or if the money will instead be recouped by the city and other taxing bodies that are facing their own looming budget catastrophes.