Politics

Transit Workers Raise Awareness of Looming $770M Budget Gap for Chicago-Area Public Transit Systems

Evanston resident Teresa Faceson, 63, doesn’t own a car and relies on the public transportation system to get to her job in Hyde Park working as a home health care worker.

With a looming $770 million budget gap facing the region’s public transportation systems, Faceson said service cuts would impact school children and the elderly who use public transit to pick up medication.

“It’s gonna affect a lot of people,” Faceson said. “I don’t have a car … Why should I drive if I live in a big metropolitan city?”

Workers with the Chicago Transit Authority gathered at an entrance of the Howard ‘L’ station Wednesday on the Far North Side to raise awareness of the impending budget gap facing the Chicago-area public transit systems at the CTA, Metra and Pace next year, when federal COVID-19 relief funding runs out.

A recent Regional Transportation Authority report found one in five workers in the city could lose access to transit during their daily commute if a funding solution is not found for the fiscal cliff.

The off-the-clock transit workers, represented by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, passed out flyers to morning commuters in support of a bill that aims to reform the area’s public transit systems, but stops short of combining the CTA, Metra, Pace and the RTA into a single agency, unlike what some advocacy groups have called for.

The United We Move Illinois proposal, or Senate Bill 1938, is supported by a group of more than 30 area unions called the Labor Alliance for Public Transportation. The proposal, in part, includes improving coordination among transit agencies and reducing the ratio for how much of transit agencies’ operating revenue must come from passenger fares.

Proponents of the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act proposal, which calls for combining the Chicago area’s public transit systems into a single agency, speak during a House transportation committee hearing on March 25, 2025, in Springfield. (Courtesy of BlueRoomStream)

ATU 308 President Pennie McCoach, who passed out flyers on Wednesday, said she is concerned about the potential for layoffs and service cuts under a merging of transit systems.

“The dynamic of all the agencies are different when it comes to benefits and services that’s provided,” McCoach said. “Consolidating will not help.”

On Tuesday, proponents of the United We Move Illinois proposal and the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act proposal, or SB5/HB1833, spoke during a House transportation committee hearing in Springfield. 

The Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act calls for a merger of the transit agencies.

The proposal to combine agencies is supported by the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, made of more than 200 environmental, consumer and health care organizations. The coalition said in a statement that it is looking forward to working with the labor alliance on funding solutions.

Chicagoland’s transit agencies have operated in silos for too long, according to a statement from Better Streets Chicago Executive Director Kyle Lucas, whose organization is a member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.

“Unifying our transit agencies is long overdue, and will ensure riders pay one fare, that our system operates as one, and that accountability to ridership is the top priority,” Lucas said in a statement.

Nick Blumberg contributed to this report.

Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]

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