CHICAGO — Commuter operator Metra says it is considering the rarely used option of outside financing to address its increasingly urgent need to replace aging bridges.
Metra owns 446 of the 926 bridges on its system, and of those 446, 50% are more than 100 years old and another 30% are more than 75 years old, which the operator says is the typical service life of a steel bridge. While the older bridges remain safe, Metra says, they are increasingly expensive to repair and maintain.
“There is no way around it – these bridges must be replaced or rehabilitated, and they must be replaced soon, before our operations are impacted,” Metra Executive Director/CEO Jim Derwinski said in a press release. “Because this need is so urgent, we believe we must explore all our options, including financing, to address it.”
The cost of bridge repairs far exceeds the available local, state, and federal funding for capital projects, Metra says, with $5.4 billion in need as part of its 2025-2029 capital plan, against $2.1 billion in available funding.
While Metra has the ability to issue revenue bonds, it is considering borrowing an estimated $230 million from the federal Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program. RRIF offers lower interest rates and longer repayment period, along with other more favorable terms. Repayment of an estimated $15 million to $20 million a year would come from normal operating-fund sources, primarily fares and regional sales tax.
The process of applying for and closing on an RRIF load would take about a year. The money would be used to complete funding for a project to replace 11 bridges on the UP North on Chicago’s North Side; rebuild the bridge over Grand Avenue on the Milwaukee District lines in Chicago; rebuild bridges over the North Branch of the Chicago River on the Milwaukee District-North line at Northbrook and Rondout; and repair bridges on the Rock Island District over Hickory Creek between Mokena and New Lenox, and over 96th Street in Mokena. Those bridges were selected because the design process is or soon will be completed.
I recently listened to a podcast concerning Project 2025 regarding transit. It called for a halt to federal subsidies for transit. They view this as a state and local issue. As for paying back any loans, one possible solution, which would be as popular as a skunk at a church picnic, is to levy a one-dollar surcharge on all Metra tickets sold that would be solely dedicated to right of way infrastructure.
Project 2025 is influential to the new administration. It is not part of the administration and even less a part of the narrow Republican majorities in Congress.
Federal largesse has a constiuency in Congress in both parties. So the game will be played out.
If I stepped back from my dual emotions as a rail fan and as a METRA rider, I’d have to say that METRA is looking at bankruptcy.
No argument that these bridges need to be replaced. I ride over them myself. But let’s face a simple fact: METRA will have no ability to pay back these loans, if these loans are granted.
It becomes a question: who will pay for these bridges, the federals or the states (Illinois and Wisconsin). So far the Trump administration and its allies in Congress haven’t expressed a policy on federal funding of local transit. Or for that matter federal funding of other purely local programs like education. At some point, states and cities and transit districts and school districts might have to stop “balancing” their budgets with federal “revenue” which isn’t “revenue” at all, it’s deficit spending.
My state, Wisconsin, is running a surplus. That surplus would vanish in a microsecond if it weren’t backstopped by federal deficit spending.