CHICAGO — Expanding on a warning issued by Metra’s CEO earlier this month, the Chicago-area Regional Transportation Authority has released a dire picture of potential cuts to area transit if a potential $770 million funding shortfall is not addressed before the current state legislative session ends in May.
Metra CEO/Executive Director Jim Derwinski said Metra could need to cut service by 40% without funding help at a March 12 presentation to Northwestern University’s Sandhouse Rail Group [see “Metra could face 40% service cuts …,” Trains News Wire, March 12, 2025]. In a press release today (March 21, 2025), the RTA details what those Metra cuts might look like, as well as projecting similar cuts for Chicago Transit Authority and Pace rail and bus service.
— For Metra, early morning and late evening trains would be eliminated, and trains would run just once hourly on weekdays and every two hours on weekends. Metra’s BNSF line could see less than half of its current 91 trains per weekday; the operator also warns that on lines shared with freight railroads, it would have limited flexibility to restore service once it is cut, meaning restoration could take five years or more even if funding is found later. Service would be eliminated on the Metra Electric’s seven-station Blue Island branch, which currently sees 22 trains on weekdays and eight on weekends.
“No one wants to envision a scenario where such severe cuts are necessary,” Derwinski said in the release. “But we hope that by detailing the cost of inaction, our elected representatives will take action to make sure public transportation not only survives but thrives.”
— Service would be suspended on all or part of at least four of the CTA’s eight rail lines, with 50 stations either closed or seeing drastically reduced service. On the remainder of the system, frequencies would be cut by 10 to 25%. As many as 74 of the CTA’s current 127 bus routes could be cut, leaving Chicago with fewer bus routes than Madison, Wis., and 500,000 current riders without a nearby bus stop.
“The results of a 40% service reduction are unconscionable, and no decisions about our service future will be made without community input,” said CTA Acting President Nora Leerhsen. “…. We’ve yet to see what public transit looks like when fully funded, and we want to make sure we can continue to provide safe, frequent, reliable and accessible services our region deserves.”
— The suburban Pace bus service could see elimination of all bus service, an end to operations after 8 p.m. on 62 routes, and headways increase to 30 to 60 minutes on its more frequently traveled routes. Federally mandated paratransit service would continue, but its service area would decrease by two-thirds on weekends.
“These cuts would have a devastating impact on our region and the people who need transit the most,” said Pace Executive Director Melinda Metzger. “… All the progress we’ve made to adapt to new travel patterns, boost frequency, and expand access would be lost.”
The RTA says the cuts would leave one in five workers in Chicago unable to use public transit for their daily commute and eliminate nearly 3,000 transit jobs. “The magnitude of these cuts is unprecedented and would require several rounds of schedule adjustments in 2026 and beyond,” the agency says in the release.
However, the suburban Daily Herald reports that some state legislators are saying the agencies must be reformed before they provide funding. A proposal floated last year seeks to combine the RTA, Metra, CTA, and Pace into a single agency [see “Illinois bill proposes merger …,” News Wire, April 30, 2024]. And state Rep. Marty Moyland (D-Des Plaines), chair of the House Transportation Committee on Regulation, Roads and Bridges, told the paper he wants the agencies to address overtime, lobbyist costs, and policing: “I’m not going to give them a dime until we get some reforms. If they’re going to threaten me with layoffs, they can start laying off from the top.”
The RTA board is scheduled to further discuss these cuts in a March 27 meeting at 9 a.m. in the board room at 175 W. Jackson Blvd. That meeting is open to the public and will also be available online.
Why in the world does not METRA reduce consists if they are running empty most of the time. Just run very short trains and not pay ~~ $4.00 per empty car mile?
Obviously the drop in ridership since COVID is due to less people returning to the office on regular basis so I’m sure rush hour on the roads have seen a comparable decrease. That said this should mean less funding for more roads also, especially any expansion should be tabled. With the coming recession travel habits will be changing further with even less rush hour travel.
This unpleasant situation will undoubtedly have devastating effects on the region.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Please note for all the Trump bashers that this is all occurring in deep blue political territory. Let’s not forget that Chicago is also changing as people are leaving and the downtown area isn’t as safe as it once was. I live in Ohio and have a Ventra card. But I’m weary of spending much time in Chicago any more.
Tax every large company for each employee that has to commute into the city. Each employee gets a free pass for the train. Double the tax if the pass isn’t used. The higher the salary and compensation, the higher the tax.
The original Mayor Daley attempted a similar scheme several times right up to his death.
He proposed a head tax on every employer in Chicago who had employed people who didn’t live in the city limits.
The City Council kept turning it down as they were afraid it would do the opposite, scare companies away from Chicago.
The people running Metra are braindead. As I understand it Metra is still running with only 40 percent of their pre-Covid patronage. That means they have lost 60 percent of their customer base. in other words, people are NOT buying what Metra is selling. How many private companies could survive a 60 percent loss in business?
And no one is riding the trains on Monday and Friday. The commuter lots here in Downers Grove are only full three days per week.
RTA and the operating companies have cried Wolf before. Let’s call their bluff this time and make the cuts and see what happens. Who knows? You could easily eliminate half the stations and probably one-third of the trains and no one would notice because no one ride the trains anymore.
If people are commuting only 3 days a week, is it still cost-effective to buy a monthly pass? And a second thought, if people are buying a monthly pass but only riding 3 days a week isn’t Metra still getting revenue even if there is no rider on given days?
Good idea, sounds like we can start by closing the Downers Grove station?
Reorganize the RTA into 2 distinct operations.
– Merge the Metra heavy rail ops with the CTA light rail.
– Merge CTA bus ops with PACE
Eliminate the administrative overhead and abate a large amount of Chicago patronage
Since it is suburban workers who are declining to use the service post-COVID, but they want to keep frequency, raise the RTA sales tax in the suburban counties from .75 percent, to a full 1 percent. That would put them in parity with their Cook County neighbors.
Add Winnebago (Rockford), DeKalb (NIU) and Kendall (Oswego/Yorkville) and Boone (Belvidere) Counties to the RTA taxing district at the entry level .50 percent rate. Escalate it to .75 percent in 10 years. They all are in the process of requesting or getting new service (ie: Rockford)
The Big One likes taxes, so he will sign it immediately.
Here are the current tax rates for RTA:
1.00 percent sales tax on general merchandise in Cook County
1.25 percent sales tax on qualifying food, drugs, and medical appliances* in Cook County
0.75 percent sales tax on general merchandise and qualifying food, drugs, and medical appliances* in Du Page, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties
Good comments (as always) John. Now go 110 miles north. Milwaukee County and (within the county) the city, have raised their sales taxes, a boost to stores in Waukesha County (except auto dealers — cars are levied sales tax not where they are purchased, but where they will be registered). Difference is, the collar counties around Milwaukee County don’t have the level of subsidized public transportation that the collar counties around Chicago do. And these Wisconsin counties never will, seeing the endless and increasing costs.
A Milwaukee County Transit System bus carrying two or three (or fewer) riders won’t be extended into Waukesha County. Fixed rail in Metro Milwaukee? Liberals keep clamoring for it, but not one of them could come up with a realistic plan, let alone the money that would be needed.
No service industry (transportation or any other service) has ever cut its way to prosperity. To call these possible cuts “catastrophic” is saying it like it is.
So what’s the solution? News flash: the solution will need to come from Springfield, not from the federal government. That game is over. Whether you’re a school district, or a transit authority, or a park district, the decades when your local deficits have been made up by BORROWED federal money, are coming to an end.