Chicagoland transit heads push back on proposal to combine agencies

CHICAGO — The leaders of the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace on Tuesday all pushed back on a proposal to merge into one entity in what was the first of six Illinois Senate Transportation Committee hearings across the state to discuss the future of public transit in Chicagoland.

The Regional Transportation Authority coordinates the systems, but the three agencies operate independently. The RTA is facing a $730 million fiscal cliff in two years when federal COVID relief funds run out.

Proposal would merge Chicago’s transit agencies into one

The Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act, unveiled earlier this year by state Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) and state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado (D-Chicago), aims to streamline services and reduce the competition for funding between the RTA, the CTA, Metra and Pace.

“We all want to do the best job we can and do not believe that combining us into one organization will make us better,” said Pace Executive Director Melinda Metzger.

Transit leaders noted that among the major transit systems in the country, Chicago ranks last, at 17%, in terms of the percentage of their budgets coming from local and state tax dollars. Philadelphia sits at 50%, followed by Boston at 44%, Washington, D.C. at 42% and New York City at 28%.

Embattled CTA president Dorval Carter pointed to a lack of funding, rather than cooperation among the agencies, for the region’s transportation issues.

“I’ve heard all of this before. I’ve been through governance reforms. I’ve been through funding reforms. I’ve been through all of this, and what I know hasn’t been adequately addressed is the fact that the funding that’s been provided for public transit has never, ever aligned with the governance that was put in place,” he testified. “What I mean by that is that we’ve never had the level of funding to truly allow for a discretionary funding program that would be controlled by RTA, that would allow RTA to basically direct priorities.”

RTA chairman Kirk Dillard, a former Illinois state senator, also called on lawmakers to expand funding for transit, saying service cuts could mean a loss of more than $2 billion a year to the local economy.

“We’ve got a choice to make. You’ve got a choice to make,” he said. “We can set off a downward spiral of poor service, job loss, pollution, congestion in the fiscal cliff scenario, or we can put and uplift our residents and the economy with a boost to the backbone of our regional mobility, which we prefer: the expansion scenario.”

CTA bus driver Jason Nawls, a member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local #241, said he feared that jobs would be lost in a consolidation plan.

“All of you want the service, but none of you wants to pay for it,” he said. “Only by funding the system and recognizing the service that the CTA and its employees truly provide will the situation be resolved.”

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Additional testimony came from Metra CEO and Executive Director Jim Derwinski, Chicago Federation of Labor Deputy Chief of Staff Andrea Kluger, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lavin and Metropolitan Planning Council Vice President Kendra Freeman.

Future Hearings

Wednesday, July 24 at 10 a.m.
South Suburbs of Cook County
Subject: Transit must be accessible and equitable

Thursday, Aug. 8 at 10 a.m.
Counties of DuPage, Will, and Kendall
Subject: Transit support community quality of life

Wednesday, Aug. 28 at 10 a.m.
Kane County and McHenry County
Subject: Transit is crucial for public health

Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 10 a.m.
Northwest Suburbs of Cook County and Lake County
Subject: Transit mitigates climate impact

Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 10 a.m.
Springfield
Subject: Funding transit is a statewide priority

Exact locations of most of the hearings are to be determined. Sen. Ram Villivalam, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, will announce the remaining locations of the hearings and any other relevant information on his website at SenatorRam.com and on his Facebook page.

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