Illinois Senate Bill 2111, passed by the Illinois General Assembly on October 31, 2025, makes major changes to the way transit service is governed and funded in Illinois. The legislation, which is expected to be signed by the Governor, becomes effective on June 1, 2026. This report briefly summarizes the components of this legislative breakthrough and assesses how well the legislation addresses the system’s underlying challenges. While the legislation specifies substantial governance…
The following is testimony delivered by Civic Federation Senior Policy Advisor Paula Worthington to the Regional Transit Authority's Ad Hoc Committee on Transit Funding on October 3, 2025. The original testimony has been edited slightly for publication.The Civic Federation, along with a number of other civic and business-oriented organizations, sent a letter to this Committee earlier this…
The Local Pension Dashboard is intended for use as a resource and educational tool to increase the accessibility of local pension fund data. The dashboard reports metrics for the ten major local pension funds within the City of Chicago and Cook County, Illinois, with data from 1996 to 2024 (2024 CTA data is not included as that data has not been released as of publication). Using this tool, dashboard users can create custom visualizations and comparisons of up to ten funds.
The Chicago Community Trust and the Civic Federation in partnership welcomed a dynamic moderated panel of regional transit experts at the Federation’s July 12 Board of Directors meeting, hosted by The Chicago Community Trust. Panelists included state Sen. Ram Villivalam, state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, Regional Transportation Authority Chair Kirk Dillard and Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning Executive Director Erin Aleman. Erik Cempel, president of Cempel International Transportation…
The Civic Federation today released a position paper calling on the Illinois General Assembly to pursue foundational structural reform of Northeastern Illinois’ mass transit systems—the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, Pace and the Regional Transit Authority (RTA)—by centralizing the service boards and operations under a single, duly empowered and resourced regional transit agency. Doing so would allow for more efficient, effective, integrated and equitable service delivery as well as…
CHICAGO — The Civic Federation today released a position paper calling on the Illinois General Assembly to pursue foundational structural reform of Northeastern Illinois’ mass transit systems—the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, Pace and the Regional Transit Authority (RTA)—by centralizing the service boards and operations under a single, duly empowered and resourced regional transit agency. Doing so would allow for more efficient, effective, integrated and equitable service delivery as…
The Civic Federation today releases a report calling for the consolidation of the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, Pace and the Regional Transit Authority into a single regional transit agency. The Federation urges linking transit governance reform with funding.
This blog post presents an overview of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) FY2024 operating budget. The CTA’s fiscal year is January 1 through December 31.Federal funds have been critical in maintaining transit service in the Chicago region since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The FY2024 CTA operating budget is balanced with $472.5 million in federal COVID relief funds, representing approximately 23.7% of the entire operating budget. The FY2025 projected budget gap of $481.2 million…
How should Illinois pay for public transit? This was one of the key questions posed at a recent policy forum on the topic of public transportation in the Chicago region hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Civic Federation and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. The policy forum, held on April 13, 2023, targeted a pressing issue: transit agencies in Chicago and across the nation are facing a crisis. Ridership has plummeted since the COVID-19 pandemic began and…
The CTA’s FY2023 budget of $1.8 billion was approved by the Regional Transit Authority Board of Directors on December 15, 2022. This blog presents an overview of that budget as well as data for CTA fiscal plans from FY2019 through 2025. Some of the key highlights of the current FY2023 budget and future fiscal plans include: The CTA has not cut bus or rail service, although there have been some service disruptions. Operating expenses have been projected to increase by 30.2% or $457.6 million…
