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Quote of the Week

“We've never seen anything this cataclysmic or this big before in terms of a crisis in mass transit.”

— Kirk Dillard, chairman of the Regional Transportation Authority Board of Directors speaking on the impending budget shortfall and subsequent massive service cuts

[Regional Transportation Authority Board of Directors, April 17, 2025]

Slashed funding = huge transit cuts

One in 5 Chicago workers may lose access to buses and trains as local public transit systems face a huge funding hole, officials say.

The Regional Transportation Authority reported a $771 million shortfall for the 2026 fiscal year, which could mean cutting up to 40% of public transportation services throughout the Chicago area if new state funding is not secured within the next six weeks. 

RTA officials implored the Illinois General Assembly to take action and allocate the necessary funds to stave off the crisis before the end of its spring session on May 31. At the start of this year, RTA launched “Transforming Transit,” an initiative to invest $1.5 billion to expand and improve Chicagoland transit. 

Cuts will hit Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace lines, drastically limiting services within Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, RTA officials have said. That could include suspending partial or complete service at at least four of the eight CTA train lines, closing or slashing services to over 50 stations. It could also mean eliminating up to 74 of 127 bus routes, leaving 500,000 CTA riders without a nearby bus stop, officials said. 

Nearly 3,000 transit workers would be laid off with a potential loss of $2.6 billion in wages every year caused by reduced mobility, increased congestion and job losses, officials said.

With these cuts, RTA officials said CTA would go from one of the largest transit systems in the country to having fewer bus routes than Madison, Wisconsin, and Kansas City — cities with a fraction of Chicago’s population. 

To further pressure the legislature to take action, the RTA launched the “Save Transit Now” campaign in an effort to inform the public of the dire state of the region’s transit and encourage Chicagoans to contact their state representatives.

What you can do:

“A few more weeks”

Alders say they need more time to nail down the details before voting on the Green Social Housing Ordinance. 

Aimed at addressing the affordable housing crisis in Chicago and the uncertain federal funding landscape, the ordinance would establish an independent non-profit in charge of creating energy-efficient, mixed-income developments with permanently affordable housing.

Joint City Council committees on Housing & Real Estate and Finance have reconvened twice, as many alders shared concerns about the structure and oversight of the nonprofit. The housing committee and the Law Department  amended the ordinance to address these concerns. 

One change mandates that the independent non-profit must cooperate with the Chicago Office of the Inspector General in any investigations, audits or reviews. “That solves one set of problems,” said Inspector General Deborah Witzburg. Some  questions around the application and enforcement of the city’s ethics rules still remain, Witzburg said.  

Still, Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) successfully moved to keep the ordinance in committee, saying alders “just got this substitute … and I’m not comfortable voting on this currently.”

Although the ordinance won’t come before the full City Council yet, funding is already set aside through the 2024 Housing and Economic Development Bond which established a $135 million revolving loan fund for green social housing.

What you can do:

Catch up on the headlines: 

  • Green social housing ordinance introduced at City Council meeting | Chicago Tribune

  • The case for green-lighting green social housing in Chicago | Chicago Sun-Times

  • ‘Social housing’ is on the Seattle ballot, but what is it? | Seattle Times

A version of this story was first published in the April 23, 2025 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.

Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Civic Editor Dawn Rhodes at dawn@citybureau.org.