In the early hours of the morning of October 31st, 2025, the Illinois General Assembly, the state’s legislative body, was in their final hours of their Fall “Veto” Session in Springfield, IL. At 4:20am, after passing the State House of Representatives with a vote of 72-32, the State Senate voted to pass bill SB2111. This bill restructures the Regional Transportation Authority of Northern Illinois (RTA) into a new body called the Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA), as well as provides $1.5 billion of stable state-level funding to Chicagoland’s transit system, as well as downstate transit agencies (transit agencies outside of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties).
Since 2022, transit agencies in Chicagoland have had millions of dollars of federal COVID-19 relief funding to supplement loss of revenue due to ridership dropping during the pandemic. In 2026, that funding is set to expire, and a large budget deficit was anticipated due to a substantial funding source running out [1]. This bill eliminates this so-called “fiscal cliff”. Had this bill not passed, the transit agencies would be forced to adopt slimmed down budgets and cut service by up to 40%, according to the RTA. These cuts could have included eliminated overnight CTA service and suspending service on over half of CTA bus routes, leaving many Chicagoans without access to frequent transit service [2].
The new bill provides funding from three major sources: motor vehicle fuel sales tax (often referred to as the “gas tax”), a 0.25% sales tax on Chicagoland counties, and the interest generated from the “Road Fund” (a special fund specified by Illinois Law to be used for transportation projects, including mass transit). Of the funds from fuel tax and Road Fund interest, 10% is designated for downstate Illinois transit agencies, with the other 90% designated for NITA. This amounts to $1.376 billion total for NITA and $145 million for downstate agencies. This funding will also be consistent and renew every year for the foreseeable future, unlike previous funding.
According to activist Spencer Blackwell, founder of Northern Illinois Urban Activists, the funding provided by SB2111 covers various capital expenses, such as enhancements and service expansion, as well as operations, which covers employee wages and maintenance. Blackwell spent time in Springfield last month advocating for funding solutions.
The transition to the NITA is set to begin on June 1st, 2026, when the bill will become active. This transition changes many administrative processes involving CTA, Metra (regional rail), and Pace (suburban buses). One of the main things that it changes is the structures of the NITA board and the service boards of CTA, Metra, and Pace to have members selected by a mixture of the governor, Chicago Mayor, and the various counties served by NITA. Some of the board members are shared between their service board and the NITA board, others are service board-specific. The bill also addresses a major funding friction point: the previous 50% farebox recovery ratio has been adjusted to 20%. The farebox recovery ratio refers to the amount of operational funding (used for the cost of running service, such as electricity, maintenance, hiring, and wages) that must come from rider fares as opposed to other sources, such as taxes. The previous 50% ratio was limiting to the operations of the services.
While most of these changes will happen in the background, the bill mandates a few major rider-facing changes, including a unified fare system between CTA, Metra, and Pace, the reopening of Racine station on the Englewood branch of the Green Line, and the reopening of Central Station on the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line.
Sources:
[1] https://www.rtachicago.org/transit-funding/fiscalcliff
[2] https://www.rtachicago.org/about-rta/press-releases/transit-agencies-sound-the-alarm-on-looming-transit-cuts-one-in-five-city-workers-could-lose-access-to-transit-for-their-daily-commute-thousands-of-jobs-at-risk-if-state-does-not-act