The Northern Illinois Transit Authority’s recently proposed budget includes significant investment toward expanded services, rider and worker safety, and nearly 440 new jobs.
The authority’s Proposed 2027 Regional Transit Operation Budget and Five-Year Capital Program is the first since beginning operations on Sept. 1 to oversee the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace. Officials said the budget includes $5.04 billion in operating expenses, as well as significant investment in the reforms promised in the legislation that formed the agency, and ensure the four transit agencies continue to deliver for their riders.
“NITA is ready to lead a more connected, more reliable, safer regional transit system, and this budget puts that commitment into action,” NITA interim executive director Jamie Rhee said. “We are bringing agencies together, setting regional priorities and holding ourselves and our operating agencies accountable for results that riders, frontline workers and the taxpayers can see and experience.”
The proposed budget also details nearly $10 billion in the 2027-2032 Five-Year Capital Program that invests in vehicles, stations, tracks, bridges, signals, facilities and technology, including $990 million in new funding from the NITA Act, as well as federal and state sources.
The agency said the proposed budget and capital plan reflects the reality of a transit system that has experienced more than five consecutive years of year-over-year ridership growth, and an 80 percent satisfaction rating in June of this year. As the growth continues, the budget will expand service across CTA, Metra and Pace, officials said, while funding health and human services support, improving safety initiatives and adapting more frequent service with better-coordinated schedules and transfers, and clearer customer information.
Early capital enhancements include 150 new hybrid-electric buses for CTA, a new Metra station in Auburn Park along the Rock Island Line, and an electric bus garage in Waukegan to support zero-emission buses at Pace’s Lake County division, as well as regional enhancements including pilot phases of a NITA regional signage program, and a regional bus shelter.