Sometimes right now it feels like Chicagoland residents are on a runaway train (or a scene from the 1994 city bus thriller Speed?) hurtling towards our region's looming transit fiscal cliff. Federal COVID-era public transportation subsidies for the CTA, Metra, and Pace, overseen by the Regional Transit Authority, are projected to run out in 2026. That would leave the systems with a total budget gap that would be the better part of a billion dollars.
If decision-makers don't take bold action now to improve the funding situation, we could wind up with in an endless cycle of service cuts, higher fares, and lower ridership, i.e. the much-feared "transit death spiral".
Fortunately, some elected officials are trying to grab the steering wheel. On Friday, we ran an interview on the subject with State Rep. Kam Buckner (D-26th). Last April in the Illinois House, he sponsored HB5823, the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act, which would consolidate the four agencies into one. That could help better coordinate service and lower costs.
Around same time, Illinois transportation committee chair State Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-8th), along with state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, (D-3rd), introduced similar state legislation to merge the agencies. It would also provide an additional $1.5 billion in transit funding. Here's our recent interview with Sen. Villivalam, edited for clarity and brevity.
Cameron Bolton: According to the RTA, Chicagoland is facing a $770 million total transit fiscal cliff in 2026. What are you doing at the state level to address this issue?
Ram Villivalam: The agency's service maintenance, improvements, and expansions are going to be fulfilled in terms of their obligations to the rider [and] to the taxpayer. We need to understand what those services will be maintained, improved, and expanded upon. We need a governance model that will hold this agency, or agencies accountable to deliver on that service. And after we understand what level of service we're going to achieve that our residents want, need, and deserve, what level of governance is going to hold them accountable to achieve that service. After that, we can discuss the funding that needs to take place. We've been consistent from the beginning. We've had six committee hearings in the Illinois Senate over 25 hours of testimony. And so we, a lot of our constituents, are looking for our public transit agencies to do better, and that's what we're going to continue to have a conversation on.
CB: What's your position on [the additional $1.5 billion in state funding for transit] and what's going on with this?
RV: We need to invest in Public Transit. There's no question from our business community about the organizations that represent workers, our environmental groups, and the everyday rider. There's a positive economic impact. There is an important livability factor. People rely on public transit to get to their jobs, their schools, the hospital to see their doctors, and so much more. So we need to deliver a transformational investment in public transit. That being said, there will be no funding from Springfield without reform.
CB: How do you feel about "flexing funding" from Illinois' Highway Trust Fund, which was recently increased via the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, to address the transit fiscal cliff, as was recently done in Pennsylvania?
RV: Conversations are ongoing in terms of how to fund public transit in the State of Illinois. As I mentioned, we're not there yet. We need to better understand what service the agencies will deliver and what governance will hold them accountable to deliver that service prior to discussing specific revenue or funding options.
CB: Last April, you introduced a bill to the Illinois General Assembly to consolidate the four Chicagoland transit agencies into a single Metropolitan Mobility Authority. What's going on with that?
RV: We've reintroduced that legislation at Senate Bill 5. As I've mentioned previously, the reality is that there's no other public transit system in the world that has four different agencies, with 21 appointing authorities and 47 different people to oversee public transit. So, that system was put in place over 40 years ago. It's created a lot of challenges in terms of how public transit is delivered as a service in our region. So that's why we've introduced Senate Bill 5 to have a robust conversation as to how best we can deliver service for our residents.
CB: How long do you think you're going to be having that conversation before you have an answer?
RV: I think we're going to have this conversation throughout the legislative session. We'll hold additional committee hearings, have meetings with stakeholders, and, you know, continue these conversations into May.
CB: You and some other officials went to Germany to look at their transit system. Has anything new occurred to you [after] comparing their transit system to ours?
RV: Absolutely. The visit to Germany was incredibly helpful. Our delegation trip really showcased how integrated public transit is possible. They had over 36 operators in Munich and 41 in Berlin. However, everything was coordinated. Everything was integrated. There were no challenges with public transit during our delegation trip. The frequency and the universal fare policy were all central to understanding how we can change public transit in our state. And there were real accountability mechanisms. If operators delivered service late, they would receive a penalty. If they delivered service on time or early consistently, they would get incentives. So accountability mattered. And I would also say that you know, we saw firsthand the reality that people were choosing public transit over their cars and trucks and so forth. It's not that they had fewer cars or trucks. The Munich area has more cars per 1000 households than the Chicago area. However, people are cautiously choosing to use public transit more by almost quadruple the amount in the Chicago area region because of how integrated, frequent, safe, reliable and accessible it was.
CB: Have you been talking about how to make Chicago more like that system there?
RV: Yes, that's definitely been a part of our conversations since we've taken that delegation trip, and it was a powerful trip because we had business groups, organized labor, and environmental groups on the trip together, and that's the coalition that we're going to need to ensure that we get this done.
CB: Is there any other part of the conversations you've been having [on addressing the fiscal cliff] that you can share with me?
RV: Overall, we're on the mission to provide safe, reliable, and accessible public transit to the residents of our state. We know that for every dollar that goes into public transit, more than $13 pumps out to our local economy. So, we are committed to this issue. That being said, again, there will be no funding without reform. We need to ensure better service for our residents and a governance that will hold that service accountable. Then, we can discuss what funding is available.
CB: Are there any other additional benefits to improve transit that you just want to mention?
RV: Obviously, to our economy. There's no question that, as we often discussed during the pandemic, our essential workers, whether you're a nurse at a hospital or a worker at a grocery store, rely on public transit. And so making sure they're able to get from their home to their job or drop their children off at school. It's an important lifeline for our essential workers, and that's why it's such an important part of our economy.
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