Today’s Headlines for Wednesday, November 5

• Here are RTA, CTA, Metra, and Pace statements on the transit bill passing, including RTA becoming the Northern Illinois Transit Authority

• MPC’s recent post about the bill features a fun photo of some key advocates who were present at the birth in Springfield, looking sleep-deprived but excited

• Riders may wonder, can “CTA, Metra riders… expect fare hikes” (WGN, 11/4) or did “RTA [walk] back 2026 fare increases” (Sun-Times, 11/4)? The latter.

• Greg Hinz in Crain’s: “Lawmakers did only half the job of fixing Chicago’s creaky public transit system.”

• Like Streetsblog, a Tribune letter writer also used Otto von Bismarck’s sausage-making analogy to describe the messy but successful bill creation

• Sun-Times letter: Could we fight CTA smoking by making offenders pay for it through Ventra? Short answer: No, but it’s an interesting idea.

• High Speed Rail: Metra will hold public meetings on proposed 2026 budget today and tomorrow 4-6, at 8 different locations, w/ Chicago’s online tonight

• RTA board meeting Thursday 11/6, 8:30 AM, 175 W. Jackson Blvd., 16th floor, watch online here.

• Driver fatally struck grocery worker Darren Lucas, 59, Monday, around 6 PM as he crossed 5-lane Sheridan near 33rd near his workplace in Zion (LMCS)

• Motorist struck and killed man, 81, trying to cross five-lane Milwaukee near Knightsbridge in Lincolnshire Tuesday around 5:15 PM (ABC)

• A person died after their vehicle was struck by Metra MD-N Line train Thursday morning in suburban Grayslake (NBC)

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