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• More coverage of Pritzker playing Sir Thomas Bringdown III re: the House transit bill (Trib, Evanston Roundable, WTTW, WGN, CBS, NBC, Bloomberg)

Update Friday 10/31/25, 9:00 AM: It was scary when the Illinois General Assembly floor debate over transit legislation entered the Halloween witching hours. But thankfully it looks like we've avoided a "Nightmare on Second Street" (the roadway where the state capitol is located). Here are some features of the new legislation that passed with $1.5 billion for public transportation, raised without statewide taxes, which I gleaned from a report by Capitol News Illinois and a summary by Capitol Fax.

• Illinois Policy is back on their... ridiculousness, demanding upgrades to transit that are already in bill, while rejecting new revenue sources to fund them

By Ellen Steinke

• RTA board captain Kirk Dillard: "The real consequences of not funding transit in Illinois" (Tribune)

If you weren't already convinced that the Illinois Policy Institute think tank is an alarmist right-wing organization, just check out the homepage of their blog. The headlines are screaming at you in all caps. And they seem to carefully select the most unflattering screenshots possible of progressive leaders such as Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a strategy right out of the Fox News playbook.

• New Illinois Policy op-ed in Daily Herald: proposed driving fees to fund transit are unfair to suburbanites, even though they'd prevent Metra and Pace cuts

This post isn't completely within Streetsblog Chicago's wheelhouse, but I thought many of our readers would enjoy it, so I recently wrote it up, mostly during an evening at my after-hours office.

It's getting down to the wire as Illinois legislators try to pass a transit reform and funding bill during their fall veto session, which wraps up next week from Tuesday through Thursday. If they don't approve such legislation soon, the result could be major service cuts and layoffs for the CTA, Metra, and Pace.