Promoted

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.

As we approach the the end of October, things are getting eerie. I'm not talking about spectral Halloween decorations. (Sorry, I wound up squeezing two different holiday references into this post.) Rather, I'm referring to the haunting possibility that state legislators may go home from their fall veto session, wrapping up Tuesday through Thursday of next week, without passing a transit reform and funding bill. That could result in service cuts and layoffs, which would indeed be frightful.

The police chief provided information about the movements of the truck driver and bike rider before the crash, and said the department is trying to meet with IDOT.

In May 2024, Juan Sebastian Arias started his current position as executive director of Elevated Chicago, an organization that helps encourage equitable transit-oriented development. Here's an interview with him from back then by Streetsblog Chicago's John Greenfield.

Whether the subject is traffic safety or transit funding you can almost always count on the right-leaning Illinois Policy Institute think tank to get the story wrong when it comes to livable streets issues.

This post is sponsored by The Bike Lane.

This fall, Metra has been testing its prototype Café Car on most of its highest-ridership rail lines and stations. It has coffee shop-inspired counters, tables, and seating. During the first week, September 30 to October 6, it ran on the Rock Island line. This week, the Café Car ran from Tuesday to today on the BNSF Line between Union Station and Aurora. It's the busiest route, and some runs stop in Riverside, the historic west-suburban village where I live. See next week's schedule for the pilot at the bottom of this post.

By Alex Baum, Regional Director – ERA-co