On November 12, at 1 p.m., the Northern Illinois Transit Authority will hold a public hearing on a single budget for NITA and the three transit agencies it supervises, CTA, Metra and Pace, at its offices on the 16th floor at 175 W. Jackson Blvd. The proposal changes transit planning across the Chicago metropolitan area.
For more than forty years, the Regional Transportation Authority acted primarily as a funding allocator. Operating under a financial framework from 1984 through 2025, the RTA gathered state and federal grants alongside sales tax revenue, established agency funding allocations and budgetary spending limits known as “marks,” and delegated final expenditure decisions entirely to the CTA, Metra, and Pace. Critics complained that the deadlines gave RTA little time to give input.
The passage of the NITA Act last October changed that arrangement. Instead of simply rubber-stamping three separate agency proposals, the authority is more involved in the budget process. According to NITA spokesperson Melissa Meyer, individual agencies still develop their own proposals, but the process now mirrors the role city departments play in the Evanston budget process where NITA staff and Board of Directors develop and approve the budget document that goes before the public.
How the Unified Budget Changes Suburban Transit Oversight
Suburban communities like Evanston are served by all three agencies that have collaborated on occasion but largely focused on their own priorities. Under the previous framework, agencies operated in isolated silos. The new model creates a more regional, more integrated transit network, although the three constituent operators still submitted their individual foundational budgets in early October to kickstart the collaborative drafting phase.
This transition year serves as a statutory bridge. While the three agencies are still required by NITA Act to file formal individual budgets with NITA by November 15, the NITA Act sunsets that requirement effective 2027. The upcoming November 12 public hearing was specifically scheduled at 1 p.m.—deviating from the usual RTA/NITA board 9 a.m. start time—to avoid direct scheduling conflicts with concurrent county board hearings in McHenry and Will counties that same morning.
Following the release during the first week of November, NITA staff and board members will take the proposed budget on a regional tour. The Cook County Board of Commissioners hearing is tentatively scheduled for November 18, alongside reviews by collar county governing boards. Public engagement strategy has also shifted noticeably. While CTA budget hearings historically drew large crowds, Metra and Pace typically held multiple meetings, with at least one hearing per county, which were usually lightly attended, save for Pace’s Chicago-based paratransit forums. NITA currently expects to approve the budget during its December 10 meeting at 9 a.m.
Metra Pursues Regional Rail Model with More Regular Service
Alongside the budgetary overhaul, the individual service operators are advancing major system improvement plans that will be submitted to the oversight agency next year to develop a regional plan. Metra is actively pursuing a transition from a traditional weekday commuter-oriented schedule toward a regional rail model featuring more regular service. The commuter rail agency’s Systemwide Network Plan outlines phases for the Union Pacific North Line, which serves Evanston through three local stations.
The first phase calls for increasing service to once every 30 minutes. Subsequent efforts involve boosting frequency to every 15 minutes along the route connecting Chicago and Winnetka, although this service upgrade comes with an estimated $112 million expense for purchasing 17 railcars and eight new locomotives. Metra’s draft plan suggests utilizing battery-powered electric train sets, similar to units ordered for the Rock Island District Line, though that technology requires the extra cost of adding charging infrastructure.
To gather public feedback on these concurrent modernizations, transit agencies have scheduled several community outreach sessions. Officials will appear at the Robert Crown Center on November 14 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Metra will host a virtual event on November 16 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., while the CTA is scheduled to host a Bus Vision outreach event at its downtown headquarters at 567 W. Lake St. on November 17 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
