NITA's new $5B budget proposal boosts bus, rail frequency, safety commitments

The Northern Illinois Transit Authority wants your input on its expanded 2027 budget that aims to improve service and safety on CTA, Metra and Pace.

NITA's proposed operating budget is 15% larger than the current year — $5.02 billion compared to $4.3 billion — thanks to additional tax revenue from the NITA Act.

This is NITA's first time proposing its own budget for the transit agencies it now oversees. Under the Regional Transportation Authority, which NITA replaced in September, the transit agencies proposed their own budgets. Now, NITA is taking the lead in budgeting to better coordinate bus and rail service.

Here's some of what the 2027 budget funds:

• No fare increases
• A trained "transit ambassador," a customer service representatives hitting the system next summer
• A CTA pilot early next year for high-barrier gates to combat fare evasion
• Continued funding of increased police and social service presence
• Six CTA bus routes adding all-night service: No. 12 Roosevelt, No. 35 31st/35th, No. 47 47th, No. 72 North, No. 85 Central and No. 155 Devon
• Some Pace Bus routes getting Sunday service: routes 501, 507, and 508 in Joliet, routes 524, 530, and 533 in Aurora, and Route 213 on Green Bay Road
• Metra adding more frequent trains to the Rock Island Line
• Over 200 electric or hybrid buses for CTA and Pace

Meanwhile, NITA added around $900 million in new funding to its 5-year capital plan of $9.7 billion.

Among the plan's biggest projects for 2027:

• Fixing slow zones on the Blue Line's Forest Park branch from Kedzie to Pulaski
• A Pace electric bus garage in Waukegan
• A rehab of the CTA's 43rd St. Green Line station
• New elevators at the Western Brown Line station
• Nearly 100 new 7000 series L rail cars
• For Metra, a new Rock Island Line station at 79th Street and Lowe Avenue

Looking long-term, NITA's 5-year capital budget puts its largest investments in the Red Line Extension ($3.29 billion), nearly half a billion for new CTA rail cars, $404 million for new CTA buses, and $483 million for Metra's battery-powered trains.

NITA is expecting $1.3 billion in additional revenue next year from expanding of the Chicago-region sales tax and redirecting some of the state's sales tax on gas.

The draft budget is available online at nita.illinois.gov/ and open for public comment through Dec. 4. NITA will hold several public hearings, including at their Nov. 14 board hearing in the Loop. The NITA board plans to vote on a final budget Dec. 10.