Chicago’s Public Transit Problems

There are a lot. From Chicago Contrarian: Chicago’s Transit Crisis

In 2026, the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) projected a $771 million operating shortfall across the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, and Pace. Of that gap, roughly $605 million belongs to the CTA alone, a deficit large enough to swallow the entire budgets of many midsize cities. The pandemic’s federal lifeline money will expire, ridership remains well below pre-2020 levels, and the system’s labor and pension obligations continue to grow faster than its farebox revenue.

As a result, transit is facing some hard times, and hard choices. I have no doubt that they will just raise taxes on the people who don't use those transportation modes. (When I last paid any attention to the RTA, it was funded mostly be a tax on gasoline.)

CTA consists of the Chicago buses and the L trains, though they are not all elevated. There are plenty of subways, and once out of downtown, a fair number of trains run at ground level. Metra is commuter rail, running mostly on Amtrak lines to the suburbs, and Pace (if memory serves) are the buses that connect Cook County to the "collar counties." The counties surrounding Cook County pay into the slush fund that is the Regional Transportation Authority, which provides a lot of the funding.

In 2026, the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) projected a $771 million operating shortfall across the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, and Pace. Of that gap, roughly $605 million belongs to the CTA alone, a deficit large enough to swallow the entire budgets of many midsize cities. The pandemic’s federal lifeline money will expire, ridership remains well below pre-2020 levels, and the system’s labor and pension obligations continue to grow faster than its farebox revenue. In a city that still relies on its century-old idea of “public transit,” its finances now look increasingly unsustainable even with many firms now mandating five days in person workdays.

An interesting (to me) part of the article is the history. Once upon a time, transit was privately run in Chicago. The city capped fares, and kept those caps in place for decades, driving the firms out of business.

This was part of a broader post-war American trend. Every major city including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles took its private transit monopolies and made them public monopolies instead. Economists called it “municipalization.” Politicians called it “progress.” Either way, the discipline of the market was replaced by the inertia of government. As Ronald Reagan said, “If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.”

This issue is only one "fiscal cliff" facing Chicago, and I have no faith that Mayor Brandon Johnson is up to the task.