Potential cuts to Chicago Transit Authority bus and rail service could be pushed to the last half of 2026, according to revised budgets shared Friday by transit agency bosses.
Transit administrators also renewed their plea for additional state funding from legislators who meet for the fall veto session later this month.
CTA, Metra and Pace have shrunken an expected $770 million budget shortfall next year to $202 million, agency heads said a special meeting called by the Regional Transit Authority.
The agencies accomplished that through a mix of administrative cuts, added revenue from a new online sales tax and an across-the-board fare increase of 10% to be implemented Feb. 1 next year.
It means that CTA bus and rail cuts that were expected as early as the first quarter of 2026 could be pushed to that summer. Metra and Pace service cuts would come next, possibly in early 2027.
But the future budget shortfall is still real, the agency heads said.
The projected combined transit shortfall rises to $789 million in 2027 — and $888 million in 2028, according to new RTA figures. The funding gap must be addressed with additional funding from state lawmakers who failed in May to pass a transit overhaul bill, transit administrators said.
Agency heads spelled out the general cuts they expect to make without added revenue.
New timeline of potential cuts
CTA’s Acting President Nora Leerhsen told the board it would be “the single largest transit service cut in the modern history of the Chicago Transit Authority.”
The CTA would begin public hearings on potential cuts in November 2025, to be followed by the 10% fare increase in February, she said. CTA would freeze hiring in the first quarter of 2026.
That summer, the CTA would implement its first round of service cuts and layoff 1,800 workers as the agency expends the last of its federal pandemic grants. A second round of service cuts would happen early 2027, adding up to a 25% cut to bus and rail service.
Up to 39 bus routes and one entire L line could be eliminated, she said, without saying which one. Overnight service could be eliminated, with bus and rail service ending at 10 p.m., she said. The frequency of buses could be reduced.
Service cuts to Metra and Pace would come later.
Metra CEO James Derwinski said the agency expects potential 40% train cuts in early 2027. Those reduced schedules would be set in the summer of 2026. The agency would also raise fares by 10% next February.
Pace Bus won’t see a budget shortfall until 2027 as well, due to the use of reserve funds next year and additional cuts to its ADA paratransit program next April, agency director Melinda Metzger said. Layoff notices would be sent in December 2026, followed by two rounds of service cuts: $22 million in the spring of 2027 and $24 million more in December 2027, she said.
RTA Board Chair Kirk Dillard said the meeting was another example of the agency’s transparency in the ongoing budget saga.
But state Rep. Dina Delgado, a lead negotiator for transit reform in the Illinois House, blasted the RTA’s new budget assessments as another complication in the ongoing transit reform process. She said it was an example for why the RTA needs to be reformed.
“Our legislative working group has engaged in a deliberate and thoughtful process for over a year now and has had to spend this summer digging deeper precisely because the RTA cannot be trusted to appropriately plan and communicate,” she said in a statement.
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