The Regional Transportation Authority of Northern Illinois, which oversees financing and planning for three Chicago-area transit agencies, said Friday it faces a $770 million funding gap in 2026 that could result in large cuts to service and layoffs of almost 3,000 transit workers.

The RTA is asking the Illinois General Assembly to not just plug the hole, but invest an additional $1.5 billion in operating funds to help improve the transit system, and to do so by the end of the current legislative session on May 31.

Compounding the area’s transit woes was a remark from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who threatened March 19 to stop funding transit systems in Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C., if they did not reduce crime.

Like many large-city transit agencies, Chicago saw a significant drop in ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic. The RTA sounded the alarm bell in 2022, warning that it would face a fiscal cliff in 2026 as pandemic-era relief funds ran out. State funding for the RTA was the lowest of six large transit agencies in 2019, according to a 2023 report from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

The RTA said it would begin planning for service cuts immediately after the end of the legislative session if “sustainable funding” is not made available. “This isn’t just a transit crisis—it’s a regional emergency,” said RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden in a statement.

In this scenario, the Chicago Transit Authority would suspend service on all or a portion of four rail lines and could eliminate up to 74 of its 127 bus routes. Metra, the region’s commuter rail system, would see a 40% reduction in service. Weekday trains would run just once an hour and every two hours on weekends, while late evening and early morning trains could be eliminated.

Cuts would also hit the region’s suburban bus and paratransit service called Pace. Bus service would be cut back and paratransit service would shrink by 66% on weekends, according to the RTA. “The momentum we’ve built to create a more responsive and equitable transit system—one that supports economic growth and connects people to jobs and opportunity—would come to a halt, setting us back years,” Pace Executive Director Melinda Metzger said in a statement.

Read the full article about fiscal and federal threats to transit by Dan Zukowski at Smart Cities Dive.