Both will be in jeopardy if Congress doesn’t provide more COVID relief funds, transit officials say.
Overnight el service and weekend Metra trains may well be on the chopping block if Congress does not approve additional COVID relief money, Chicago area transportation chiefs warn.
In an interview taped as part of Crain’s Transportation Series: Chicago’s Public Transportation Challenge, CTA President Dorval Carter and Regional Transportation Authority Chairman Kirk Dillard both warned of very difficult times ahead if Washington does nothing to at least partially renew the $1.4 billion that will be exhausted by March.
“We’re in a world of hurt,” with ridership down 70 percent or more because many more people are working from home and because RTA sales tax revenue is in steep decline, too, Dillard said.
Unless something changes, that will poke a hole of “at least probably $400 million,” in the range of 20 to 22 percent, in RTA’s budget and its ability to pass on subsidies to CTA, Metra and Pace, Dillard said… Please click here to read Greg Hinz’s story in Crain’s.