IL: Metra unveils proposed 2026 budget, with riders to pay more

Metra riders should expect to pay an average of 13% more per ride next year as the commuter rail service proposes fare increases in response to a looming fiscal crisis.

The fare increases are outlined in Metra’s proposed 2026 budget, which agency board members voted to release Friday. The budget is subject to be approved by the agency’s board next month.

Metra, the CTA and suburban bus service Pace are facing a structural budget deficit as they get closer to running out of one-time federal pandemic relief funds. Ridership, meanwhile, hasn’t rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.

But despite the impending fiscal cliff, Metra has said it won’t need to cut train service next year — even if state lawmakers fail to approve additional transit funding during their legislative veto session this month.

That would change in 2027, Metra CEO Jim Derwinski said last week. Metra would then need to cut up to 40% of its service if lawmakers don’t green-light more funding, he said.

All in all, Metra is proposing an operating budget worth $1.1 billion in 2026. It expects to run out of its pandemic relief funds toward the end of next year.

The plan is “not the budget Metra wants to implement in 2026,” Derwinski said. “But it is the budget we have to propose.”

Ticket prices on Metra are based on how many “fare zones” a traveler passes through.

Starting Feb. 1, the cost of a one-way ride between Zone 1 and Zone 2 would increase from $3.75 to $4.25 under the agency’s proposed plan. That pricing typically applies to trips between downtown Chicago and elsewhere in the city or near suburbs, like Cicero, Evanston or Park Ridge.

One-way trips between downtown Chicago and Zone 3 and Zone 4 destinations would increase to $6.25 and $7.75, respectively.

Riders who use daily or monthly passes would also see hefty price increases. Monthly Zone 1-2 passes would increase from $75 to $85. Zone 1-3 passes would jump from $110 to $125, and Zone 1-4 passes would go from $135 to $155.

Reduced fare rates would also increase.

The agency last increased ticket prices across the board in 2018, spokesperson Michael Gillis said. However, some riders saw ticket prices go up last year, when Metra eliminated certain promotional fares it had implemented during the pandemic, he said.

Metra estimates the fare increases — which will take place whether or not lawmakers end up approving more transit funding — will cause a 2.2% hit to ridership.

The operating budget includes $55 million for improvements on the Metra Electric Line for which Metra expects to be reimbursed by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District.

The agency is also proposing a capital budget program of $575.3 million, which will go to new railcars, improvements to bridges, train tracks and other projects.

Metra’s proposed budget comes as state lawmakers get ready to head to Springfield for a legislative veto session next week.

After failing to pass transit funding during their spring legislative session, lawmakers have said they are ready to try again this month. Metra has prepared an alternate budget — what it calls a “fully funded” scenario — to implement in the event that lawmakers approve more funding. That budget would allow for some modest expansion to service next year, officials said.

But in Springfield, which operates on emergencies and deadlines, lawmakers may feel as though some of the pressure is off.

The RTA, which oversees all three of the region’s major transit agencies, said for months that the regional deficit next year would top $770 million.

But at a board meeting last week, the agency downsized that estimate by hundreds of millions of dollars, saying next year’s deficit was projected to be only about $200 million.

The RTA attributed the significant revision largely to an increase in state sales tax revenue. The gap would balloon back up to $790 million in 2027 and beyond, the agency warned.

But lawmakers and transit advocates expressed frustration at the last-minute nature of the new deficit estimate, which the RTA announced less than two weeks before veto session.

State Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, a key legislator on transit issues in the House, said the RTA “cannot be trusted to appropriately plan and communicate.”

The RTA defended itself last week. “They ask us for revised fiscal cliff numbers, and we’re just providing what the legislature themself asked us to do,” board Chairman Kirk Dillard said after last Friday’s board meeting.

Previously, the RTA had also staved off the fiscal cliff by reallocating $74 million in discretionary funds from Metra and Pace to the CTA, which is slated to run out of money first.

Now, severe service cuts on the CTA have been pushed back to the middle of next year if lawmakers don’t OK more transit funding.

The CTA’s 2026 budget is expected Monday.

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