Join the Sierra Club, Peoples Lobby, and community leaders  on Thursday, May 8th at 6:30 PM at the Prisco Center in McCullough Park, 150 W Illinois Ave, Aurora, IL 60506 Center in Aurora to learn about how we can help save public transit and increase mobility in Illinois!

To get there via public transit from the Aurora Transportation Center/Metra take the 802 bus 6 stops to Lake & Illinois and walk about 3 minutes .2 miles to the Prisco Center in McCullough Park.

In 2026, Northeastern Illinois’ public transit agencies—CTA, Metra, and Pace—will face a $770 million fiscal cliff. Without action, public transit across the region will be cut by up to 40%, making public transit something we can’t rely on to get to work, school, or friends and family.

If Metra makes those cuts, busy rail lines like the BNSF will see their weekday runs cut in half and weekend trains limited to once every two hours, according to the latest warning from the Regional Transit Authority. Pace riders would be hit hardest, losing all weekend bus service and potentially leaving millions of people with disabilities without access to reliable transportation across the region.

On Thursday May 8th at 6:30 pm, we will be hosting a public transit listening session in Aurora about the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act (MMA), a new bill that will merge our long-siloed transit systems and work to fully fund them with $1.5 billion to expand service to the fast, reliable service we need. Together, we can build a world-class public transit system that gets everyone where we need to go.

As Illinois lawmakers look to reform our public transit systems, here are the five key changes we're pushing for.

• Sustainable Revenue: If we don't solve our transit funding crisis, we'll see service cuts of up to 40%, according to RTA. We need a permanent revenue solution that keeps our transit running smoothly, and we can make this equitable by raising the corporate income tax to ensure businesses contribute their fair share.

• Unified Planning: We want to use the same payment system while tapping into CTA, Metra, and Pace. But we also want our different transit agencies to work together to coordinate service and capital planning, so we don't have to wait for long periods of time while making common transfers.

• Rider Representation: We need public transit riders to be better represented on transit agency boards so the people managing transit operations know what it's like to ride it.

• Transit Ambassadors: We all want to feel safe while riding public transit. But we can increase safety without adding more police, like how transit ambassador programs are increasing safety in cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. Having unarmed civilian employees help passengers, de-escalate potential conflicts, and notify authorities of any emergencies or dangerous activity is how we should move forward.

• Accountability: We need to better define metrics for director performance and ridership, so we can hold transit agencies accountable.

This is an opportunity to fight for mobility and build the people power we need to do it.