The RTA: How Chicago Preserved The 3rd Biggest Transit System in the US

Transit is part of Chicago's spirit. When I was growing up in Kansas, thinking of Chicago conjured visions of whizzing L cars, or maybe a vast yard of Metra engines, side by side with CTA and Greyhound buses. Chicago's position as the real 'gateway to the west' (Sorry not sorry, St. Louis) means that its transportation networks have been a vital aspect of the city's commerce and culture for a century and a half.

For most of that history, these networks were owned by private companies; the first passenger railway in Chicago, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, was built in 1848, providing service from Kinzie Street downtown to the fledgling village of Oak Park. The first streetcar line, running the length of State Street, would open soon after in 1859. These would both become essential services for commuters in the coming years.

The Galena and Chicago Union Station on Kinzie Street in modern-day River North was the first train station in Chicago, but was short-lived. The site is now occupied by the Merchandise Mart. Credit: Encyclopedia of Chicago

Railways would expand to the whole metropolitan area, crisscrossing Chicago for years, until the city's rapid densification in the late 19th century necessitated a change in how the network functioned; street level trains in the middle of the road were dangerous, and fatalities from collisions became a serious issue. The Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad, opened in 1892, ran on entirely elevated tracks from the loop to 39th street. This line, which would become the Green Line decades later, was the start of the L, and the first bus service in the city would start just 15 years later.

The first L trains were not electric like they are today, instead being operated by steam engines. Credit: drloihjournal.blogspot.com

The model of competing private companies operating Chicago's transit networks worked for quite some time; while major railroad companies like the Illinois Central and Rock Island vied for more efficient and innovative commuter service, L train operators would compete for coverage, expanding the L network beyond its current-day bounds to places like Humboldt Park and the Stockyards area. Like with most major American cities, though, Chicago would face incredible difficulty keeping these services active after the end of World War II.

The Chicago and North Western was one of the major railroad companies which would be known for innovation in the face of competition; they worked with Pullman to create the cab car, which meant a train with only one engine could be operated in 2 directions with no need for a turntable. Credit: Trainweb.org

The L's private operators struggled to conduct basic maintenance in the 1940s, and multiple essential lines were nearly closed. The Chicago Transit Authority was formed by the state in 1947 to preserve service, years before cities like New York would do the same with their own rapid transit systems. Some lines would still close, but the system was mostly intact going into the midcentury.

The CTA coming into existence so early in the history of public transit (at least compared to other American cities) meant that Chicago's transit network was able to survive the car-focused midcentury while those of other cities, such as Los Angeles, did not. This ultimately saved billions; while the CTA is expensive to operate, the cost of demolishing the network and then beginning the process of rebuilding it later would be a huge financial burden.

The CTA was one of the first government-operated transit systems in the US, and helped preserve the L in a way most other American cities failed to preserve their own transit. Credit: chicago-l.org

The commuter trains would last longer; they had no pressing concerns for decades. This was until the mid-60s, when construction of urban freeways like the Dan Ryan took away traffic from the railroads; there simply wasn't enough income for multiple private operators to be a feasible model. The Illinois Central, operators of commuter service in the South Shore area and beyond, would be the first to feel the pressure, pleading the Interstate Commerce Commission to allow a drastic fare increase to make up for decreased ridership.

In 1973, the levee broke. Several suburban bus agencies, particularly those in Evanston and Glenview, would shut down. Commuter rail lines like the Illinois Central, as well as the Rock Island and Milwaukee, were on the verge of bankruptcy, and a solution was needed. This network of transportation at risk was massive; commuter lines ran from Kenosha, Wisconsin, all the way down to Joliet, and in every direction possible between major suburbs like Aurora and far-flung small towns like Woodstock.

Metra was formed to preserve the country's 3rd largest commuter rail network, stretching from Kenosha, Wisconsin to southern Chicagoland near Indiana. Credit: American-Rails.com

Other cities like Los Angeles, Dallas, and Seattle had let their commuter rail services shut down, but the people of Chicago knew this network was too vast and essential to let go. So, in 1974, they passed a ballot measure that created the Regional Transportation Authority, or RTA. The RTA completely reorganized how Chicagoland's transit was funded and operated; it allowed the private railroads to continue operating commuter services, but with publicly regulated fares and standardized equipment and schedules in exchange for subsidized operation. This service would be named 'Metra'. In addition, the RTA assumed financial responsibility for every transit line in the metropolitan area, with all suburban bus service falling under Pace's jurisdiction while the CTA was placed under the RTA's financial jurisdiction.

While the CTA could continue business as usual, the RTA had to figure out how to make the handful of counties and dozens of city governments served by Metra and Pace pay their fair share into the system, instead of saddling the cost on the backs of taxpayers in the central city like the MTA's model in New York. An agreement was reached between the RTA and state lawmakers, where the entirety of Chicagoland would pay a sales tax to fund the transit system; taxpayers in Chicago and Cook County would pay a slightly higher rate, but the equity of a regionwide sales tax would mean that the economic benefits of such a transit system would pay back into it.

50 years later, the RTA's inner workings are pretty similar; taxpayers in Chicagoland pay into the system every time they shop, along with a percentage of state income taxes going to fund the system. There's a slight deficit some years, sure, but public transportation generates billions for the local economy yearly. Analysts have said that if Chicago had no public transportation, the city would lose out on 35 billion dollars of revenue each year, and if it wasn't for the RTA responding quickly to the crisis in commuter rail, we very well might have lived in that reality.