Chicago Transit Authority Approves Fare Hike

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) will raise its fares by $.25. The increase comes after budget cuts from the state and fare hikes from the city's other two transit agencies. "The 2018 fare increase — the first across-the-board increase in nine years — is intended to help fill a more than $33 million hole caused, in part, by a drop in state funding for the transit service, which provides about 1.6 million rides every weekday," Mary Wisniewski reports for the Chicago Tribune.

The CTA also faces an issue of shrinking ridership, a problem the agency blames in part on low gas prices and the growth of ride share services. "Charles Paidock, secretary of the transit riders' advocacy group Citizens Taking Action, said the state budget cuts were not an emergency that justified a fare increase, and that the hike will only add to the CTA's problems of shrinking ridership," Wisniewski writes.

The budget now needs the approval of the regional transit authority. If it gets okayed the hike will go into effect January 7.