SPRINGFIELD ─ State Senator Ram Villivalam spearheaded a new law providing necessary reforms and historic investments to address the public transit fiscal cliff and issues facing the system in Illinois.

“Riders, transit workers, and stakeholders from the business, labor, environmental, and urban planning sectors told my colleagues and I for years about the challenges and opportunities that exist with our public transit systems,” said Villivalam (D-Chicago). “Their concerns were the same ones I see each time I have used public transit myself – delays, ghost buses or lack of service. The status quo wasn’t working. It was time to make a change in order for people to get their school, job, and/or doctor’s appointment in a safe, reliable, and accessible way.”

Senate Bill 2111 creates the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, known as NITA – shifting authority from the Regional Transit Authority to the new entity that will oversee CTA, Metra and Pace.  The NITA board will be comprised of 20 members, with five appointments each from the governor, mayor of Chicago and Cook County Board president, as well as one from each chair or county executive of the collar county boards of DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Lake and Will.

It will address safety concerns through various reforms, including the creation of a transit ambassador program to deploy unarmed staff at transit stations and on vehicles across the system to provide customer service assistance, liaise with social service providers and alert law enforcement to potential criminal activity. Additionally, it creates the NITA Law Enforcement Task Force aimed at combating violent and other types of crime that occur on the public transit system, as well as the Office of Transit Safety and Experience  to coordinate with law enforcement and social service agencies.

The new law ensures integrated service through the creation of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on transit innovation, integration and reform. The group will focus on how to improve and better integrate transit with intercity rail and bus networks in Illinois outside of the northeast region – accompanied by a historic level of funding for downstate public transit.

Additionally, the law establishes a unified fare system, supports the state’s climate goals by requiring all newly purchased transit buses to be zero emissions, and improves accountability by installing performance metrics and service standards, among other changes.

“Through this new law, Illinoisans, regardless of where they live, will have access to safe, reliable, affordable, integrated, environmentally conscious, and economically impactful public transit in their own backyard,” said Villivalam. “Everyone deserves to be able to get to where they need to go, when they need to, without worry – and Senate Bill 2111 puts all of our residents on the path to accomplishing just that.”

Senate Bill 2111 was signed into law on Tuesday and takes effect June 1, 2026.

FACT SHEET: Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act (SB 2111)