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About one-third of all work trips in Chicago are comprised of people biking, walking, or riding public transit.

Open house! Metra shares its strategic plan and talks about next year's budget

Over the summer, Metra invited riders to review its strategic plan at a series of open houses. Riders for Better Transit attended and provided feedback about the plan on behalf of our suburban members. Thank you to those of you who attended a meeting in your area and shared your own input on the plans as well.

/Metra has taken the input it received from these open houses and made further adjustments to its goals and objectives, capital funding priorities and even its mission statement. They are now ready to update riders with these changes at a new round of public meetings! Find dates/times and the location nearest to you.

In most cases, these strategic planning open houses will also serve as public hearings for Metra’s 2013 budget, which was recently released. Thankfully, this year’s budget does not call for any service cuts or fare increases at this time. But it does paint a rather unhappy picture of Metra’s finances in the coming years. Particularly vulnerable, according to the budget, is Metra’s Capital Investment Program–the money needed for making long term investment in the structural aspects of the system. Metra’s budget makes it clear that if it cannot get the funding it needs from the state of Illinois, federal transportation funds and other expected sources, they may yet be forced to consider raising fares.

Active Trans plans to make comments about both the strategic plan and the budget at these upcoming meetings–and continuing our push for better transit, without fare increases or service cuts. We’ll encourage Metra to make decisions that put the riders first. Join us!

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