The capital program includes the funds used to invest in maintenance plus any improvements and expansions of the system. The 2026–2030 Five Year Regional Capital Program totals $9.246 billion in planned improvements focused on returning the system to a state of good repair, making all stations accessible, transitioning to zero-emissions and providing limited expansions and upgrades.
Explore the region's capital projects on the Capital Program Dashboard.
Major investments across CTA, Metra, and Pace will occur during the the 2026-2030 Capital Program thanks to investment from state and federal sources, including the CTA Red Line Extension, modernization of Metra’s rolling stock and bridges, electrification of CTA and Pace’s bus fleets and facilities, and continued work to make all CTA and Metra rail stations accessible. These projects will not only strengthen service reliability but enhance access to opportunities throughout the region and improve the day-to-day rider experience.
Despite these investments, the long-term capital needs of a large legacy transit system like Chicago are great. The 10-year regional capital funding need articulated in the report is $44.6 billion. RTA’s Strategic Asset Management group has calculated that it would take an annual investment of $4 billion per year over the next 20 years to bring the system into a state of good repair and additional funds are needed to expand and improve the existing system. The current five-year program averages less than $2 billion per year, leaving a big gap compared to the capital need. The current capital program relies heavily on CTA bonds, which has proven to be an unsustainable funding source. The region needs to continue to develop more sustainable funding streams to increase capital funding to maintain and improve the transit system.
SB 2111 does include new capital revenue in the form of interest on the Road Fund balance, which means an additional $180 million for the RTA region annually. That increase is not reflected in this budget but will be added to the program through the capital budget amendment process in 2026.
The current capital program is available in the Adopted 2025 Operating Budget, Two-Year Financial Plan, and Five-Year Capital Program and in an interactive format on the RTA’s Mapping and Statistics website (RTAMS) on the Regional Capital Program page. The 2025-2029 five-year capital program totals $9.469 billion.
The Service Boards are working to bring the system up to a state of good repair while also advancing regional priorities including: providing a more equitable transit system, achieving full accessibility, and transitioning to sustainable forms of transit.
The new performance‐based capital allocation process is used to allocate federal formula and PAYGO funding. Funds are distributed based on three principles:
The 2025-2029 Capital Program has been evaluated using 15 metrics that were identified in Transit is the Answer. The evaluation metrics for each project can be found in the 2025 Adopted Regional Transit Budget Capital Program Appendix. The evaluations for all projects in the 2025-2029 Capital Program are also available on the RTAMS Capital Program website with search functionality and a downloadable dataset.
2026-2030 FEDERAL FORMULA FUNDING ESTIMATES*
In accordance with public participation requirements for 49 USC §5307 (A)(1) federally funded program of projects, below are the preliminary federal formula funding appropriation estimates* per Service Board for calendar years 2026-2030
2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CTA | |||||||
| 5307/5340 | $218,794,193 | $220,982,135 | $223,191,956 | $225,423,876 | $219,931,230 | $1,108,323,390 | |
| 5337 | $212,796,445 | $214,924,409 | $217,073,654 | $219,244,390 | $221,436,834 | $1,085,475,732 | |
| 5339 | $12,852,230 | $12,980,752 | $13,110,560 | $13,241,665 | $13,374,082 | $65,559,290 | |
| Total | $444,442,868 | $448,887,297 | $453,376,170 | $457,909,931 | $454,742,146 | $2,259,358,411 | |
| Metra | 5307/5340 | $60,551,104 | $64,164,235 | $64,805,877 | $65,453,936 | $79,278,180 | $334,253,332 |
| 5337 | $183,631,912 | $185,468,231 | $187,322,913 | $189,196,143 | $191,088,104 | $936,707,303 | |
| Total | $244,183,016 | $249,632,466 | $252,128,791 | $254,650,079 | $270,366,284 | $1,270,960,635 | |
| Pace | |||||||
| 5307/5340 | $53,797,670 | $51,328,027 | $51,841,307 | $52,359,720 | $47,460,498 | $256,787,222 | |
| 5339 | $2,036,861 | $2,057,230 | $2,077,802 | $2,098,580 | $2,119,566 | $10,390,038 | |
| Total | $55,834,531 | $53,385,256 | $53,919,109 | $54,458,300 | $49,580,064 | $267,177,260 | |
| System | $744,460,415 | $751,905,019 | $759,424,070 | $767,018,310 | $774,688,494 | $3,797,496,306 |
The RTA is responsible for ensuring that the Service Boards are spending capital funds and managing their capital projects effectively and efficiently. The RTA conducts periodic project reviews with Service Board project managers to ensure that capital projects are being implemented according to scope, on schedule, within budget and according to established project management guidelines.
The RTA, as part of its financial oversight function, has historically maintained an interest in ensuring that the Service Boards have sufficient funding to operate and maintain their physical assets. For many years, the RTA has facilitated regional funding campaigns, overseen the issuing of bonds to provide funding for capital investments, and monitored the delivery of major projects of each of the Service Boards in order to achieve this objective. These efforts have been challenged for decades, as the lack of consistent, reliable capital funding has led to aging assets, unreliable service, and an enormous backlog of unmet capital funding needs.
Under current FTA rules, the Service Boards are now required to maintain Transit Asset Management programs, plans, and datasets for submission to the National Transit Database (NTD).
Metra TAM Plan: https://metra.com/transit-asset-management-plan
Pace TAM Plan: https://www.pacebus.com/pace-transparency
The RTA still maintains an interest in regional capital funding activities and has transitioned its TAM activities into a strategic asset management (SAM) framework to monitor the state of good repair of all of the regional transit assets of the system as a combined portfolio. The SAM function provides RTA with the tools to track mid- and long-term regional investment needs and to inform capital programming and planning processes for strategic investments, as referenced in the Framework For Transit Capital Investment and the Potential Impacts of State Funding on Transit State of Good Repair report..
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