[Mr Downtown]

From Crain's:

Progress on South Side transit-boosting plan

With the help of a big-name consultant who’s used to dealing with divided government, the Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle administrations may finally be nearing a deal on a pilot program to expand public transit on the South Side and suburbs.

At issue is a plan that has been debated for well over a year to expand service on Metra’s electric and Rock Island lines by adding more trains, especially during non-rush periods, and cutting fares to the same or less than the Chicago Transit Authority charges. Lightfoot and the CTA have reacted negatively to that, even though Preckwinkle has offered to make up any loss of revenue to the CTA during the test period, leaving the two sides stalemated.
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“We have come a long way. We’re close to having something that will work for everybody,” said Randy Blankenhorn, a former Illinois secretary of transportation who earlier headed the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Blankenhorn, who was retained in January at $10,000 a month, declined to provide details but said he expects to present a detailed package by the end of September.
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Meanwhile, in an apparently related action, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration today announced a $330,000 "innovation grant" to Cook County to "target outreach to low-income residents and potential new transit customers about reduced fares and seamless travel options" in cooperation with Metra and CTA

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...-boosting-plan