Suburban Transit Summit

The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), in partnership with Metra, Pace, and CTA, is excited to invite you to a Suburban Transit Summit on Thursday, October 24, from noon to 5 p.m. at Metropolis Ballroom in Arlington Heights. Please RSVP today to reserve your spot. Compensation is available upon request for suburban transit riders who will be attending the summit. This half-day workshop will feature panel discussions and interactive sessions, providing participants an opportunity to share input and feedback as RTA and the Service Boards continue to advocate for sustainable funding and strategic reform to improve service and accountability for riders.

Click here to register.

The Suburban Transit Summit will provide a forum to discuss the future of transit service in Chicago’s suburbs with a diverse audience of state legislators, transit agency leadership and staff, local officials, members of the business community, advocates, and riders. The event will focus on interconnected themes of suburban transit: service, regional connections, coordinated transfers, transit-supportive land use that supports economic development, and how sustainable operations funding could accelerate progress in each of these areas.

Transit must compete harder in the suburbs due to lower densities and higher car ownership. The transit rider experience is heavily impacted by schedules, fares, inter-agency transfers, and the surrounding land use decisions. Participants will learn about ongoing agency plans to transform suburban transit through network and service revitalization and new connections, and how their plans are interconnected through the RTA to provide regional benefit. RTA staff will highlight systemwide operations funding needs and provide an update on development of the Transit Friendly Communities policy guide. Peer agency leadership will share perspectives from a region that is advancing and modernizing suburban transit.

Participation is invite-only, but portions of the program will be livestreamed and later posted on YouTube. Your participation is critical to ensuring the event features a wide range of perspectives and people with the ability to affect change.

Please forward this invite to relevant staff to RSVP or email kyle.whitehead@rtachicago.org if you are unable to attend and would like to share the name of a designee to represent you at this summit. If you have any accessibility questions or requests, please email communications@rtachicago.org.