NITA elects its first leader as oversight agency for CTA, Metra, Pace

The Northern Illinois Transit Authority, in its first public meeting, elected a chairman to lead the oversight agency tasked with rethinking Chicago-area public transit.

The NITA board voted unanimously Thursday to elect Tom Kotarac, a former Regional Transportation Authority director who had been leading a NITA transition committee.

The board was also expected to choose an executive director and use its new powers to expand a low-income reduced fare program to the CTA and make student passes work all-year-round.

NITA replaces the RTA in governing the CTA, Metra and Pace. Plans for the new agency began last year when lawmakers bailed out the transit agencies, but not before reforming how they operate.

NITA has been granted increased authority to set fares and coordinate service with $1.5 billion of extra yearly cash to make public transit safer and more reliable.

The new NITA chairman emphasized the gravity of the task.

The “NITA Act has given us something that’s really rare in government and in organizations. And it’s a genuine opportunity for a fresh start,” Kotarac said.

“If we succeed years from now, people will look back and say, ‘This is more than just avoiding the ‘fiscal cliff,'” Kotarac said. “We’ll look back to when we chose to do something transformational.”

The NITA law mandates several changes to public transit. The agency has been given increased power over CTA, Metra and Pace to make those decisions.

Next year, NITA will decide whether to create a new police department to patrol across all three transit agencies. NITA must also deploy trained “transit ambassadors” by next July, as the agency prioritizes addressing concerns about security.

NITA must also simplify tickets and transferring between agencies.

Under the NITA system, Kotarac said, “a customer can travel from Chicago to the suburbs — to Huntley, and even Rockford — with one easy-to-use system. One ticket, one timetable and one network, just as it says in the NITA Act.”

A “unified” ticket system must be in place by February 2030, according to the law.