The Regional Transportation Authority is the administrative agency that was established by state statute and a region-wide referendum in 1974. The Chicago Transit Authority is an administrative and operating agency that was established in 1945 and took over surface and rapid transit operations in 1947. It came under the RTA's umbrella in 1974. Pace (suburban bus) and Metra (commuter rail) were established as operating entities in 1983 in a re-organization after a budget crunch. Funding for the RTA comes primarily from the farebox and region-wide sales and gasoline taxes.
South Shore has always been primarily an Indiana operation. Passenger operations were assumed by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District around 1980. NICTD purchased the trackage involved in passenger operations in the 1990's as part of a bankruptcy re-organization involving the freight operator. I'm not sure of the sources of NICTD's funding.
I know that a paper enitity known as the RTA is supposed to manage taxes and contributions from local "burbs" along the routes. I also know that CTA and RTA and PACE are three diffrent animals. I also know that the South Shore must beg from Indianapolis and the state of Indiana state legislature which puts the South Shore at a disavantage as the only urban rail system in a state full of Conservitive Corn farmers who see no reason why its should exist or why Gary and Michigan City even belong in the State of Indiana.
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