Robotaxis, O’Hare boom and Red Line scrutiny: Transportation seers forecast 2026

Expanded regional rail, an EV sag and roving robots delivering food in the suburbs are all destined to happen in 2026.

Or perhaps not. After a wild ride in 2025, the next 12 months are murky. One certainty — our three transportation experts Ian Savage, Joseph Schwieterman and P.S. Sriraj have some prescient predictions to share.

Starting with aviation, DePaul University Professor Schwieterman forecasts “air travel at both of Chicago's major airports will grow sharply as concerns about weak domestic demand fade away.”

Southwest Airlines reduced flights at O’Hare International Airport in 2024. In 2026, the carrier “will reverse its cutbacks and rev up its offerings at O'Hare's Terminal 5, with particular emphasis on leisure spots such as Florida, Las Vegas and Phoenix,” he said.

Last year, Northwestern University Professor Savage “predicted that Spirit Airlines would survive its trip through bankruptcy, but did not expect a second trip into bankruptcy. This time I think it will be fatal,” he said.

Savage also noted the federal government has been prioritizing “sorting out the technology and staffing of the air traffic control system. This has been a long-running saga, so it is tough to tell whether Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy can succeed whereas his predecessors have failed.”

Drones and robots

A pilot program with robotic wheeled carts that deliver food took off in Chicago in 2025, but there have been some snags.

“Autonomous sidewalk delivery services will become more prevalent in the suburbs, particularly in older communities with high-quality sidewalks. Many residents who are dubious will unsuccessfully push to ban them,” Schwieterman predicted.

And that won’t be the only high-tech invasion. University of Illinois Chicago Professor P.S. Sriraj speculates that with Amazon and Walmart already sending packages via drone in several states, “you may see a proliferation of drone deliveries” in 2026.

Robotaxis are another innovation that could come to Chicagoland, he suggested. Waymo, previously Google’s self-driving car project, already offers autonomous ride-hailing cars in cities such as Detroit, Los Angeles and Miami. “People swear by them,” Sriraj said.

Buses and trains

This fall, the Trump administration put funding for the CTA’s Red Line extension on hold. “Under pressure from watchdog groups, the CTA will conduct a rigorous review of the Red Line Extension to assess its cost-effectiveness,” Schwieterman projects.

He also foresees that “Metra will roll out additional plans for regional rail, providing half-hourly service throughout much of the day in response to strong traffic growth from past expansions.”

A new law was enacted in December that replaces the Regional Transit Authority with a Northern Illinois Transit Authority, which wields more power over Metra, Pace and the CTA.

“In theory, we could ultimately get a London- or Berlin-style unified financial, planning and marketing agency providing seamless travel,” Savage said.

“Call me cynical, but in the long run I predict that the push back from the service boards will result in more of the same,” he added. “At best, we will get easier transfers. But I predict that there will be no more stringent financial oversight, and taxpayers will wake up partway through 2026 and realize they are paying more taxes on things they use and like to pay for something they don’t use as much as they used to, and don’t particularly like.”

Automobiles and roads

“I don’t know if EVs are going to be as readily embraced as it was thought to be,” posited Sriraj, UIC’s Urban Transportation Center director. “(There will be) less incentives from the government for EV purchases. Auto manufacturers also have probably scaled back because fuel economy standards have been rolled back, so there’s not a whole lot of incentives to move to EVs unless market forces demand them.”

Meanwhile “excitement for the I-490 (toll road) along the western edge of O'Hare, now under construction, will grow as lengthy stretches near completion,” said Schwieterman, DePaul’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development Director.

I-490 will run along O’Hare’s western flank, connecting with I-294 to the south, I-90 to the north and Route 390 in the center.