The Chamber promotes improvements to the region’s airports, roads, and rail and rapid transit systems to help speed the flow of products to market and make commuting easier. Enhancing Chicagoland’s status as the transportation hub of America is vital to the long-term economic health of the region.

• The Chamber, Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) and other organizations have collaborated on a project prioritization framework – the Business Community’s Prioritization of Proposed Transportation Projects – to sort capital projects for transportation and infrastructure. The goal of the effort is to enable the central business district community to develop a unified position on project prioritization in Chicago’s Central Area Plan, Phase II.
• The Chamber, in conjunction with Business Leaders for Transportation (BLT), has been developing strategies at the local, regional and state-wide levels on how to win support for the expansion of transit systems, and for making transit an integral part of a state capital projects package.
  
  On January 10, the Illinois General Assembly passed HB 656, legislation that funds mass transit. The bill includes an increase in the sales tax in the RTA service area and allows the Chicago City Council to vote to increase the Chicago portion of the real estate transfer tax to help fund transit.
  
  In support of passing a statewide capital bill this year, the Chamber is participating in appropriation hearings on transit priorities, and is representing the region’s business interests on the Illinois Works Coalition – a bi-partisan working group being led by former Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert and former Congressman Glenn Poshard.
• The Chamber is monitoring a proposed resolution in the City Council to study the feasibility of implementing a Congestion Pricing System that would institute a fee for drivers entering the Loop area or other similar parts of the city that experience heavy traffic congestion. There is overwhelming opposition to this type of congestion pricing scheme among Chamber members. The Chamber will also closely monitor congestion pricing initiatives recently announced by the City and made possible via a $153 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
• BLT also drafted general enabling legislation for future Public-Private Partnerships (i.e. long-term leases of public property) and worked to keep the legislation from being linked with the proposal to lease the Illinois Tollway – a proposal BLT does not support.
• The Chamber (through the Midwest Aviation Coalition) continues to monitor implementation of the O’Hare Modernization Program, a project that is vital to adding capacity – including a new runway – and ensure that Chicagoland remains the aviation bridge of America.
• An Air Cargo Initiative was launched by the Chamber in 2007 to better coordinate advocacy among the air cargo industry, the City of Chicago and the local business community. Included was an Air Cargo Summit that explored the challenges the region will face when competing in the next generation of air cargo management and logistics industries.
  
  The air cargo industry is a critical component of the Chicagoland economy and employs more than 12,000 workers throughout the region.
• The second annual Global Supply Chain Forum was held on November 20 in Chicago, in partnership with Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the Metropolitan Planning Council, to discuss ideas and plans that anticipate and respond to forces of change, and to ensure that the region prospers as a global freight transportation center. The theme of the forum was “Innovative Public/Private Financing for Supply Chain Infrastructure.”