CTA derailment and disruptions raise infrastructure funding concerns
Chicago Transit Authority officials are still investigating what caused a Yellow Line train to derail last week in Rogers Park, as transportation experts continue to raise concerns about the state of the city's mass transit system and the impact on those who depend on it.
Transportation and engineering experts said the Yellow Line derailment brings up serious concerns about aging transit infrastructure and the big chunk of change it would take to address it.
A Yellow Line train derailed on Thursday near the Howard terminal in Rogers Park, prompting the CTA and firefighters to evacuate about 80 passengers. The derailment interrupted service on the Red, Purple, and Yellow lines for several hours.
Days later, the derailment remained under investigation. The CTA has yet to respond to questions from CBS News Chicago about infrastructure concerns raised by transportation experts.
"There are these significant infrastructure-related issues that come back to not only affect these types of incidents, but also day-to-day travel," said P.S. Sriraj, director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Sriraj said those infrastructure issues need to be addressed.
"When you have an asset category that has not been maintained for a number of years, it is going to start falling into disrepair," he said.
Sriraj, who has a background in engineering and urban planning, explained that the aging CTA system is a problem, with a maintenance budget backlog building since 2017. He said issues like these impact transit riders through changes like slow zone mandates.
"Trains not coming on time is the one telltale sign. There's something wrong with the infrastructure that will necessitate the CTA to either slow down the trains, which they mark as slow zones, or do other corrective measures," he said.
Some financial help for the CTA is on the way. A transit funding and reform package approved by the Illinois General Assembly last year will provide about $1.2 billion in new operating funding for the CTA, Metra, and Pace.
Of that funding, $53.6 million is earmarked for service expansion and enhancement at the three mass transit systems, including slow zone mitigation and railcar maintenance for the CTA. According to the Regional Transportation Authority – which oversees CTA, Metra, and Pace – CTA riders could see reliability improvements on up to 35 routes.
"It's definitely a step in the right direction, because they're allocating some money to update and maintain the assets," Sriraj said.
Whether it will be enough to meet the CTA's infrastructure needs remains a question mark.
As for how much money the Yellow Line could receive for improvement projects, the RA deferred to CTA officials, who didn't respond to requests for comment.
The RTA's "Transit is the Answer Coalition" has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday to discuss the agency's transition to the new Northern Illinois Transit Authority and the new transit funding approved by state lawmakers.