Chicago Transit Authority secures nearly $2 billion funding agreement for Red Line extension project
CHICAGO (CBS) — In the waning days of the Biden administration, the federal government officially agreed Friday to commit nearly $2 billion in funding for the CTA's ambitious plan to extend the Red Line on the Far South Side.
Public officials said the project will pay dividends for generations to come.
"There's no greater feeling than to see this day come for the Red Line Extension to go to 130th," said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), whose ward encompasses most of the extension project.
The Red Line currently reaches the end of the line on the South Side at 95th Street.
The project would extend the Red Line 5.6 miles further south to 130th Street, adding four new stations: 103rd Street and 111th Street near Eggleston Avenue, Michigan Avenue near 116th Street, and 130th Street near the Bishop Ford Freeway, just north of Altgeld Gardens.
The CTA will also build a new rail yard and related rail facilities near 120th Street.
The CTA and other city leaders have said the project would shave 30 minutes of commute times between the Far South Side and downtown by reducing the need to transfer from buses to trains, making it easier for many who live in the area to get to their jobs.
"This connection means that Far South Side residents have more job opportunities, more educational opportunities, more opportunities to access services and to explore this beloved city," Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
The Far South Side has been promised the Red Line extension since Mayor Richard J. Daley proposed the project in 1969, but decades of promised funding have not come through until now.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) signed an agreement on Friday to pay $1.97 billion toward the $5.7 billion project. It's the biggest single investment in CTA history.
"It's about the future of the Far South Side of Chicago; and it is one of the biggest, boldest equity investments in the history of this great city," CTA President Dorval Carter said.
The CTA already has begun demolition work along the designated extension route, with construction on the project expected to begin at the end of this year. The project is expected to last five years.
Officials said the project will create more than 12,000 construction jobs. Once completed, officials estimated the project could generate more than 25,000 new jobs throughout Cook County.
"We will also be hiring and nurturing the careers of residents in the very communities that the Red Line Extension will serve," Johnson said.
While the Biden Administration had promised $1.97 billion to the project in September 2023, no formal agreement had been signed until Friday. That had put the CTA under pressure to finalize the deal before President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month, out of fear he could pull the plug on the funding.
"You never know about change. It might be good. Maybe it won't. Who knows? You just don't know. That's why we're meeting today," U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said.
Carter said he is confident the CTA will keep the funding it just secured.
"If history is any indicator on this, historically, there's never been a situation in which a full-funded grant agreement has been reneged on by the federal government. It is basically backed by the full faith and credit of the United States," he said.
In addition to the federal funding from the FTA, the Chicago City Council in 2022 approved the creation of a new tax increment financing district to provide $959 million in funding for the Red Line extension. The CTA also plans to issue $2.25 billion in bonds to help fund the project. The rest of the money for the project will come from other state and federal funds.
