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Chicago CTA secures $1.9 billion for historic Red Line extension

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Published  January 10, 2025 3:13pm CST
Chicago Transit Authority
FOX 32 Chicago

Chicago CTA secures $1.9 billion for historic Red Line extension

The CTA received $1.9 billion in federal funding to extend the Red Line from 95th to 130th Street, its largest cash infusion ever.

The Brief

    • The CTA received $1.9 billion in federal funding to extend the Red Line from 95th to 130th Street, its largest cash infusion ever.
    • The five-decade-old project will add over five miles of track and four new stations, including one at Altgeld Gardens.
    • Officials expect the $5.7 billion project to begin this year, with completion projected by 2040.

CHICAGO - It’s the CTA’s largest ever infusion of cash, and one that public officials hope will pay dividends for generations to come.

"It’s about the future of the far south side of Chicago, and it’s one of the biggest, boldest equity investments in the history of this great city," CTA President Dorval Carter said Friday at a press conference at the House of Hope church in the city’s historic Pullman neighborhood.

Carter grew emotional, saying it was the single most important project he had worked on. He added that the project held special meaning for him because his grandfather was a Pullman porter.

Carter joined local, state, and federal public officials as the city signed a grant agreement with the Federal Transportation Administration to receive $1.9 billion in infrastructure funds to extend the Red Line south from its current terminus at 95th to 130th.

It’s a project five decades in the making — first proposed by Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1969.

"This, sisters and brothers, is how we reverse decades of disinvestment on the south side of Chicago that will ultimately strengthen our entire city," said Mayor Brandon Johnson.

The project will add more than five miles of track, largely along I-94. It will include four newly built stations, including one at 130th, at the foot of the Altgeld Gardens community.

Red Line Extension Project gets $1.9B in federal grant money

More funding is on the way to help with the Red Line Extension Project.

Longtime community activist Cheryl Johnson, who has fought for the extension for 20 years, said it currently takes residents an hour to take a bus to the nearest Red Line station at 95th.

"So to be able to have a station right there in our neighborhood where residents can really walk, and some kind of paratransit be developed, it’s phenomenal," Cherly said.

Illinois’ congressional delegation fought to get the deal inked in the waning days of the Biden administration, fearing the incoming Trump administration might cancel it.

Carter said it’s unlikely Trump would succeed in clawing the money back.

"Historically, there’s never been a situation where the agreement has been reneged upon by the federal government," he said.

The entire project’s cost is estimated at $5.7 billion. The rest of the money will come from a mix of local and state sources, including a transit tax increment financing district along the Red Line.

CTA officials said they plan to start work this year, but the final project won’t be completed until 2040.

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