Red Line extension

The USDOT announced it is blocking $2.1 million in previously approved federal funding for the Red Line Extension and the Red & Purple Modernization Project.

On a recent Friday, I stopped by the CTA's 95th/Dan Ryan terminal to check out a couple of things: the system’s only in-station DJ booth, and riders' viewpoints on the upcoming $5.7 billion Red Line Extension to 130th Street.The DJ booth project, called "An Extended Song of Our People (AESOP)" is a public art installation brainstormed by Chicago artist Theaster Gates. The CTA believes it’s the first-ever artist-designed and built DJ and broadcast facility in a transit stop – anywhere.

Recently, the Chicago Tribune, and three difference articles in Crain's, have questioned the $5.7 billion cost of the the 5.5-mile Red Line Extension. It would connect the current 95th Street terminal with the Far South Side's Altgeld Gardens housing project. An editorial in the weekly business newspaper went so far as to say, "There's still time to avoid one of the costliest boondoggles City planners have dreamed up since the parking meter fiasco... even to pull the plug on it."

This has been a hectic week for Illinois lawmakers and Chicagoland transit professionals and advocates as we try to avert the prophesied $771 budget cliff. As I type this, we're only about 33 hours away from the end of the spring legislative session, Saturday at midnight. If bills aren't passed to fund and/or reform public transportation in our region, the result will be apocalyptic service cuts and layoffs next year. Therefore, Springfield had better step up soon or, as last week's Soldier Field performers AC/DC would say, we're on the "Highway to Hell"

Recently, Streetsblog Chicago's John Greenfield came across the blog post, "For $5.7 billion, South Side Chicago deserved far more than the Red Line Extension," written by Toronto-based transit advocate August Puranauth. [Puranauth uses they/them pronouns.]

The $5.7 billion Red Line Extension is moving closer to becoming a reality, more than half a century after it was first promised to Far South Siders. The CTA is holding three "Meet the Contractor" sessions this month to provide updates and answer questions about the project.

Let's discuss the latest dispute between someone from Toronto, and an American who has many things in common with them.

The CTA released its proposed 2025 CTA budget last Friday, October 11. The document hints at some potential service increases, touts several station improvements that have been discussed for years, and even dares to hope that 2025 will be the year construction finally starts on the long-awaited Red Line extension.

Contractors will start tearing down properties and moving power and communications lines this year in advance of the official project launch in late 2025.