Politics
CTA Says Federal Funding for Red Line Extension Still Expected Despite Freeze

The Chicago Transit Authority says the $1.9 billion in federal funding it’s been promised for the Red Line Extension should be secure, despite the Trump administration’s sweeping freeze of grant money Tuesday — a move that’s already drawn scorn and legal challenges, including a planned lawsuit from the attorneys general of Illinois and several other states.
“Our position is that the Red Line Extension Project’s full funding grant agreement that the CTA and (Federal Transit Administration) executed recently, like similar grant agreements that the CTA secured for projects such as the Red Purple Modernization Program, is a binding and legal commitment by the federal government to provide the committed and obligated funds,” CTA spokesperson Tammy Chase told WTTW News in a statement. “As a result, we do not interpret any recent activity to have any impact on the federal government’s commitment to fund this essential transit project.
CTA officials and their counterparts at the FTA, which falls under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Transportation, moved quickly to get the grant funding for the Red Line Extension approved before former President Joe Biden left office.
The finalized agreement was announced in December, with federal transit officials in town for a ceremony touting the infrastructure project in early January.
That was a similar timeline to the federal funding that went toward the ongoing Red-Purple Modernization project on the North Side, a deal that was finalized during the waning days of the Obama administration. The CTA says it hasn’t had any issues receiving its scheduled payments for that effort.
During the first Trump administration, some advocates of major cost cutting pushed to end the transit grant program that’s helping fund the Red Line Extension project and others around the U.S.
The FTA capital grants are “another example of Washington’s tendency to fund transit expansion rather than maintaining or improving current facilities,” wrote Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Transportation during the first Trump administration, in a chapter of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 report. “Because Americans have demonstrated a strong preference for alternative means of transportation, rather than throwing good money after bad by continuing federal subsidies for transit expansion, there should be a focus on reducing costs that make transit uneconomical.”
The sweeping order to pause spending also covers a wide array of other Transportation Department grantmaking, including transit accessibility, pipeline safety, ensuring an adequate aviation workforce, and much more.
Significant changes to federal support for transit infrastructure efforts would significantly hamper the capital improvement programs of CTA and other transit agencies around the country.
“The CTA Law Department is reviewing the latest executive order as it relates to future federal funds for CTA beyond funding grant agreements already in place,” the CTA’s Chase said.