Politics
Chicago Organizers Feel Whiplash as Trump Administration Freezes Funding for Red Line Extension
The Trump administration paused $2.1 billion in federal funding for Chicago transit infrastructure that had already been signed off on during the Biden administration.
White House budget director Russ Vought posted on social media that he will be targeting the Far South Side Red Line expansion “to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”
This is just part of at least $28 billion in funding that the Trump administration has frozen for Democratic cities and states.
The CTA previously procured a legal obligation from the federal government, which promised to pay the $2.1 billion required for the Red Line extension. The goal was to ensure that federal funds would be protected from any new presidential administration.
Although funding has not officially been revoked, the Trump administration has put a pause on funding to review whether city contracting was, in the administration’s terms, “unconstitutional.”
When awarding contracts, the CTA followed long-established rules requiring the agency to meet goals to give contracts to Black-, Latino- and female-owned companies and small firms that qualify as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.
The federal government now says those rules are discriminatory.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said both the Red Line extension and the improvements to the Purple and Red lines would have benefited more than 175,000 daily riders.
Local organizers who have been working on the project for more than 30 years said the Red Line extension is essential for those who live in “transportation deserts” on the Far South Side of the city.
“Right when we are finally on the brink of moving forward, Trump just cut off the funding,” Johnson said in a statement. “From public safety to public education to public transit, this president is cutting the services that working people rely upon. We are calling for these cuts to be immediately reversed, and we will use every tool at our disposal to restore this funding.”
Johnson told reporters at an unrelated news conference that the city would consider suing the federal government to restore the funding and called Trump “deranged.”
The Red Line extension was set to begin construction early next spring. It now remains unclear where the timeline stands.
Lou Turner, professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, has been working on the Red Line extension for two decades. He even teaches a class on the Red Line extension project.
He said the economic impact of the Red Line extension would be life-changing not only for many living on the Far South Side — a large number of whom are elderly, disabled or living below the poverty line — but also for residents of more affluent communities in the south suburbs.
“It isn’t just for the Black community,” Turner said. “The 130th Street stop allows commuters from the suburbs, predominantly White suburbs, and I would add, probably Republican suburbs, to get out of their cars and park at their seven- or nine-story parking structure at 130th Street and potentially take an express train right into the Loop.”
Turner was confused by the framing of the pause as it relates to DEI, claiming that the Red Line extension had bipartisan support. He brought up the Transportation Act signed by former President George W. Bush in 2005, the same act that paved the legal foundation for federal funds to be used for the Red Line extension.
“The money for the Red Line extension was Republican money,” Turner said.
Andrea Reed, executive director of the Greater Roseland Chamber of Commerce, said she is worried about how this will impact Far South Side residents who, in her words, live in a “transportation desert.”
“It’s just unbelievable,” she said. “Without transportation we wouldn’t be able to survive.”
Reed began working with the GRCC in April 2009 after being appointed by Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward). The very first project she ever worked on was the Red Line extension where she collaborated with The Developing Communities Project.
“It’s not even imaginable, I feel like I’m in a dream and somebody needs to wake me up, because this can’t be happening,” Reed said.
Reed mentioned that it was only a few short weeks ago that she and her colleagues were celebrating the fact that they set a groundbreaking date. The whole experience for her felt jarring.
John Paul Jones, co-founder of the Red Line Extension TIF Coalition, had a similar feeling when he first heard the news.
Jones had been working nearly 30 years organizing for the Red Line extension. In 2022 he co-founded the coalition to ensure that local funding from the city and state level was secured.
“Locally we are still in agreement that we can still proceed, despite the conversations happening with the current administration,” Jones said.
He remains optimistic for a spring groundbreaking and is still hoping that federal funding can be secured by that time. His main strategy, he said, is to work with the federal government to help rewrite the project to exclude mentions of DEI.
“We have to use this season as well as the next season to continue conversations with Washington, D.C., about their funding obligations and we believe that we should be able to find the right middle ground to get the agreement we need from the federal government,” Jones said.
He hopes to get this agreement by February or March to stay on track with the project’s groundbreaking.
The CTA and the mayor’s office declined to comment on a question from WTTW News about what the funding pause means for the groundbreaking.
Last week, Johnson said, “We’re going to do everything in our power to ensure that construction continues. The South Side has fought for this for 50 years, and we have finally delivered it, and after 50 years of struggle to make sure that the South Side is prioritized, this president is now going to try to disrupt that? Not under my watch.”
Heather Cherone and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
