Politics

Feds Reject CTA’s Revised Safety Plan, Threaten to Withhold Millions in Transit Funding

Federal transit authorities have rejected the CTA’s revised safety plan, calling it “materially deficient” as the Trump administration reiterated its threat to withhold potentially millions in federal funding after reports of “high crime rates” on Chicago’s bus and train lines.

The Federal Transit Administration on Friday said it determined the CTA failed to comply with a special directive issued earlier this month that required the agency to implement “immediate, measurable corrective actions” aimed at reducing violent crime and addressing “unsafe conditions.”

“I’ll say it plainly: CTA, city, and state leaders are failing transit riders and operators,” Federal Transit Administrator Marc Molinaro said in a statement. “This ‘plan’ fails to measurably reduce incidents of assaults and improve overall safety on buses and trains. If people’s safety is at risk, so are federal funds. CTA must act to save lives and improve safety.”

According to Molinaro, if the CTA fails to submit an acceptable plan within 90 days, the feds plan to withhold as much as $50 million in funding from the transit agency.

The CTA said in a statement it has received the FTA’s response “and will respond fully to the request within the allotted time frame to respond.”

Molinaro issued the special directive in letters to Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker on Dec. 8.

Those letters repeatedly cited the high-profile attack on 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, who was doused with gasoline at random and lit on fire as she rode a CTA Blue Line train last month. She survived and continues recovering from her critical injuries.

Lawrence Reed, who has been accused of the attack, has a lengthy criminal background and was out of jail on electronic monitoring at the time. He now faces a federal terrorism charge.

Reed has also since been charged in a separate attempted sexual assault on a Blue Line train earlier this year and with allegedly setting a fire at City Hall days before the attack on MaGee.

Through its directive, the FTA demanded that Chicago transit leaders immediately update the CTA’s safety plan and develop a “verifiable security enhancement plan.”

Pritzker has also maintained that the state’s recently passed transit funding bill included “monumental and very important action to protect our transit system.”

But the feds claim the CTA’s revised safety plan submitted Monday “fails to target significant reductions” in the number of assaults and other crimes against passengers and transit employees across CTA’s system.

Beginning Friday, the CTA said the Chicago Police Department will deploy dozens more officers to patrol the city’s bus and rail system, increasing the daily average from 77 officers up to 120 officers. Additional private security canines will also be deployed.

Under that surge plan, CTA and CPD will work together to strategically deploy the added resources based on combined crime data and CTA system information.

“CPD and CTA work closely together every day to keep CTA riders safe, and this surge is an extension of that effort,” CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling said in a statement.

Police department stats showed crimes throughout the CTA system are down 3% in 2025 compared to the same period last year.

“CPD officers are at the core of CTA’s multilayered security strategy and I value our partnership with Superintendent Snelling and his staff as we continue our longstanding commitment to keep our riders safe,” CTA Acting President Nora Leerhsen said in a statement. “We expect the additional police and K-9 presence on our system to further increase security visibility.”

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