The Chicago Transit Board took no action on the potential appointment of a new agency president at a hastily scheduled special board meeting Thursday afternoon, despite widespread concern the meeting would see directors consider Mayor Brandon Johnson’s reported pick for the role.

Data obtained by WTTW News shows the overall number of bus and train operators who worked for the CTA last year neared its pre-pandemic peak of employees. As a result, the amount of overtime worked dropped.

Outgoing Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter capped his nearly 10-year run leading the massive agency at a board meeting Wednesday, saying he’d be “forever grateful for this opportunity to serve our customers (and) the people of the city of Chicago.”

Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter plans to resign on Jan. 31. He plans to take a job as the president and CEO of Saint Anthony Hospital on the city’s West Side.

Local and federal officials had been racing to finalize funding for the Red Line Extension before the end of the Biden administration. The $1.9 billion in federal transit grant money will help fulfill a decades-old promise to extend the heavily used train line past 95th Street, down to 130th Street.

With transit advocates hopeful they’ll see shovels in the ground next year to kick off the long-awaited Red Line Extension, the Chicago Transit Authority is racing to finalize the $1.9 billion in federal funding needed to complete the 5.6-mile project before the Biden administration leaves office.

Board members said improved communication will be key to the agency’s survival as it faces down a projected $539 million fiscal cliff in 2026, after the CTA runs out of pandemic-era relief funding that’s been keeping its operating budget afloat in the first quarter of that year.

The solution to the Chicago area’s public transportation woes isn’t merging CTA, Metra and Pace into a single entity — it’s finally tackling the “decades-long, discriminatory and racially charged funding policies” that have left transit agencies “fighting over scraps,” according to CTA President Dorval Carter.

A 30-year-old Chicago man has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder following a fatal Labor Day shooting on a CTA Blue Line train in suburban Forest Park. At a bond hearing Wednesday, Rhanni Davis was ordered detained pending trial.

For more than a decade, the Illinois and Chicago departments of transportation have been holding public meetings on a proposed redesign of North DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Earlier this month, they held an open house to show off their preferred option — one that doesn’t include a dedicated or shared lane for buses.

Applause broke out Wednesday at the Chicago Transit Authority’s board meeting after directors approved a $2.93 billion contract for the design and construction of the Red Line Extension to 130th Street.

The Damen ‘L’ station, located at North Damen Avenue and West Lake Street, connects a 1.5-mile gap of service that existed between the California and Ashland stations on the Green Line. The station restores rail service in the area for the first time in 76 years.

Tuesday marked the first of at least six planned hearings about overhauling Chicago-area public transit agencies, proposed as part of legislation filed in May. That plan also calls for $1.5 billion in additional funding.

The Chicago Transit Authority board of directors approved a combined daily pass allowing seamless trips across CTA, Metra and Pace. The proposal calls for daily passes ranging from $10-16 depending on how far passengers are traveling.

Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter took the fight to foes of his leadership – including the 29 alderpeople who signed on to a resolution calling for him to be replaced – at a lengthy City Council hearing on Thursday.

Allies of the mayor used a parliamentary maneuver Wednesday to prevent a vote on the nomination of the Rev. Ira Acree to serve on the board of the Regional Transportation Authority, an acknowledgment they did not have the votes to confirm the politically connected pastor.