The CTA’s Red Line Extension project will create four new stops on the Far South Side. Residents in nearby communities harbor both concerns about how the project will play out and hope about how it could improve their communities.  

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.

People who use wheelchairs and guide dogs have watched drivers cancel rides, charge cleaning fees for guide dogs or outright refuse to take them where they need to go.

Spirit, the biggest U.S. budget airline, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition after working out terms with bondholders. The airline has lost more than $2.5 billion since the start of 2020 and faces looming debt payments totaling more than $1 billion in 2025 and 2026.

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 Chicago City Council confirmed four of the five Chicagoans picked by Mayor Brandon Johnson to serve on the board of the Regional Transportation Authority, which is facing a $730 million deficit in 2026.

The endorsement of the city’s Transportation and Public Way Committee sends the nominations of Natasha Jenkins, Thomas Kotarac, Jarixon Medina, Dennis J. Mondero and Nora Cay Ryan to the full Chicago City Council for confirmation.

An impending fiscal cliff has led to calls from some lawmakers and transit advocates for reform — perhaps as drastic as merging CTA, Metra, Pace, and RTA into a new regional agency. That’s an idea the current transit agencies say is the wrong move.

Chicago’s default speed limit could drop to 25 miles per hour from its current baseline of 30 after a panel of alderpeople on Monday backed the measure aimed at getting drivers to slow down.

The Chicago area’s transit agencies are facing a $730 million fiscal cliff in 2026 when federal COVID relief money runs out, money that’s filling the gap in operating budgets from still-sluggish ridership numbers. Some legislators and advocates back the idea of doing away with RTA, CTA, Metra and Pace in favor of a new regional mega-agency, the Metropolitan Mobility Authority.

FlixBus, the company that owns Greyhound, said in statement Tuesday that it’s “finalizing a month-to-month lease extension” and that its “operations will continue without disruption.”

The Chicago area’s public transit system is approaching the precipice of a $730 million fiscal cliff in just over a year’s time. A group of lawmakers and advocates don’t just want to plug the transit agencies’ budget hole — they’re looking to funnel $1.5 billion in additional state funding each year to create a sustainable, world-class public transportation system.

With the Chicago area’s transit agencies facing a $730 million fiscal cliff, state lawmakers have been working on a plan to preserve and improve public transportation.

DuSable Lake Shore Drive overnight closures for resurfacing work will extend this week from Irving Park Road to LaSalle Drive in all southbound lanes.

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.

The Chicago Department of Transportation is shaking things up and shifting resurfacing work this week to the stretch between Irving Park Road and LaSalle Drive. Lane closures start Sunday afternoon.