The Federal Transit Administration officially signed an agreement with the Chicago Transit Authority this month, securing $1.9 billion for the Red Line Extension on the city’s South Side.

The extension will include five more miles of track, adding stations at 103rd Street, 111th Street, S. Michigan Avenue and 130th Street. The extension’s scheduled completion is 2030.

The extension is one of many “Red Ahead” projects for maintenance and improvements to the CTA’s Red Line, which currently runs from Howard Street on the North Side of Chicago to 95th/Dan Ryan on the South Side.

“This is about much more than an extension of a rail line. It’s about the future on the Far South Side of Chicago, and it is one of the biggest, boldest equity investments in the history of this great city,” outgoing CTA president Dorval Carter said at a Jan. 10 news conference with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.

The extension is intended to improve access to transportation for residents of the Far South Side, who have fewer CTA stops than northern residents..

“When you look at transit provision in the city of Chicago, the North Side of the city is oversupplied … and the South Side of the city is vastly undersupplied,” Euan Hague, a DePaul geography professor, said. “There’s places you could identify as a transit desert, where the service is infrequent, where there’s large gaps between stops.” 

The extension could impact more than transportation, according to Tijana Tufek-Memisevic, a part-time lecturer at DePaul who is a sustainable development expert. The extension will also improve access to employment and education opportunities for South Side residents, she said.

Tufek-Memisevic noted the importance of having affordable housing and accessible businesses near stations.

“If executed with local communities in mind, it could have a generational impact,” she said. “(Residents’) voices must carry real weight in planning decisions, or else the project risks falling into the familiar trap of gentrification and displacement.” 

Tufek-Memisevic suggested the City of Chicago provide bus services as an affordable means of transit during the rail’s construction.

Carter announced his retirement as president a few days after the agreement was signed. The current CTA chief of staff, Nora Leerhsen, will take over as acting president Feb. 1.

The CTA has had many problems in the past, Hague said, referring to late buses and other post-pandemic issues. 

“A new president of the CTA hopefully will have some new ideas, some support from state, local and federal government,” he said. “Ultimately, what people want is a functioning, reliable and affordable transportation system.

Tufek-Memisevic hopes that the CTA will prioritize, above all, underserved communities. 

“Leadership matters, but so does commitment to equity,” she said. “New leadership must recognize that this is not just a project of a transit line, but a lifeline for communities who have been left behind for far too long.”

The decision to grant the nearly $2 billion was made in the final days of President Biden’s administration, which Tufek-Memisevic described as in “the nick of time.” She said that projects such as these are often tied to a president’s legacy, potentially preventing future leadership from reversing the legislation. Hague added that Chicago’s history as a Democratic city made it the ideal place for a generous new bill from the Biden administration.

“That said, infrastructure decisions like this too often are subject to political calculations rather than the needs of people,” Tufek-Memisevic said. “This is not how a modern, equitable city should operate, and Chicago residents deserve more certainty in the long-term development of their city.”

Related Stories:

• DePaul Biz and CTA launch partnership for economic development in Red Line Extension
• BREAKING: CTA President Dorval Carter to retire
• Red Line project to end transit inequity on Far South Side

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