Judge orders federal government to unfreeze CTA funding for Red Line extension

The U.S. Department of Transportation must dispense more than $3 billion it was withholding from the Chicago Transit Authority for the Red Line extension and other projects, a federal judge in Chicago ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin granted the CTA's temporary restraining order against the Department of Transportation, which had frozen the funds since last October while the federal government said it was reviewing CTA contracting practices for race- and sex-based discrimination.

The CTA sued the Department of Transportation last week, arguing the funding freeze would soon halt the long-planned Red Line extension to 130th Street, as well as the almost-completed Red-Purple Line Modernization program. The CTA had secured a legal obligation for $2 billion in federal Red Line extension funds shortly before former President Joe Biden left office.

Work on the Red Line extension would halt as soon as Friday if federal funds remain frozen, CTA lawyers said in a Monday court filing.

"[U]nless this Court grants relief prior to this Friday ... hundreds of workers will soon be out of jobs and CTA’s ongoing projects will be jeopardized," the CTA wrote in its filing.

In its own filling, the government claimed the Northern District of Illinois lacked jurisdiction, and that the lawsuit should be moved to the Court of Federal Claims.

CTA Acting President Nora Leerhsen praised Tuesday's ruling as a major victory for the Red Line extension and residents of the Far South Side.

"CTA promised the community that it would fight for [the Red Line extension], and this ruling is a massive step toward restoration of funding for this historic project," Leerhsen said in a statement.

The USDOT and the Federal Transit Administration, also was named as a defendant, did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The lawsuit is unrelated to the federal government’s pressure campaign on the CTA to improve transit security. The transportation department last week tempered its threat to cut $50 million in grants to the CTA after the authority submitted a revised security plan that included increasing police presence on transit by 75%.