FTA Rejects Chicago’s Transit Safety Plan

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) rejected a safety plan submitted by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), saying the plan “fails to measurably reduce incidents of assaults and improve overall safety on buses and trains.”

According to an article by Gabriel Castillo, Jenna Barnes, and Ethan Illers for WGN9, “The decision comes a little over a week after the FTA directed the CTA to develop and implement a safety plan or risk losing as much as $50 million in federal funding.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he believes the plan, which increases the number of police officers at CTA train and bus stations, is sound. But the FTA says “the CTA never targeted a reduction of more than one assault per month in any given category, and in many categories and months, CTA targeted zero reductions.” The agency is giving CTA 90 days to submit a revised plan with “significantly increased crime reduction targets.”