CBS News Live
CBS News Chicago
Live
White House budget director Russ Vought said the Trump administration will withhold $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects, expanding funding fights that have targeted Democratic areas during the government shutdown.
The pause affects a long-awaited plan to extend the city’s Red Line train. Vought wrote on social media Friday that the money was “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”
He made a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York, where Vought said $18 million for infrastructure would be paused, including funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
The Biden administration greenlit the funidng in January at the end of his presidency. Chicago officials have been working to get the funding for the expansion and Red and Purple line revitalization projects for years.
“There’s no greater feeling than to see this day come for the Red Line Extension to go to 130th,” said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), whose ward encompasses most of the extension project, at the time.
The project would extend the Red Line 5.6 miles further south to 130th Street, adding four new stations: 103rd Street and 111th Street near Eggleston Avenue, Michigan Avenue near 116th Street, and 130th Street near the Bishop Ford Freeway, just north of Altgeld Gardens.
The CTA will also build a new rail yard and related rail facilities near 120th Street.
The CTA and other city leaders have said the project would shave 30 minutes of commute times between the Far South Side and downtown by reducing the need to transfer from buses to trains, making it easier for many who live in the area to get to their jobs.
The Red and Purple Line modernization project recently saw the Berwyn, Bryn Mawr, Lawrence and Argyle CTA Red Line stations reopen on the North Side. It has been replacing century-old tracks, signals, and platforms that had all reached the end of their service lives.