Federal officials ordered the CTA to develop an enhanced security plan by next week in response to the burning of a woman aboard a Blue Line train last month.
Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson pushed back Tuesday against the Trump administration’s threat to cut off federal transit funding unless the Democratic leaders “take immediate action” to bolster CTA security.
Citing the horrific case of a woman doused with gasoline and set on fire last month aboard a Blue Line train, Federal Transit Administrator Marc Molinaro issued a special directive Monday to increase law enforcement presence on trains and buses, or else risk the federal funding that supports most infrastructure projects.
“Given high crime rates on CTA property, this incident is not isolated and reflects systemic failures in both leadership and accountability on all levels that cannot be tolerated,” Molinaro said in letters to Pritzker and Johnson. “I will not accept the brutal assault of an innocent 26-year-old woman as an inevitable cost of providing public transportation.”
Molinaro ordered the transit agency, whose board members are appointed by the governor and mayor, to come up with a “a verifiable security enhancement plan” and implement it by next week.
CTA officials were reviewing the directive “and will respond within the requested timeline,” a spokesperson said.
Pritzker called it the latest example of “the federal government threatening state and local government with taking away federal funds for a purpose that they’re not allowed to.”
“But we’ve seen that before from Donald Trump: breaking the law,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference, hailing “monumental” transit reform legislation passed by the Illinois General Assembly earlier this fall.
Aside from a sweeping governance and funding overhaul, the $1.5 billion measure includes a law enforcement task force led by the Cook County sheriff’s office, plus a new Office of Transit Safety to develop broader safety strategies.
