Court directs feds to resume funding for 2 CTA projects

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois yesterday granted the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) a temporary restraining order ruling that the suspension of federal funding for the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization (RPM) projects was impermissible. 

On March 20, CTA sued the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration to end the funding pause and restore CTA’s access to federal funding for both projects. The prolonged payment pause, which began in October 2025, has threatened continued progress on the Red Line and RPM projects, CTA officials said in an press release.

Without court intervention, CTA would have been forced to stop work on both projects on March 27. Unless the federal government obtains a stay on the temporary restraining order, the ruling calls for payments to resume by March 27, agency officials said.