At Long Last, CTA President Makes Tracks

It may only be January, but 2025 has already been a big year for American commuters.

In New York, the two-decade long fight for congestion pricing finally succeeded, going into effect Jan. 5 and achieving instant success in both fixing traffic gridlock and funding subway upgrades.

In Boston, New Year’s Eve saw the end of the last transit slow zones, opening the door to faster, safer and more reliable service across the city.

Closer to home, Chicago’s commuters were given much-needed wins of our own.

Earlier this month, longtime Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter announced both a $2 billion federal grant for a Red Line extension and his long-anticipated retirement.

These two events are both godsends for Chicago transit and emblematic of Carter’s decade as CTA chief, where he leaves a complicated legacy. While his tenure will end with mild growth and a Red Line extension, Chicago rapid transit has suffered at the day-to-day level, struggling with both service and reliability.

In the decade he’s served the city, the system has undertaken major renovations, built two new L stations, invested in electric buses and purchased sorely-needed trains — the newest of which have brought the Blue Line almost up to par with modern international standards.

For all these successes, the state of the CTA’s post-COVID recovery is still rough, far removed from Carter’s appearances at station ribbon cuttings, grant unveilings or his frequent trips abroad.

And while Carter isn’t necessarily the root of the problem, his leadership hasn’t helped.

During his time as CTA president, transit reliability slipped behind comparable U.S. cities. Staffing and ridership challenges can be traced to the pandemic, but the CTA’s issues have lasted far longer than peer cities like Boston, New York or D.C.

Where New York has seen ridership recover to around 80% of pre-pandemic numbers, Chicago has barely cleared 60%, according to Statista.

Where Boston was able to tackle years of COVID-induced maintenance backlogs and 36 miles of slow zones in just 18 months, Chicago’s own maintenance epidemic has only continued to grow, hitting nearly 30% of the total system at the end of last year.

Notably, both New York and Boston’s transit milestones followed bold city action and, in Boston’s case, a new transit chief.

Carter developed a reputation as a skilled infrastructure fundraiser, securing federal grants for major construction projects, including the planned Red Line extension on the Far South Side.

But since being appointed in 2015, he’s been a stick in the mud for city transit, holding onto his inflexible approach to management even as it’s struggled to keep up with commuters’ needs.

Carter served as CTA president under Mayors Rahm Emmanuel, Lori Lightfoot and current Mayor Bandon Johnson, who all largely shielded him from official criticism. Johnson in particular repeatedly shut down questions over Carter’s management of the CTA, refusing to comment on “personnel matters.”

Carter became known for his defiance to accountability, repeatedly dodging city council hearings on the state of the CTA — to the point that the city council made his attendance at the hearings legally mandatory.

A May 2024 hearing — the last he attended — was followed by over half of the council voting for his dismissal, prompting him to fire back at his critics.

Instead of addressing complaints about “ghost buses,” L slow zones, long wait times or other service issues, Carter chose to label all criticism as racially motivated, saying they were treating him as a “caricature” and “less than a human being.”

It feels worth noting the areas suffering most under Carter’s leadership are the city’s predominantly Black and Hispanic communities — the South and West sides of the city are home to the worst of the L’s current slow zones.

To put this in perspective, the Blue Line’s West Side branch hit 77% slow zone in the CTA’s Dec. 2024 report. The north branch, serving O’Hare and the whiter North Side, is at 26%.

Ironically, CTA inequality has actually shrunk in the last year — but only because the slow zones have been spreading everywhere. On the other hand, the CTA’s budget deficit has continued to grow, creating what will soon be a billion-dollar fiscal cliff.

Carter’s retirement, which will take effect Jan. 31, comes at the end of a campaign by city and state officials pushing for his removal over glaring issues with reliability, safety and customer service.

Among those who advocated for his firing are Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who called for an “evolution” of CTA leadership, and progressive Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st), who has been vocal in advocating for improvements in traffic safety and commute times across the city — areas of the transit system Carter’s tenure largely failed.

La Spata joined 27 other alderpeople in voting for the resolution calling for Carter’s removal, which was introduced by fellow progressive Ald. Andre Vasquez Jr. (40th).

Also supporting Vasquez’s effort to remove Carter were the three alderpeople who represent the wards containing Loyola’s Water Tower and Lake Shore Campuses — Brendan Reilly (42nd), Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th) and Maria Hadden (49th).

Now that Carter is out, Chicago transit stands at a crossroads. CTA Chief of Staff Nora Leerhsen has taken over as acting president, but it’ll be up to Mayor Johnson to name a new president in the coming months.

The city council — and the city’s commuters — have expressed desire for a new approach to transit centered on reliability, frequency and accountable leadership. We can only wait and see if the mayor will follow through on his bold promises for revitalized rapid transit with strong new leadership for city transportation.