The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) awarded a $912.1 million American Rescue Plan (ARP) grant to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). ARP transit funds are intended to help transit agencies around the country maintain service and keep workers on the payroll as communities continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
CTA employs approximately 10,600 workers who provided nearly 200 million trips in 2020. The ARP funds will support jobs across the Chicago metro area and allow CTA to continue providing low-carbon transportation service critical to the region’s 8.6 million residents.
“Public transportation has connected communities and helped people reach their jobs, hospitals, grocery stores and more throughout this pandemic,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “This funding from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan will help keep transit service running, protect transit employees from layoffs and ensure people can get where they need to go.”
“As our nation’s transit systems recover from COVID-19, the American Rescue Plan funds ensure they continue to provide service to the many Americans who depend on transit,” said Federal Transit Administration Administrator Nuria Fernandez.
This funding is part of more than $30 billion for public transportation in the American Rescue Plan Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in March 2021. The funding comes from the $26.6 billion allocated by statutory formulas to urban and rural areas, Tribal governments and for the enhanced mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities. The act also included $2.2 billion for additional transit pandemic-associated needs, with grants to be awarded by FTA later this year. No local share is required for this funding.
To date, FTA has awarded more than $57.8 billion in COVID-relief funding to transit agencies nationwide.
