Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) President Dorval R. Carter were joined by United States Senator Dick Durbin, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Congressman Mike Quigley and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Acting Administrator Carolyn Flowers to announce a $1 billion funding agreement that will allow the CTA to move forward with the first phase of the Red and Purple Modernization Program (RPM)—a plan to rebuild the century-old rail lines north of Belmont and improve CTA rail service for decades to come. The Full-Funding Grant Agreement with the FTA is the final step in securing the funding needed for the $2.1 billion first phase of the RPM project. RPM will rebuild part of CTA’s busiest rail line, the Red Line, parts of which are more than a century old. The tracks, structures and stations are well past their useful lifespan, and can no longer handle additional trains to meet the increasing demands of growing ridership – which is up 40 percent during the rush hours since 2008.

The first phase of RPM will rebuild the Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr rail stations and more than a mile of adjacent tracks and track structure. It will also construct a Red-Purple bypass to improve overall service that will benefit the entire Red Line by improving reliability and increasing capacity so that more trains can be added to alleviate chronic overcrowding during peak travel times. In November 2016, the Chicago City Council approved the creation of a dedicated Tax-Increment Financing District (TIF) that will generate $622 million to support the first phase of RPM. The RPM project is a key part of Mayor Emanuel’s “Red Ahead” program, a series of projects to improve the Red Line, the CTA’s busiest line, carrying more than 30 percent of rail riders—more than 75 million riders annually. “Red Ahead” also includes the ongoing $280 million construction of a new 95th Street Terminal, and a new, $203 million transfer station at Wilson. Design and engineering work is expected to begin in 2017, and CTA anticipates construction work to begin in late 2018. Construction is estimated to take 4 to 5 years to complete. For more on this project, visit transitchicago.com/rpm.