Sec. Duffy warns CTA, other transit agencies: make systems safe or lose federal money

CHICAGO (WGN) — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday issued a warning to mass transit systems in the country, including Chicago: make your systems safer or risk losing federal funds.

The Wisconsin native’s comments during an appearance on the Fox News Channel came just hours after a woman was fatally shot on a Chicago Transit Authority platform on the city’s South Side. Police later said the attack appears to be a domestic-related incident.

Duffy’s remarks initially focused on the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the busiest and largest transit system in the country, but he also said the CTA and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in the nation’s capital should be on notice.

“We give millions of dollars a year to the New York subway, and part of the requirement is they keep it safe. And so, what we’re going to do is say, ‘Listen, if you can’t keep your subways safe. If people can’t go to the subway and not be afraid of being stabbed or thrown in front of tracks or burnt, and we can’t consider the subway a subway and not a homeless shelter, we’re going to pull your money,” Duffy said, adding: “And it’s not just to New York; it’ll be Chicago, it’ll be Washington, D.C. The American people expect their subways to be places where they can come in and out of cities and do it safely.”

“If they don’t get on board to change their ways, we’re pulling cash,” he declared.

Mayor Brandon Johnson in response said it was “no secret that this administration has shown a great deal of animus toward cities that primarily serve vulnerable, working people.”

The union for CTA workers last month expressed concerns about safety and security on public transit following incidents on the system. Within roughly the last two months, reported violent crimes on the CTA include a stabbing on a Red Line train, a double shooting on Red Line train, and a double stabbing on a Blue Line platform in the Loop.

Earlier this year, the CTA locked in nearly $2B in federal funding to extend the Red Line more than five miles to terminate at East 130th Street.

WGN earlier Wednesday reached out to the CTA for a comment about Duffy’s warning. The agency has not replied.