Metra’s board Wednesday approved creating a new Regional Day Pass that would allow riders unlimited trips for one day across the CTA, Metra and Pace. The measure still has to be approved by the CTA, Pace and the Regional Transportation Authority at meetings later this month, but if passed, the program would be tested for up to six months.

The move comes as the transit agencies are still looking to bring back riders from pandemic lows and adjust to changing demand, as riders commute less often to Loop offices and look to take buses and trains for other types of trips. It marks the latest attempt to adjust fares, following the creation of a monthly pass that can be used across the transit systems and Metra’s overhaul in February of its fare zones.

The pass would cost between $10 and $16 on weekdays depending on the length of the trip on Metra, where fares are based on the distance traveled. Weekend passes would be a flat $10. Reduced weekday fares would also be available.

The new pass is expected to be available for purchase this year, though the exact date will depend on when the Ventra vendor finishes development and testing. It would be available in the Ventra app, and valid until 3 a.m. the day after it’s first used.

The RTA said the pass prices come out to less than the cost of paying for both a CTA day pass and a Metra day pass. The RTA would reimburse the transit agencies up to $1 million for the difference in price.

The RTA said the ability to integrate fares across the systems, provide frequent service and maintain relatively low fares in the future will depend on getting additional funding from the state to fill a $730 million budget gap expected when federal COVID-19 relief funding starts running out in 2026.

“This agreement is a major step forward for integrating fare policies and products between the region’s transit agencies as we look toward a post-pandemic future of changing travel patterns and more inter-connectivity between agency services,” RTA officials said in the statement.

The additional flights from the Chicago-based airline are a boon to O’Hare International Airport, a key economic driver for the city where traffic has lagged pre-pandemic levels.

They bring United, one of O’Hare’s two main carriers, to its largest schedule from O’Hare since 2019, the carrier said. That includes an extra 38 flights between O’Hare and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which serves the District of Columbia. Other additional flights will go to cities such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Austin, Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle.

All told, the carrier will operate more than 530 flights daily at O’Hare on its busiest days, United said.

The additional flights come as the city prepares for the economic and security impacts of the four-day convention, which is expected to bring a slew of politicians, visitors and protesters in August. The DNC Host Committee estimates the convention could bring about 50,000 visitors, 20,000 media members and 5,500 delegates, alternates and guests to the city.

For its part, United’s preparations at O’Hare bring the amount of scheduled space on flights out of the airport in August to slightly higher than the number of seats scheduled before the pandemic. But overall at O’Hare, airlines have still scheduled fewer flights and fewer seats out of the airport than they did in summer 2019, according to data from aviation firm Cirium.

O’Hare’s other main carrier, American Airlines, hasn’t updated its schedule for the convention, a spokeswoman said. The airline has eight daily flights between Chicago and Reagan National.

Southwest, which is the primary carrier at Midway, also does not plan to add flights for the convention. A spokesman said the airline will have 223 flights a day out of Midway during the convention, including six per day between Midway and Reagan National, and up to six per day between Midway and Baltimore. The airline will also have two daily flights between Baltimore and O’Hare, where the carrier previously announced it was trimming its schedule.

United is also adding 72 flights to and from Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention in July, including from Chicago, the carrier said. The additional flights will increase the carrier’s capacity in Milwaukee by 75%, United said.

“These conventions are steeped in tradition and have now evolved to become a weeklong celebration of our political process,” said Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice president of global network planning and alliances, in a statement. “We’re proud to give people even more options to visit two great cities, and participate in these historic events and make their voices heard.”

The multi-vehicle crash involving a northbound #8 Halsted bus occurred near South Halsted and West 35th streets, according to the CTA.

Fire officials checked in with 17 people but made just five hospital transfers, said Larry Langford, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department. Two people were listed in serious condition, one person in stable condition and two in good condition, Langford said.

Chunks of concrete and broken glass littered Halsted, along with a half dozen damaged vehicles. Several street signs were mowed down. The facade of the newly opened Ramova Grill was also damaged.

“We have no idea how it occurred,” Langford said about the crash.

In the early afternoon Monday, traffic was closed along 35th Street between Wallace and Morgan, and on Halsted between 33rd Street and 37th Street. The CTA reported no reroutes “at this time.”

Officials from the CTA, CPD and Chicago Department of Transportation are investigating.

Chicago Tribune’s Sam Charles contributed.

The closures began Monday, nearly a month before the event, to allow for setup. Motorists should be prepared for heavy traffic and reroutes throughout the event, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Both the CTA and Metra will provide additional service.

More than half of Grant Park will remain open to the public throughout the event, including popular features such as Buckingham Fountain, Butler Field and Lower Hutchinson Field.

All of NASCAR demobilization activities are expected to conclude July 18, the city said.

Last year’s race drew criticism for traffic and limited lakefront accessibility, prompting officials to say setup and takedown time this year would be reduced from 25 days to 19 days. When asked in April to clarify the timeline, city officials said building and taking down the main parts of the course, and the closure of major roads needed to do so, would be reduced by six days.

The city said at the time it did this partly by moving some deliveries of equipment off busy Columbus Drive to Ida B. Wells Drive. That means eight fewer days of lane closures on Columbus, NASCAR said.

Here’s a complete list of street closures throughout the event.

Pre-race activity in Grant Park

• June 10: Ida B. Wells Drive will close from Michigan Avenue to Columbus Drive starting at 12:01 a.m. to allow for construction of the main viewing areas; and limited parking restrictions will be put in place along southbound Columbus Drive between Jackson Drive and Balbo Drive

• June 19 to June 20: Temporary road closure from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on northbound Michigan Avenue from Congress Circle to Jackson Drive to allow for a pedestrian walkway to be installed while viewing structures are being assembled

• June 26 – Beginning at 8 p.m.: Northbound traffic lane closure on Congress Circle

• June 27 – Beginning at 7 p.m.: Curb lane closure of Columbus Drive between Jackson Drive and Roosevelt Road

Significant street closures

• June 27 – Beginning at 7 p.m.: Closure of Jackson Drive between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive

• June 28 – Beginning at 8 a.m.: Closure of Balbo Drive from Columbus Drive to DuSable Lake Shore Drive (intersection will remain open)

• June 28 – Beginning at 7 p.m.: Full closure of Balbo Drive from Michigan Avenue to Columbus Drive

• June 29 – Beginning at 7 p.m.: Southbound lane closure on Columbus Drive from Balbo Drive to Roosevelt Road

• July 1 – Beginning at 1 a.m.: Closure of Columbus Drive between Jackson Drive and Roosevelt Road. Closure of Jackson Drive between Columbus Drive and DuSable Lake Shore Drive

• July 1 – Beginning at 9 p.m.: Closure of southbound DuSable Lake Shore Drive between Randolph Street and McFetridge Drive. Reopening at 6 a.m. on July 2

• July 2 – Beginning at 6 a.m.: Closure of Congress Circle and entrances at Michigan Avenue, Van Buren Street and Harrison Street

• July 4 – Beginning at 9 p.m.: Closure of westbound and eastbound Roosevelt Road between Michigan Avenue and DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Closure of northbound Michigan Avenue between Roosevelt Road and Jackson Drive

• July 5 – Beginning at 12:01 a.m.: Closure of northbound and southbound DuSable Lake Shore Drive between Randolph Street and McFetridge Drive. Closure of southbound Michigan Avenue between Roosevelt Road and Jackson Drive. Closure of the northbound lane of Indiana Avenue at 13th Street. Closure on Monroe Street between Columbus Drive and DuSable Lake Shore Drive

Race weekend street closures – July 6 and July 7

• Southbound DuSable Lake Shore Drive from Randolph Street to McFetridge Drive

• Northbound DuSable Lake Shore Drive from McFetridge Drive to Randolph Street

• Northbound Michigan Avenue from Roosevelt Road to Jackson Drive

• Southbound Michigan Avenue from Jackson Drive to 8th Street

• Monroe Street from Columbus Drive to DuSable Lake Shore Drive

• Columbus Drive from Roosevelt Road to Monroe Street

• Roosevelt Road from DuSable Lake Shore Drive to Michigan Avenue

• Jackson Drive from Michigan Avenue to DuSable Lake Shore Drive

• Balbo Drive from Michigan Avenue to DuSable Lake Shore Drive

• Ida B. Wells Drive from Michigan Avenue to Columbus Drive

• Congress Circle from Harrison Street to Van Buren Street

• Northbound Indiana Avenue from Roosevelt Road to 13th Street

• Post Place: Entrance and exit of Lower Wacker Drive

• Garvey Court: Entrance and exit of Lower Wacker Drive

• Reopening Schedule: The northbound section of DuSable Lake Shore Drive is set to reopen on July 8 at 6 a.m. After the event, select streets will gradually reopen

• Priority Streets: The priority streets for reopening are DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive. Other street closures will remain in place until the demobilization of the track wall, fence and viewing structures is completed. All NASCAR-related demobilization activities are expected to conclude by the end of the day on July 18

Streets with local access only for residents, businesses and their employees

Sidewalks will remain open throughout the setup and teardown (June 10 – July 18).

• Southbound Michigan Avenue from Monroe Street to Jackson Drive

• Southbound Michigan Avenue from 8th to Roosevelt Road

• 8th Street from Wabash Avenue to Michigan Avenue

• 9th Street from Wabash Avenue to Michigan Avenue

• 11th Street from Wabash Avenue to Michigan Avenue

• Balbo Drive from Wabash Avenue to Michigan Avenue

• Harrison Street from Wabash Avenue to Michigan Avenue

• Ida B. Wells from Wabash Avenue to Michigan Avenue

• Jackson Blvd. from Wabash Avenue to Michigan Avenue

• Van Buren Street from Wabash Avenue to Michigan Avenue

• Monroe Street from Michigan Avenue to Columbus Drive

• Southbound DuSable Lake Shore Drive from Randolph Street to Monroe Street

• Northbound Michigan Avenue from 13th to 16th Street

• Northbound Indiana Avenue from 14th to 16th Street

• Columbus underpass and the Chicago Lakefront Bicycle Path will remain open throughout the event (this includes Monroe Street and Roosevelt Road)

• Pedestrians traveling west must utilize and access sidewalk on the north side of Monroe Street, Roosevelt Road or Columbus Drive underpass only

Alternative routes available – streets may be closed by the city of Chicago, if deemed necessary

• DuSable Lake Shore Drive northbound will remain open from South Shore Drive to I-55 merger

• To visit the Museum Campus from the South: Exit DuSable Lake Shore Drive at 31st Street and utilize Fort Dearborn Drive to proceed north and access 18th Drive

• To visit the Museum Campus from the North: Access Stevenson Expressway (I-55N), and merge onto DuSable Lake Shore Drive Exit at 18th Street

• DuSable Lake Shore Drive Southbound will remain open from Hollywood Boulevard to Randolph Street

• Inner DuSable Lake Shore Drive will remain open in both directions

• Dan Ryan Expressway (I-90/94) will remain open in both directions

• Kennedy Expressway (I-90/94) will remain open in both directions. Eisenhower Expressway (I-290) will remain open in both directions

• Stevenson Expressway (I-55) will remain open in both directions

• In the Loop, the following streets will remain open: State Street, Dearborn Street, Clark Street, LaSalle Street, Wells Street, Franklin Street, Upper Wacker Drive, Lower Wacker Drive, Randolph Street, Washington Street, Madison Street, Roosevelt Road – West of Michigan Avenue, 18th Street

The findings, published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, follow years of scrutiny of racial disparities in Chicago traffic stops.

They also come amid renewed debate about the use of the stops, as outgoing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx unveiled a controversial proposal to decline to prosecute possession cases when guns or drugs are found during traffic stops initiated for reasons like expired registration or a broken light. Officials also recently moved to add oversight of traffic stops to a federal consent decree guiding Chicago Police Department reform.

In the latest study, researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago, Cornell University, Rutgers University and the University of Sydney in Australia analyzed GPS data from cellphones and 2019 data on traffic stops and speed camera tickets. They determined the racial makeup of drivers on the road, and compared that with the demographics of the people stopped or ticketed.

They found that on a street where half of drivers were white, the probability of a white driver getting a traffic camera ticket was just under 50%, while white drivers made up, on average, fewer than 20% of police stops.

On a street where half of drivers were Black, the probability of a Black driver getting a camera ticket was 54%. But Black drivers made up about 70% of police stops.

Comparing automated camera data to stops initiated by police sheds light in a clear way on the human role of the stops, said Nebiyou Tilahun, one of the study’s authors and an urban planning and policy professor at UIC.

“It specifically shows bias,” he said.

Asked about the study, CPD reiterated a statement it previously issued in light of the recent consent decree development, saying “Superintendent (Larry) Snelling is committed to ensuring traffic stops are being used effectively.” The department agreed to include the stops in the consent decree, and had already been reviewing use of the stops and is training officers, police said.

Traffic stops were down by about 80,500 year-to-date, the Police Department said Thursday, and felony arrests had increased by about 500. The department routinely initiates more than a half-million traffic stops each year.

Sometimes caught up in those stops is a 42-year-old insurance broker. The man, who is Black, said he has frequently been pulled over and asked that his name be withheld to talk about interactions with police.

One traffic stop stood out to him. It was near the University of Chicago one evening some nine years ago when his son, then around 5, was in the car. He asked an officer why he was pulled over and asked to talk with a supervisor, but was never told why he was stopped, he said.

He recalled how his heart thumped in his chest with worry as the officers held his license and registration.

“I get it. Cops have a job to do, whatever that job is,” he said. “That’s one aspect. But the other aspect is: Listen, man. I’m a citizen. I don’t want to do anything other than make it home right now.”

Chicago has for years grappled with concerns about racial disparities in traffic stops. The number of traffic stops began rising dramatically in 2016, at the same time stops of pedestrians plummeted after a new state law and an agreement between the ACLU and the Police Department required officers to more thoroughly document and justify the pedestrian encounters to ease concerns about racial profiling and constitutional violations.

The debate over traffic stop policy has continued more recently. The consent decree development concerning how traffic stops are monitored followed the fatal shooting of Dexter Reed in March during a traffic stop. Body-worn camera footage showed Reed, purportedly pulled over for not wearing a seat belt, shooting an officer in the wrist before four other tactical officers opened fire, killing the 26-year-old man.

Foxx said she was grateful Snelling agreed to include traffic stops in the consent decree. But she described her proposal declining certain charges from certain stops as another response to “racism baked into the system.”

“If not this, what should we be doing?” she asked. “Where is the urgency from all of our stakeholders to address the repeated findings of systemic racism in these studies? It is not enough to simply say what we can’t do. I’m looking for someone to tell me what we can.”

The concept has stirred controversy. Foxx is set to leave office in the coming months, but said she wanted to move along the process to try to address the issue, though the next state’s attorney could have the ability to keep or scrap the policy.

In an April report, advocacy organization Impact for Equity found Chicago police conducted more traffic stops in 2023 than the year before, and the stops were largely for improper registration and headlight, taillight and license plate offenses, considered minor violations.

Nearly 4% of stops led to a citation and 2% led to an arrest, the report found. And Black and Latino drivers were disproportionately stopped and arrested, according to the report.

Impact for Equity and the Free2Move Coalition, a group focused on racial equity in traffic safety in Chicago, called for reducing pretextual traffic stops, or a stop for a minor violation like expired registration used as an excuse to search for evidence of an unrelated crime.

“It’s not resulting in any sort of public safety gains,” said Amy Thompson, staff counsel for Impact for Equity’s criminal legal system section. “And I think what we see is that really degrades trust between communities and law enforcement, when they perceive that they are just a target for law enforcement and not a true partner.”

Another layer to the traffic enforcement issue is differences in the level of investment across Chicago communities, Thompson said. It can be easier to speed down streets in neighborhoods primarily of color, which often don’t get the same safety measures meant to slow traffic that are put in place in other city neighborhoods. And neighborhoods that have been disinvested in for years have fewer businesses, limiting foot traffic on streets and making it easier to speed, she said.

The latest study, comparing enforcement to who is using the road and looking at both traffic stops and camera tickets, builds on Impact for Equity’s findings, said Wenfei Xu, another of the study’s authors and a professor at Cornell.

“If the aim is to arrest, (a traffic stop) doesn’t seem very effective in terms of how we’re spending taxpayer money,” she said, citing the low arrest rate found by Impact for Equity.

The city’s use of automated ticketing has drawn its own concerns from critics, and several investigations have examined the impact on low-income violators and households in majority Black and Hispanic areas. A 2022 ProPublica investigation found that households in majority Black and Hispanic ZIP codes in Chicago “received tickets at around twice the rate of those in white areas,” despite cameras being roughly evenly distributed across the city.

The traffic stop study’s authors said automated cameras provided a more race-neutral comparison point. The study refutes arguments that perhaps Black drivers speed more than other drivers, pointing instead to human bias, said Michael Smart, a study author and urban planning and policy professor at Rutgers.

“(Bias is) not just a police issue,” he said, “But it’s especially acute among police because of the powers that police are given.”

A 35-year-old South Shore resident, who requested his name not be used, said he has experienced that bias firsthand.

The man, who is Black, still recalls his first traffic stop when he was a junior at Mount Carmel High School, driving the red 1992 Mustang he and his dad had fixed up.

A string of other traffic stops followed, like the embarrassing one his then-girlfriend’s family witnessed while he was waiting to pick her up from a family gathering downtown, he said. Or the disconcerting one, years later when he was driving a black 2005 Mustang, when he was cut off and boxed in by several police cars after dropping his girlfriend off after dinner.

The man, who loves American muscle cars, now drives a Honda Civic, reserving the Mustang for special cruises in the summer. After being pulled over so many times in the Mustang he was frustrated and wanted to draw less attention to himself, he said.

Even so, he said he was pulled over three times in two years in the Civic, though at least one was not by Chicago police.

“I’m always trying to go home,” he said. “My focus is going home.”

This story has been updated to correct a reference to the next Cook County state’s attorney. 

The hulking, scavenger-ravaged structure that ominously shadowed the city’s Corktown neighborhood is now home to Ford Motor Co. and the centerpiece of a sprawling 30-acre mobility innovation district.

The building’s first tenant, Google’s Code Next Detroit computer science education program, is expected to move in by late June. Grand opening ceremonies include an outdoor concert on Thursday, with tours for the public starting Friday.

“The train station … it is perhaps the most powerful story in Michigan of the power of historic renovation,” Detroit Regional Chamber President and Chief Executive Sandy Baruah said. “To turn something that was blight into something that is hugely attractive and is an anchor as opposed to a deficit is huge.”

The restoration effort — part of the automaker’s more than $900 million project to create a place where new transportation and mobility ideas are nurtured and developed — was just as massive as the size of the more than century-old, 500,000-square-foot  building.

In numbers:

• More than 3,100 workers spent about 1.7 million hours of labor on the station and its surrounding public spaces
• 29,000 Gustavino tiles were restored in its Grand Hall
• 8.6 million miles of new grout was laid across the 21,000-square-foot ceiling
• 8 million bricks, 23,000 square feet of marble flooring and 90,000 square feet of decorative plaster were restored or replicated
• 3.5 million gallons of water was pumped from the basement
• Installation of 300 miles of electrical cable and wiring and 5.6 miles of plumbing

“It was always my hope that this project would be a catalyst for moving the city and our industry together into the future,” Bill Ford, the automaker’s executive chair and great-grandson of its legendary founder, Henry Ford, told The Associated Press last week. “It’s always the future. We’re just getting started, now. Took a long time for us to get here and a lot of hard work and a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to this point.”

The train station’s history reflects the city’s fortunes during its heyday as the world’s car capital and later misfortunes as thousands of auto workers and other residents fled Detroit for life in the suburbs.

Michigan Central Railroad started purchasing land around 1908 in Corktown, the city’s oldest neighborhood, for the new train station, according to HistoricDetroit.org. The depot opened in late 1913. But as traveling by train gave way to commuter air travel and as more Americans chose to use the nation’s interstates, the numbers of people coming through Michigan Central steadily dropped.

The last train pulled out in 1988 and for years after the building fell into disrepair, neglect and abandonment. It became a destination for the curious and urban adventurers seeking out such places. Other buildings in Detroit, particularly factories, suffered the same or similar fate, but due to Michigan Central’s size it became a symbol of the city’s decline.

Redevelopment by its former owner never materialized. Then in 2018, Ford announced it was buying the 18-story building and adjacent structures as part of its plans for a more than 1 million square foot campus focusing on autonomous vehicles.

“There’s a lot of innovation going on here,” said Jim Farley, Ford chief executive. “Very much the future of the company is going to be housed here and on the campus. It represents our future revenues.”

The project is expected to bring with it thousands of tech-related jobs. Restaurants, new hotels and other service-industry businesses already are moving into and near Corktown.

In December, state officials announced three proposed housing development efforts intended to meet housing needs around Michigan Central and the innovation district.

Michigan Central and several other efforts around Detroit are expected to accelerate southeastern Michigan’s innovation economy, said Baruah, who added that the building and the surrounding campus will help draw the best and most innovative minds to the area.

“It’s really an attraction play. It’s about talent,” he said.

The reopening of the train station also comes as Detroit apparently has turned the corner from national joke to national attraction. Nearly a decade from exiting its embarrassing bankruptcy, the motor city has stabilized its finances, improved city services, staunched the population losses that saw more than a million people leave since the 1950s, and made inroads in cleaning up blight across its 139 square miles.

Detroit now is a destination for conventions and meetings. Last month, Detroit set an attendance record for the NFL draft after more than 775,000 fans poured into downtown last month for the three-day event.

The buzz about Detroit “is very different nationally,” Bill Ford said.

“I think when people see a project like this it’ll really put an exclamation on that,” he added. “And when we’re trying to recruit people from around the country and around the world, wouldn’t you say to them then ’come to Detroit and let me show you where you can work and play and live, and also live affordably.’”

The significance of Michigan Central’s rebirth is not lost on Mayor Mike Duggan, whose administration has guided Detroit back to respectability since the city’s 2014 exit from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

“I’ve been waiting 40 years for this day and so have all long-time to Detroiters, so it’s going to be very special,” Duggan said last week. “It’ll be a very emotional day.”

“The abandoned train station was the national symbol of Detroit’s decline and bankruptcy,” he explained. “So the fact that not only has the city come back, but that the train station has come back in such a spectacular way and the place where we’re going to be designing the automobiles of the future. It’s now about the future, not about the past.”

At a City Council committee hearing, Carter highlighted his efforts to right the troubled transit system amid post-pandemic struggles, but focused first on the more personal attacks he faces. It was one of his first attempts to publicly address what he called “the elephant in the room” as political pressure against him has mounted for months.

“As an African American man, this city has a history of attacking and trying to bring down their African American leaders,” Carter said during 20 minutes of opening remarks. “What I would hope is that we would work together to find a way to support our agency and make our agency better.”

Carter’s emphatic defense comes a week after 29 of 50 aldermen signed on to a resolution calling for Mayor Brandon Johnson to fire him. Johnson has declined to discuss Carter’s future, and the resolution was sidelined by a legislative maneuver.

But during Thursday’s Transportation Committee hearing, Carter said the criticism has made it hard for him and his employees to do their jobs.

“I have been turned into a caricature,” he said. “I have been turned into something that is less than a human being.”

The embattled appointed official walked aldermen through his childhood growing up on the South Side and his hopes for a more equitable Chicago. He described returning from a federal job to work at the CTA knowing the transit system and the city had experienced years of disinvestment. The harsh criticism of the CTA risks more disinvestment, he said, limiting the opportunities for the agency to advance.

Carter cited rising ridership from pandemic lows as evidence the agency was on the right path. But he acknowledged wanting to work to make the agency better, saying he would rather talk about the issues raised by riders or about funding than personal specifics.

“We’re spending a lot of time talking about my salary, talking about statistics,” he said. “Instead of, as one (public) commenter said, talking about the people.”

Carter has come under fire in recent months as complaints mounted about the transit agency’s ability to provide frequent, reliable and safe service. The agency, like others in the region and across the country, also faces a looming financial cliff when federal pandemic aid runs out, and transit agencies are looking to Springfield for solutions.

Among the challenges the CTA has faced are cutbacks in service as the organization struggled to hire and retain enough staff to operate buses and trains. The CTA slashed schedules on some train lines by as much as 25% to 30% compared with 2019 service levels, a 2023 Tribune analysis found, leaving riders with long wait times and crowded buses and trains.

Carter has previously promised to restore transit service to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, a vow he reiterated Thursday.

So far, the agency added bus service back on 29 of 127 routes under new schedules unveiled in March. On the rail side, schedules that took effect in April showed few service additions.

CTA spokesperson Catherine Hosinski said at the time that the agency was still working to add service as previously proposed, and planned to regularly roll out updated schedules through the summer as more rail operators are trained and available to head out on the tracks.

Chicago’s transit woes have already rippled across City Hall. Earlier this month, Johnson nominated a politically connected West Side pastor, the Rev. Ira Acree, for the Regional Transportation Authority board that oversees Pace, Metra and the CTA.

Acree drew sharp criticism for showing little knowledge about the region’s biggest transit struggles, including an impending $730 million funding shortfall, even as his nomination was advanced by a council committee. After the pushback, he withdrew his name as a candidate for the position last week.

But Carter has mounted a more determined defense. He met with members of the council’s Black Caucus Wednesday, several aldermen told the Tribune. During the call, he asked the caucus members to oppose the resolution calling for him to be fired. It is unclear whether the resolution’s author, Ald. Andre Vásquez, 40th, will push for it to go back up for a vote.

After Carter’s opening speech Thursday, several aldermen who have called for him to be fired said he should have focused less on defending himself and more on the status of CTA’s service.

“I’m feeling a little disappointed in your approach,” Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26th, said. “I was hoping that today we would have learned about the challenges and the solutions that maybe you are putting in place.”

Vásquez asked Carter a question about attrition, a nod to Carter’s statements that staffing challenges are at the core of the agency’s inability to run more trains and buses. Carter should focus more on those types of service issues and less on personal attacks, Vásquez said.

“I get criticism all the time. I have taken criticism for decades. I have been a public official my entire career,” Carter fired back. “What’s going on here goes way beyond that.”

“We’re just holding people accountable more than we did a decade ago, which is a good thing for government,” Vásquez responded.

But as Carter’s critics maintained their frustrations, several Black aldermen rallied behind him. They praised his work and distanced themselves from the criticism he has faced.

Ald. Stephanie Coleman, 16th, chair of the council’s Black Caucus, said the pushback on Carter is “mean-spirited and lacks respect.” Other leaders of struggling city departments have not faced such critique, she said.

“I am not disappointed in your approach today,” she said. “I appreciate your honesty, your humility and your courage.”

She thanked Carter for his leadership and promised him the Black Caucus will not call for his resignation.

Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, noted that most of the backers of the resolution calling for Carter to be fired “did not come from my community.”

“I support you and your leadership,” she told Carter.

Ald. David Moore, 17th, said he does not get many constituent calls concerning CTA service and believes Carter is doing “an exceptional job.” He commended Carter’s ability to secure funding from the federal and state governments.

“I don’t think you get enough credit for getting funding for the Red Line extension project,” that will bring the Red Line south to 130th Street, he said. “For the ones that have concerns, I respect them, but I don’t think this is the time to get rid of someone who can help us address those concerns.”

The announcement shows growing momentum on the long-awaited rebuild, which calls for replacing Terminal 2 with a new Global Terminal and adding two satellite concourses. But many questions remain about the timeline, cost and design of the delayed expansion project.

“This is a once in a generation expansion, the modernization of O’Hare,” Johnson said at a news conference. “Investing in our airports is an investment in all of our communities.”

The satellite’s designs include tall, rounded ceilings, garden rest spaces and tree-like support columns designed to make visitors feel like they are “moving through an orchard,” a nod to the airport’s original name, Orchard Field, said Ryan Culligan, design principal at architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

The project was designed with tones “inspired by midwestern landscapes” and is “beautiful, impactful and practical,” he added.

Early work began on the satellite last year, Chicago Department of Aviation Commissioner Jamie Rhee said. Design is around 30% done on both planned satellites, the new Global Terminal and the underground tunnels that connect them with the rest of the airport, she said.

Rhee declined to share estimates on when the overall terminal expansions will be finished, citing the need to minimize disruptions for carriers. Phasing will be planned “over the next couple of months,” she added.

“This is very complex construction right in the middle of the heart of their operations, and we need them to make money, we need them to keep operating,” Rhee said. “But our work progresses.”

In a news release shared afterward the city said the first concourse is expected to be completed in 2028.

The O’Hare rebuild is mired in negotiations and potential changes. Here’s how another airport finished construction.

The terminal expansion project has lagged behind schedule since its announcement six years ago and became mired in months of contentious negotiations, as the airport’s two main airlines, United and American, pushed back against rising costs.

In early May the carriers, who are footing much of the construction bill, agreed to a deal to change the order of construction, paving a path forward on the project. The deal allowed the city to move forward with building the first satellite concourse while planning a phased construction of the Global Terminal. The second satellite concourse will move forward if enough money is left over, United has previously said.

The terminal work is the centerpiece of a broad overhaul of the airport, a crucial piece of the city’s economy and a hub in the nation’s air system, that was initially pegged at $8.5 billion when the airlines signed off on the project in 2018. The terminal work was to feature the soaring, 2.2 million-square-foot Global Terminal, designed by a team led by architect Jeanne Gang, which would more than double the space of the current Terminal 2 and add additional gates. It would also allow travelers to move more seamlessly between domestic and international flights.

But costs, largely financed by city bonds backed by airline fees, ballooned, and the project fell significantly behind schedule. The airlines said at one point last year they had received a cost estimate that put the terminal work alone $1.5 billion over budget in 2018 dollars.

Nate Gatten, American’s chief government affairs officer, credited Johnson Tuesday with “getting the process back on track.” By focusing on the Global Terminal and first satellite, the city’s tweaks to the terminal expansions prioritize the “critical elements,” said Brandon Fair, United’s vice president for corporate real estate.

While the airlines have signaled the second satellite will be tied to the budget, city leaders again said Tuesday they are bullish that the concourse will indeed be completed.

John Roberson, Johnson’s chief operating officer, guaranteed the second satellite concourse will be finished. But to make sure the city stays within budget while completing the three major terminal expansion pieces, some aspects of the overrall project may need to be “value engineered,” he said.

“We have to do that,” Roberson said. “We are not going to over-build, but we are not going to under-build either.”

Roberson said there are “ongoing conversations” about what the designs for the satellites and Global Terminal will ultimately look like. The city has not released updated renderings for the Global Terminal.

Early plans for the terminal progressed with much fanfare. When the original plan launched, the city undertook an opaque selection process to pick design teams for the new terminal and satellites, ultimately selecting a team led by hometown star Gang to design the Global Terminal. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, known for designing the Willis Tower and the former John Hancock Center, would design the satellite concourses.

Gang’s initial design for the terminal, unveiled in 2019, included a sculpted, three-part terminal that wraps around a towering sky-lit atrium. The terminal’s interior would include ample greenery and nature-inspired architecture.

Gang’s firm, Studio Gang, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the latest plans Tuesday.

Roberson compared planning and executing the expansion project Tuesday to remodeling a kitchen.

“Where things start is not necessarily where things finish,” Roberson said. “You may have a lot of great ideas in the beginning about what you want that remodel project to look like. But there’s a budget.”

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

The head of the union that represents bus drivers says he anticipates having enough staffing for both the DNC and regular scheduled bus service. But designating buses for the convention has some advocates concerned.

“Pulling CTA operators from their regular routes to a specified task that doesn’t serve all of Chicago is of tremendous concern,” said Kyle Lucas, with the transportation advocacy group Better Streets Chicago. “And what will service look like for everyday people during that time?”

Transportation is just one of the ways the city is likely to feel the effects of the four-day convention, which is expected to bring a slew of politicians, visitors and protesters in August. Though many details about plans for the convention have yet to be publicized, officials have already begun telling residents and downtown businesses to brace for the effects of heightened security around McCormick Place and the United Center, key convention sites.

The CTA has agreed to provide the buses, maintenance staff, drivers and other employees needed to transport convention participants as part of a “secured transit system,” according to a copy of an ordinance approved by the Transit Board. In return, the DNC host committee will pay the CTA $4.24 million if all 250 buses are used.

The designated buses would make up about 13% of the CTA’s roughly 1,900 total buses. And that proportion could be significant, advocates said.

“I think if it’s over 10% (of the fleet) there’s a potential that it could put pressure on the ability to deliver regular service,” said Audrey Wennink, transportation director for the Metropolitan Planning Council.

Already, the CTA has struggled to provide frequent and reliable service as it grapples with a shortage of operators to run buses and trains. By one measurement of service levels, CTA buses were scheduled to drive more than 3.9 million miles in March, down from 4.3 million in March 2020, federal transit data shows.

The CTA has added some 400 bus operators to its staff over the past year and recently added service on some routes. Still, in April the agency was about 120 bus drivers short of 2019 staffing levels, according to CTA data.

The CTA did not answer questions about whether it would have enough staffing and buses to provide both DNC and regular service or how it planned to do so. In a statement, the agency said only that it has committed to providing buses, planning was still underway, and “CTA has a long history of successfully providing supplemental service during special events.”

Keith Hill, president of the union that represents bus drivers, said he expected to be able to meet the CTA’s service plan during the convention. Every CTA garage has a pool of fill-in drivers, known as “extra board,” who can cover summer events, any reroutes, the DNC and regular service, he said.

The CTA is not planning to pull 250 bus drivers from regular service for the entire four days of the convention, he said, adding it’s too early to determine whether the agency will rely on overtime to meet staffing needs.

But in discussions with the CTA, the union said it had an obligation to provide service to the city regardless of the DNC, Hill said.

The CTA also provided buses during the 1996 DNC. That year, the agency caused a stir by pulling up to 100 of its newest, air-conditioned buses from regular service to shuttle credentialed guests between downtown hotels and the United Center during the evening rush, according to Tribune reporting.

This year, extra drivers could help cover the needs of the DNC, and other transportation options could also keep the buses running smoothly, Wennink said. For example, temporary dedicated bus lanes to the United Center could ensure attendees have a smooth experience getting around town.

“If we’re providing all these buses, you’d better make sure they can operate efficiently and not be stuck in traffic,” she said.

Improvements like temporary bus lanes are also a chance to show what the future of transportation in the city could be, Lucas said.

“That would have been a wonderful opportunity for us to demonstrate how we can move more people quickly and efficiently and to places of high traffic volume,” he said.

The city’s Transportation Department said it was working with the CTA, and local and federal law enforcement, including the Secret Service, on route options for United Center shuttles. More information, including about traffic and parking impacts, will be made public once the security perimeter for the DNC is finalized, the department said.

But some CTA riders will likely see one benefit before the DNC. The long-awaited Damen Green Line station, a little less than half a mile from the United Center, is set to open in July, the Transportation Department said.

The station, which will fill a 1.5-mile gap between stations on the train line, was initially expected to open in 2020. Construction was pushed back several times, and was recently targeted to be finished in the first quarter of this year.

Now, if all goes according to plan, it will be open in time for the DNC.

No one was injured after the incident on United Flight 2091, which happened around 2 p.m. The Airbus A320 was towed to the gate, and passengers deplaned, the FAA said.

The agency temporarily halted arrivals into O’Hare. Normal operations resumed around 2:45 p.m., according to the FAA.

There were 148 passengers and five crew members on board, according to a statement from United Airlines.

The airline is working with customers to make alternate arrangements, it said.