'Unsafe Conditions': Feds Threaten To Withhold CTA Funds After Woman Set On Fire

CHICAGO ? The U.S. government is threatening to withhold federal funding from the CTA if the agency does not improve its security after a man set a woman on fire last month on a Blue Line train.

In a letter to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Marcus Molinaro, administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, said the FTA was ?issuing a Special Directive requiring the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to implement immediate, measurable corrective actions to reduce assaults on transit workers and passengers and to address unsafe conditions contributing to elevated violent crime rates.?

The CTA must update its agency safety plan by the end of the month, develop and submit a security enhancement plan to the FTA by Dec. 15 and implement that plan in full by Dec. 19, the letter said.

?If CTA does not promptly increase its law enforcement presence, FTA will act, including by withholding federal funds,? Molinaro wrote in the letter.

Lawrence Reed is charged with committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system, an offense punishable with up to life in prison, after he poured gasoline on a 26-year-old woman and set her on fire aboard the train on Nov. 17, police have said. Multiple media outlets reported Reed has over 70 prior arrests.

The CTA?s violent crime rate is nearly four times the national average, according to Molinaro.

Gov. JB Pritzker, who also received a letter, said the federal government was ?not allowed to? take away federal funds for Molinaro?s stated purpose, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The governor noted a $1.5 billion measure passed by the state general assembly earlier in the year included a new Office of Transit Safety and a transit ambassador program to put unarmed staff at stations.

The CTA has awarded private contracts for unarmed security and K9s for the transit system in recent years, according to Block Club Chicago, which reported both Johnson?s office and the CTA confirmed they intended to respond to the letter.