CTA's plan to make stations 100% accessible is too slow, advocates say
Mike Irvin uses a wheelchair to get to and from his Printers Row home, but he always gives himself more time to take public transit because his closest L stop at Harrison Street doesn't have an elevator.
He is disappointed that the Chicago Transit Authority doesn't plan to add an elevator to that station until nearly 2038, the CTA's own deadline for upgrading the remaining 30% of its stations that are not accessible for people with disabilities.
"I was never a fan of the plan in the first place. We just had the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and they're saying it will be 50 years until we get full accessibility," said Irvin, 68.
Irvin protested the CTA in the 1980s to pressure the transit system to add lifts to its buses.
"I'm just hoping that I'll live to see [my station] accessible," Irvin said.
The CTA last week released its revised plan for its All Stations Accessibility Program, or ASAP, which would make it the first legacy transit system more than a century old to be 100% accessible.
But the plan is anything but "ASAP."
Five years into that plan, the CTA hasn't added a single elevator, and its estimated price tag has more than doubled to $4.9 billion.
Advocates of transit accessibility told the Chicago Sun-Times they understand the limitations of updating a transit system that's over a century old. But some said the 20-year timeline shows accessibility is not the city's top priority.
"Think of some of the things we do spend money on. The Jane Byrne [Interchange] has been rebuilt twice in the time I've been in Chicago," said W. Robert Schultz III, a campaign organizer with Active Transportation Alliance.
Funding is biggest challenge
The new, $4.98 billion price tag marks an eye-popping 137% increase in the cost of making all of the CTA’s stations fully accessible. The original estimate of $2.1 billion was released in 2018.
“It’s largely something that’s being seen across the construction industry, It’s not just CTA projects,” CTA spokesperson Catherine Hosinski said, pinning the increase on rising labor and material costs.
In a follow-up email to the Sun-Times, Hosinski acknowledged that “funding has been and remains the biggest challenge.” The CTA is seeking state and federal resources, she said, and needs City Council's support to address "an outdated funding formula supported by stagnant, less-viable funding sources.”
The CTA divided its ASAP plan into four phases over its 20-year span. The CTA has completed none of the eight stations marked for improvements in Phase 1, though it expects them to be completed by 2027, the agency said in a news release. The CTA said it has fully funded $423.5 million price tag of those projects.
Phase 2, which is expected to cost $617.5 million, is nearly half funded, according to the CTA. No funding has been allocated yet to Phases 3 and 4.
The CTA has had some success in obtaining federal grants.
Congress passed the All Stations Accessibility Act in 2021, dedicating $10 billion over 10 years to accessibility upgrades on transit systems across the country. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth was a lead sponsor of the bill named after the CTA program.
The CTA got $118 million in grants through the program for its 2022-23 budget to modernize Irving Park, Belmont and Pulaski stations. However, the CTA was not among the eight agencies awarded $343 million in grants for fiscal 2024.
North Side Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) has been a frequent critic of the CTA and President Dorval Carter Jr.
Vasquez said the skyrocketing cost of making the CTA the “first completely accessible legacy transit system” in the nation underscores the need for the kind of sweeping mass transit reform that Carter has opposed.
“All of this makes the conversation about consolidating the agencies — Metra, CTA, [RTA] and Pace — even more important,” Vasquez said. “If you did have more skin in the game — if the state, county and city are all in agreement — it makes it easier to lobby for more federal dollars to get this stuff done.”
Root of the problem runs deep
Accessibility advocates have been pressuring the CTA since the 1980s.
Irvin, the wheelchair user who lives in Printers Row, helped found the group Adapt Chicago, which sued the CTA and held protests to add lifts to city buses.
Irvin and his colleagues would climb aboard buses without lifts to slow them down and make a statement. Some of them were arrested. The group won, and all city buses soon had lifts. Then-Mayor Harold Washington added a person with a disability to the CTA board.
Even with that representation, progress has been slow because of a lack of planning years ago. When the ADA was passed in 1990, only 10% of the CTA's stations were accessible.
"The decisions that got us where we are now were made decades ago when stations were built without elevators," said Kevin Irvine, a former CTA board member who advocates for transit accessibility.
The majority of current inaccessible stations are along the Blue and Red lines. The Pink and Orange lines, built after 1990, were designed to be accessible.
Irvine, the former CTA board member, said the revised plan shows the transit agency's commitment to accessibility and dismissed the criticisms of the progress.
"The fact that all Phase 1 stations haven't been completed isn't a failure because it's a work in progress," Irvine said. "It's unrealistic to expect a timeline in a written plan in 2018 won't need to be adjusted over time."
Rene David Luna, a wheelchair user who protested in the 1980s for accessible CTA buses, said he understood the elevator upgrades wouldn't happen overnight.
"It's over 30 years after the passage of the ADA, and we still have many inaccessible stations. Even the ones with accessibility, some of the equipment doesn't work right," Luna said.
Legacy transit system
Despite the lack of progress, Chicago is miles ahead of other cities with legacy transit systems.
More than 70% of New York City's subway stations are inaccessible, compared with 30% in Chicago's. Its Metro system plans to be 95% accessible by 2055.
Bridget Hayman, of the advocacy group Access Living, said she moved to Chicago because its public transit was so accessible.
"The CTA has always stood out on a national level as far as improving accessibility on buses," she said.
Part of the challenge, she said, is getting to the bus or train station in the first place. Some sidewalks need repairs or to be cleared of snow.
"If you can't get to the bus stop, you can't ride the bus," she said.
Laura Salzman, a transportation policy analyst at Access Living and a member of CTA's ADA advisory board, said accessible transportation extends beyond elevators.
The CTA is also installing braille on bus stop signs and improving the readability of its signs for people with cognitive and developmental disabilities. The improvements also help non-English speakers.
"That's one of the less-glamorous bits. It's not a big elevator but it is a thing that helps people get around," Salzman said.