The City Council Must Force Mayor Johnson to Act on Chicago’s Unsafe Public Transit System

Public safety on the CTA requires more than enforcing a smoking ban

Shortly before 10 p.m. on Monday, November 17, a woman riding on the CTA’s Blue Line was set alight as she emerged from the train at the Clark/Lake Station. The victim, Bethany MaGee, a 26-year-old analyst for Caterpillar, suffered burns to 60 percent of her body. There was no apparent provocation for the attack. MaGee remains hospitalized in serious condition.

Days after the grisly attack, Chicago Police took Lawrence Reed into custody. Reed, age 50, allegedly shouted “burn alive bi*ch” when he was arrested, has a lengthy criminal record, with over 70 prior arrests. Reed has been charged with, among other offenses, an act of terrorism against a mass transit system. Propitiously, Reed was ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate judge, Laura McNally.

There is no assurance Reed would have been held without bail had he appeared in front of a Cook County judge.

Will a woman being set on fire while riding on the CTA finally serve as a warning to the perils of riding public transit in Chicago? Don’t count on it. Mayor Brandon Johnson, consistent with his response to other violent incidents, reflexively downplays these attacks as isolated aberrations. Johnson’s instinctive response to violent incidents such as this macabre CTA attack is to shift blame away from criminals to systemic failures — particularly in mental health services — and deflect from any call for increased police presence. Whether it’s the latest CTA tragedy, youth “wildings,” or the ongoing tide of street violence, Johnson’s solution to street violence is unwavering: Public safety always comes second to ideological narrative.

With Mayor Johnson forsaking his responsibility to ensure residents safe passage on Chicago’s mass transit system, the burden to create a safer CTA now falls on the City Council. Aldermen must take action not simply because riders deserve to ride public transit in safety, but by virtue of the fact restoring public confidence is essential to rebuilding CTA ridership. The system’s financial viability hinges on those riders’ return. State bailouts and short-term fiscal maneuvers cannot substitute for the steady revenue of paying passengers — no amount of backroom budget reallocations can address the underlying crisis.

Rather than pursue real fiscal reform, lawmakers have resorted to shuffling existing revenues and passing the buck to city taxpayers and drivers. This presumed solution drains $860 million from the state motor fuel tax, redirects $200 million a year in transit interest, hikes Chicago’s sales tax by another 0.25 percent, and hits Illinois drivers with higher tolls. Yet none of these measures grapple with the true cause of CTA’s woes: Declining safety and falling public trust.

The recent transit overhaul bill fails to deliver genuine accountability or achieve any meaningful consolidation. Rebranding the RTA as the Northern Illinois Transportation Authority is little more than symbolic; the legislation punts true oversight to transit agencies themselves while sidestepping the systemic issues that erode ridership.

No amount of bureaucratic renaming will fix a system that feels, and often is, unsafe, nor will fiscal stability return while CTA’s cost structure remains top-heavy and misaligned. More than two-thirds of the operating budget is consumed by personnel costs. Nearly half of the authority’s 10,911 employees occupy administrative, management, or support roles rather than operating buses and trains. It’s abundantly clear the CTA must cut bloated overhead and invest directly into service delivery.

Commeasurently, the Red Line Extension project encapsulates CTA’s fiscal drift. Once projected at $3.6 billion, it has now ballooned to $5.75 billion — a staggering sum translating to roughly $1 billion per mile. The CTA’s debt load, projected to swell to $3 billion, is over seven times the original estimate. Even in tandem with local economic development, the extension is unlikely to yield the fare revenue needed to remain afloat. Framing this massive outlay as an “equity issue” ignores the reality: The area is already served by Metra Electric and other transit lines, even as core service languishes.

However, none of these conditions matters if riders remain too fearful to return. CTA usage remains stuck at about 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels, and today, fares cover barely 20 percent of operating costs — a nonviable model. Safety concerns far outweigh reliability as the main complaint from riders. A 2024 WBEZ survey found nearly half of Chicagoans feel “somewhat unsafe” or “very unsafe” on CTA buses and trains, while only 7 percent reported feeling “very safe.” Employees themselves cite frequent threats and assaults, leading to burnout, absenteeism, and service disruptions — a downward spiral that further depresses ridership.

Federal and local data drive the crisis home: Over 2,200 crimes were reported on the CTA in the first half of 2025 alone, including hundreds of violent offenses. The mass shooting on the Blue Line in 2024 left four passengers dead. Since 2015, violent crimes per trip have more than tripled. Today, an incident is reported nearly every three hours. Despite such suboptimal conditions on the transit system, the mayor’s office continues to brand the CTA as “safe,” touting anti-smoking campaigns as the main enforcement focus.

Worse, security on the CTA is virtually nonexistent: Only 135 Chicago Police officers are detailed to the transit system, compared to more than 1,000 in New York City. The private contractors — about 300 guards and 50 dogs — are poorly trained, underpaid, and have no power of arrest, rendering their presence mostly symbolic. In contrast, the mayor’s personal security detail rivals the police presence protecting Chicago’s transit system.

Last year alone, the CTA spent $88.5 million on security, and the state’s new transit bill added $100 million in security grants, much of which will flow to the CTA. These resources are sufficient to fund nearly 600 additional full-time police officers dedicated to transit — enough to provide meaningful and regular patrols throughout the system without further burdening taxpayers.

The shocking assault on November 17 demands budget reprioritization, not more deflection. CTA safety is inseparable from its financial future. Without urgent action, the temporary fiscal lifeline thrown by the legislature will vanish, and the system will continue its decline. Yet Mayor Johnson remains ideologically committed to resisting increased policing — except, of course, for his own security entourage. It begs the question: Would the mayor swap his phalanx of police officers for the CTA’s beleaguered rent-a-cops? Just a thought.

The City Council must act. It should demand CTA leadership make transit rider and worker safety a top priority by building a CPD transit unit second to none. Ridership and system solvency depend upon it, and the Council has real leverage if it chooses to exercise its influence.

The first lever is the forthcoming Transit Tax Increment Financing (TIF), designed to support key capital projects like the Red Line Extension. In December 2022, the Council established a special TIF district projected to unlock up to $2 billion in federal funds. This critical investment must come with strong strings attached: namely, clear, enforceable benchmarks for system-wide public safety.

Second, while the City Council cannot directly appoint the CTA president, it does hold veto power over the mayor’s board nominees. Board members set contracts, shape policy, and oversee leadership, and should be chosen for their transit expertise and commitment to making safety the number one priority — not for political loyalty.

Finally, the Council itself can take the bold step of passing a comprehensive City Nuisance Ordinance. Such a measure would establish civil or criminal penalties for disruptive or dangerous conduct on public property — including harassment, vandalism, loitering, and fare evasion on transit as well as flash mobs, looting, or incitement to riot citywide.

Compare how the city punishes average drivers — through unrelenting ticket blitzes enforced by red-light and speed cameras ($350 million annually, more than New York and Los Angeles combined, driving thousands to bankruptcy) — with the leniency shown to those who threaten transit safety. If only the same resolve was directed at transit offenders as at ticketing parked cars.

The uncomfortable truth is that under current leadership, transit safety is a political afterthought. Only decisive action from the City Council to prioritize policing and accountability can reverse the decline. The connection is as clear as ever: Security drives ridership, and ridership underpins fiscal health. Without renewed Council pressure, the city will squander what little time remains before the system slides past the point of no return.