FTA Threatens to Cut Funds to Chicago Transit Authority After Woman Set on Fire

The special directive orders the Chicago Transit Authority act on public safety concerns by Dec. 19.

A man who federal authorities identified as Lawrence Reed holds a flaming bottle and approaches a passenger on a Chicago Blue Line train on Nov. 17, 2025, in a still from video. Chicago Transit Authority/U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois via AP

The Federal Transit Authority has threatened to withdraw funding for Chicago’s public transport network if the city doesn’t “measurably reduce assaults on transit workers and passengers” and address “unsafe conditions that have contributed to increased crime.”

FTA Administrator Marc Molinaro on Dec. 8 sent letters to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, outlining a Dec. 15 deadline for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to develop a “verifiable security enhancement plan” to be implemented in full across the CTA’s bus and rail system by Dec. 19 or risk cuts to federal funding.