Chicago's Regional Transportation Authority received a $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration Transit Asset Management (TAM) Pilot program. The grant will allow the RTA to move forward with existing plans to develop a Capital Program Prioritization Decision Tool that will utilize its newly developed assessment and inventory of the region's transportation assets, including infrastructure and equipment, to prioritize future expenditures, in order to best achieve a state of good repair for transportation assets over the next 10 years. The regional Service Boards CTA, Metra and Pace have collaboratively participated with RTA in the process. "Our proactive efforts to conduct the asset condition evaluation favorably positioned our region to receive the FTA grant that will be of tremendous help toward maintaining a state of good repair and aiding us with making strategic capital investments," said Grace Gallucci, RTA senior deputy executive director, finance and performance management and CFO. She added that over time, riders can benefit from improved service reliability with a needs-based capital program. Last year, the RTA and its Service Boards completed an 18-month asset condition evaluation that reviewed the condition of existing capital assets for each of the service boards. The infrastructure evaluation guided the RTA in establishing administrative criteria to replace, repair and maintain capital assets for each service board. The asset condition evaluation report concluded that the transit system's 10-year capital program need is $24.6 billion; $15 billion for the CTA, $7.4 billion for Metra and $2.2 billion for Pace. As examples of the transit system's urgent maintenance needs, 42 percent of rail cars and 39 percent of the region's train stations were rated as past their useful life, according to the report.  

Metra leaders and elected officials came together to on Friday to officially dedicate the new Lovana S. "Lou" Jones/Bronzeville Station along the Rock Island Line.

The Metra Board of Directors voted in 2009 to name the stop after
Jones, who served the area as a state representative in the Illinois
General Assembly for nearly 20 years. She died in 2006. A plaque at the
station that was unveiled today describes Jones’ background and praises
her tireless work on behalf of her constituents and the state.

"Lou
used her political power and grassroots insights to fight for those
traditionally locked out of economic opportunity and trapped in
poverty," the plaque reads. "Through her commitment, Lou worked
endlessly on behalf of the indigent children, the formerly incarcerated,
working-class families and the poor. She helped to remove barriers to
education, employment and opportunity for people throughout Illinois."

The
station was funded with $4.9 million in federal money secured by
Congressman Rush, a longtime supporter of the project, and an additional
$6.8 million from the federal stimulus bill, known as the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Another plaque noting Congressman
Bobby Rush’s key role in securing funding for the station was also
unveiled today.

The new fully accessible station features heated
ramps, stairways, eight-car platforms, heated platform shelters, bicycle
racks, benches, Metra’s audio and visual information system, lighting
and landscaping.

In addition to U.S. Cellular Field to the west
and IIT to the east, the station also serves Chicago Police
Headquarters, De La Salle Institute and the redeveloping Stateway
Gardens housing complex. The station also provides a convenient link
between Metra service and the CTA, which has stops at 35th St. on its
Red and Green lines.