U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is launching a Safety Management Inspection (SMI) and a Special Directive for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) — the state agency responsible for safety oversight of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) rail transit system.

FTA determined that IDOT “has not properly leveraged its oversight authority and resources to protect Chicago passengers and transit workers.”

The FTA said its actions build on its nationwide campaign to make transit systems safer for American families.

FTA’s Special Directive

The Special Directive requires IDOT to take 11 actions to improve its oversight of CTA, including implementing FTA’s recommendations from an April 2025 audit of IDOT’s rail transit safety oversight function.

FTA will determine, based on the inspection results, whether additional enforcement actions, such as the issuance of additional Special Directives or other enforcement measures, are warranted.

Secretary Duffy has launched several initiatives to hold both states and transit systems accountable for keeping commuters and transit workers safe.

Under his leadership, FTA has called on agencies across the country to improve safety measures.  

These actions have resulted in:

• WMATA reported crime on its trains down by more than 30% and criminal incidents on buses down by nearly 40% in 2025.
• The Charlotte City Council voted to expand the jurisdiction for the private security company that patrols the transit system , and North Carolina passed Iryna’s Law, which seeks to change pretrial release conditions for people charged with violent offenses, among other measures. 
• LA Metro is hiring their first-ever police chief to lead a dedicated transit police force.
• SEPTA is launching new security measures, including a virtual patrol division to monitor over 30,000 cameras and provide real-time information to officers on the ground, as well as deploying more officers on trains.
• San Francisco’s BART system is installing Next Generation Fare Gates at all 50 BART stations to combat fare evasion.

FTA’s Illinois Directives

To date, FTA said it has conducted several safety activities in Chicago, including:

• Issuing a Special Directive to IDOT in October 2023 to address staffing and other concerns.
• Evaluating IDOT’s response to FTA’s October 2025 report on a State Safety Oversight audit.
• Participating in the investigation of recent safety events at CTA.
• FTA has identified repeated and persistent deficiencies in IDOT’s oversight performance, including: 
• Limited onsite presence.
• Weak accident investigation governance.
• Ineffective corrective action plan management.
• Minimal use of enforcement authority.

Given these longstanding issues with IDOT’s oversight of CTA, FTA said it believes a safety investigation is necessary to determine the root causes and a way forward.

The safety investigation will assess how IDOT performs critical safety oversight functions, such as how IDOT:

1. Independently identifies, evaluates, and prioritizes safety risk.
2. Conducts and/or critically reviews safety event investigations, ensuring their sufficiency and thoroughness.
3. Exercises active and informed oversight of CTA’s Roadway Worker Protection (RWP) program to ensure the safety of those working on or around CTA tracks.
4. Critically reviews and, where necessary, challenges CTA’s analyses and conclusions to ensure that safety risk is appropriately identified and mitigated.
5. Verifies the implementation and effectiveness of corrective actions.
6. Takes timely and appropriate action to intervene when CTA’s safety performance is inadequate.

To accelerate reforms of IDOT’s oversight of CTA, the new Special Directive will:

• Incorporate the eight findings from FTA’s safety audit of IDOT as immediately enforceable findings under this directive.
• Establish specific required actions and expedited completion timeframes for IDOT to correct these deficiencies.
• Issue three additional findings and corresponding required actions where FTA has determined that further direction and enforcement are necessary to address ongoing safety risk at CTA.

Recently, the CTA, along with its partners at the Chicago Police Department, submitted its Revised Security Enhancement Plan to the FTA, which includes a 75% increase in monthly system policing hours, aggressive crime reduction targets, and expanded social service support — bolstered by early data showing that crime reduction strategies implemented over the past three months are working.