New Starts is a Federal Transit Administration effort that emphasizes regional planning by allocating money for locally planned and operated transit capital improvements. Federal money is awarded to noteworthy and efficient projects after a rigorous application process. For a number of years, CMAP and its predecessors have helped northeastern Illinois transit implementers to secure five full funding grant agreements under the New Starts program. To read more, visit the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts Project Planning and Development website.
As part of its technical assistance function, CMAP helps with transportation modeling required for proposals to receive New Starts funding in northeastern Illinois. Eligibility can involve any mass transit or fixed guideway system, including rapid rail, light rail, commuter rail, automated guideway transit, people movers, and exclusive facilities for buses (such as bus rapid transit) and other high occupancy vehicles.
Metropolitan Chicago's successful projects funded under the FTA New Starts Grant program include:
- Metra
- North Central Service Line: running from Chicago-Union Station to Antioch
- Union Pacific West Line: running from Chicago-Ogilvie to Geneva, now extended to Elburn
- Southwest Service Line: running from Chicago-Union Station to Orland Park, now extended to Manhattan
- CTA
- Brown Line extended platforms to run longer trains
- Blue Line rehabilitation of Douglas Branch
Potential projects include:
- Metra
- UP West Extension: The Union Pacific West line currently serves 62 communities along 44 miles of track. Due to substantial population growth along the line -- a projected 650 percent by 2030 -- Metra hopes to avoid a “bottleneck” by expanding service from 59 to 80 trains per day.
- UPNW Upgrade: The Union Pacific Northwest line is Metra’s longest line and carries the second highest number of riders of all 11 Metra lines. With huge population increases expected, it’s only going to get busier. This issue will be addressed by not only increasing the number of trains that run per day, but also by constructing an additional station and two new rail yards.
- STAR Line: Running from Joliet to O’Hare, the Star Line would be the first suburb-to-suburb commuter line to “connect the spokes” of Chicago’s hub-and-spoke rail system.
- Southeast Service: The proposed service will run along a 33-mile stretch of track, from Chicago-Union Station to Balmoral Park, to provide much-needed public transportation in a rapidly-growing area.
- CTA
- Circle Line
- Red Line extension to 130th Street
- Orange Line extension to Ford City
- Yellow Line extension to Old Orchard