CTA chief of staff Nora Leerhsen will become the interim president of the transit agency, taking over after Dorval Carter’s retirement at the end of January.
Leerhsen will, for now, take on leadership of an agency that has faced rampant complaints from riders in recent years, with another challenge on the horizon as a massive budget gap looms and lawmakers in Springfield prepare to debate the future of the region’s four transit agencies in a move that could have significant repercussions for the CTA’s authority. Leerhsen will be paid an annual salary of $278,703.73.
As debate over the CTA’s future continues, it will fall to Mayor Brandon Johnson to appoint a permanent CTA president.
The next CTA leader will face the task of helping to rebuild trust in the agency, after years of complaints about service, personal safety and conditions on buses and trains that frequently spilled over into complaints about Carter and his leadership. The COVID-19 pandemic saw steep drops in riders, declines in service levels, upticks in crime and the perception of crime, and staffing challenges that bred frustration among riders.
The CTA has said it boosted operator hiring and restored bus and train service to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024, meeting the timeline to add back train service Carter publicly set for himself earlier that year, though service on individual routes and at certain times of day can still look different from past schedules.
But ridership, while up from pandemic lows, remained at about 71% of 2019 levels in October, according to the most recent available CTA data. And the perception of personal safety, and the agency’s spending on unarmed security and dog teams to address that perception, remains a focal point for the CTA board.
The interim president will also take on leadership of the agency amid a debate about its very future. The region’s four transit agencies are facing a $771 million budget gap once federal COVID-19 relief funding runs out, which is expected as soon as early next year. That has prompted discussion in Springfield about how to fund local transit and how it should be overseen, with one option on the table to do away with the CTA, Metra, Pace and the Regional Transportation Authority and combine them into one new entity.
Carter’s retirement shifts the conversation in Springfield away from the backlash against him, though lawmakers have said the task remains to address transit funding and reform, including the proposal to consolidate agencies.
Carter announced his retirement Monday, days after he formally locked in a massive federal grant needed to advance the long-discussed extension of the Red Line south to 130th Street. The project has been a key priority for the outgoing president.
He has spent more than two decades at the CTA and nearly 15 years working at federal transit agencies. After his retirement, he is set to become the CEO of Saint Anthony Hospital in Little Village.
