Isolated Chicago communities secure money for a coveted transit project before Trump takes office

CHICAGO (AP) — Adella Bass dropped her in-person college classes because it was just too hard to get there from the far South Side of Chicago, where the city's famous elevated train doesn't run. And it can take her nearly two hours to get to the hospital where she is treated for a heart condition.

But things are looking up, with bright red signs across the area boldly proclaiming, "Ready, Set, Soon!” Next year, the city is poised to start making good on a decades-old promise to connect some of its most isolated, poor and polluted neighborhoods to the rest of the city through mass transit.

The Biden administration notified Congress last week that it would commit $1.9 billion toward a nearly $5.7 billion project to add four new L stations on the South Side, the Chicago system’s largest expansion project in history. The pledge, which the Federal Transit Administration is expected to formally sign before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, essentially locks in current and future funding.

Still, Bass fears President-elect Donald Trump's administration might try to scuttle it.