Mayor Brandon Johnson has had more than a year to determine who should permanently lead the CTA. Yet now, just days before new regional transit governance reforms take effect and dilute mayoral control over the agency, Chicago finds itself without a completed search process, without a publicly identified alternative candidate and without a clear explanation as to why the person already leading the CTA through recovery still appears to be viewed as temporary.
Last year, Johnson’s administration claimed a national search for CTA leadership had taken place. A Freedom of Information Act request and subsequent reporting suggested no formal search had actually been completed. With the new Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA) governance structure taking effect June 1, the possibility of a comprehensive national search now appears increasingly unrealistic, at least on the timeline City Hall itself created.
That leaves Chicago evaluating the only publicly known candidate on her merits: acting CTA President Nora Leerhsen. And that is precisely what makes the current uncertainty surrounding her leadership so perplexing. Even after leading the agency through one of the most difficult periods in its modern history, she is still frequently discussed as an interim caretaker rather than a proven executive.
Evaluation should be done on who Johnson supported previously, embattled former CTA President Dorval Carter, given his last-minute push. Carter was known for brushing off criticism, barely riding the train and overseeing a $2.1 billion increase in the Red Line extension project’s cost in seven months.
By contrast, Leerhsen loves transit. “You know Nora Leerhsen believes in transit just by the way she talks about transit,” public transportation advocate Brandon Willis said. This is single-handedly one of the most significant indications of long-term success. Under Leerhsen, the CTA has improved transparency around service information and ridership data, and the agency has worked more collaboratively with researchers, advocates and civic organizations.
Professionally, Leerhsen is not an outsider who parachuted into the role. She joined the CTA 12 years ago and rose from intern to chief of staff, overseeing service delivery, capital planning, legal affairs, human resources and communications strategy along the way.
Importantly, she appears to understand the institution from the ground up. Leerhsen rides the CTA daily, logging more than 560 rides this year while visiting every bus garage, rail terminal and major project site across the system. That may sound symbolic, but it is not. For years, riders expressed frustration not only with unreliable service, “ghost buses” (which have diminished under her tenure) and safety concerns, but also with a leadership culture many perceived as detached from the daily realities of the system itself.
Since taking over in February 2025, Leerhsen has led the CTA through overlapping operational, financial and political challenges: a looming fiscal cliff, federal funding threats, workforce shortages, public safety concerns and continued post-pandemic recovery. Yet during that same period, the CTA has shown measurable improvements in service reliability, ridership recovery, public engagement and rider trust. Major rail delays are down significantly and ridership has continued to grow.
Under Leerhsen, the CTA also successfully navigated crises that could have destabilized the agency entirely. She helped guide the CTA through the regional transit fiscal cliff negotiations that resulted in historic state transit funding reform. When the federal government threatened funding for the Red Line extension and repayment for the Red and Purple lines’ modernization project costs, the CTA correctly filed a lawsuit to protect billions in committed investment and continue construction. All of these challenges required operational leadership, political coordination, institutional credibility and public communication under extraordinary pressure.
Perhaps most notably, many riders and advocates feel that CTA leadership once again appears to genuinely believe in transit itself, which matters more than many policymakers realize. Public trust in transit is not rebuilt solely through spreadsheets or news conferences. Riders want to feel that agency leadership understands their daily experience: waiting on platforms, checking bus trackers, navigating delays, worrying about safety and depending on the system to get to work, school and home.
None of this means the CTA has solved all of its problems or that Chicago should avoid seeking world-class transit leadership. A genuine national search — or international search including candidates from systems abroad — could have been valuable. But that process has yet to meaningfully occur. And in the absence of it, the public deserves a clear explanation for why the person already leading measurable improvements at the CTA is still treated as provisional.
Because at some point, the question becomes unavoidable: What exactly is the standard being applied here?
If leading the agency through a fiscal cliff, stabilizing operations, improving service reliability, restoring public engagement, protecting major federal infrastructure investments and rebuilding rider confidence are still insufficient for Leerhsen to be viewed as the obvious permanent choice, then Chicago’s transit leadership process risks appearing less about performance and more about political maneuvering.
The creation of NITA represents an acknowledgment that the old governance model was failing riders. After years of fragmentation, declining trust and political infighting, the public deserves a leadership process centered on operational credibility and rider confidence. Not insider calculations over influence before a new governance structure takes effect.
Nik Hunder is a policy analyst, researcher and safe transportation advocate based in Chicago. Ellen Steinke is a writer, civic educator and board member of Strong Towns Chicago.
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