Embattled CTA President Dorval Carter retires after 40 years 

Dorval Carter 

Embattled Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) President Dorval R. Carter, Jr., who steered the nation’s third-largest mass transit system during difficult times in his 40-year career, announced his retirement this week. His last day as president will be Friday, January 31.

Following his retirement from the CTA, Carter will serve as CEO at Saint Anthony Hospital on the West Side. His father, Dr. Dorval R. Carter, Sr., worked there for 40 years and chaired the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department for over 10 years.

“Serving as president of this great agency has been an extraordinary privilege and I am forever grateful for what has been the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Carter in a statement. “It has been an honor to work on behalf of CTA customers and to advance our mission in a city that I love so dearly.”

Carter served as president of the CTA for 10 years, managing Chicago’s elevated “L” train system. The system operates eight lines on over 224 miles of track. The CTA also has the second-largest bus system in the country, providing 127 routes in Chicago.

Carter began his CTA career in September 1984 as a staff attorney and has worked at the agency for a combined 26 years. During that time, he served as acting president, executive vice president, chief administrative officer, and in several legal roles. His public transit career also includes nearly 15 years in senior leadership roles at the United States Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Ad ministration (FTA).

Carter’s retirement as CTA president comes after years of criticism from activists and aldermen dissatisfied with his leadership. They blame the CTA’s declining ridership on crime, ghost trains, unreliable service, and mismanagement. Carter has also been criticized for his annual salary of $376,000. In 2023, Governor J.B. Pritzker called for new leadership, but Black aldermen and Mayor Brandon Johnson stood by Carter. 

“The City of Chicago is grateful to President Dorval Carter for his decades of service with the Chicago Transit Authority,” said Mayor Johnson. 

“His leadership reimagined the movement of our city. His stewardship of the Red Line Extension project is just one of the notable achievements in his historic career.”

Chicago Transit Board Chairman Lester Barclay said, “President Carter is an internationally recognized and highly respected leader in the public transit industry. CTA has been fortunate to benefit from his leadership and vision over the past decade as president. 

“Since I became chair in 2021, I have seen firsthand his unwavering commitment to equity and his passion for this agency, which is exemplified through transformative projects like the Red Line Extension. His legacy will leave a lasting impact on CTA, and we are grateful for his dedicated service.”

During his tenure as CTA president, Carter has overseen over $11 billion in projects that have been completed, begun, or announced. 

These projects have included some of the biggest and most ambitious capital projects in CTA history, including the $5.7 billion Red Line Extension (RLE), the single largest capital construction project in the agency’s history; the $2.1 billion first phase of the Red Purple Modernization Program, and billions of dollars in other projects and initiatives, like the $280 million renovation of the 95th/Dan Ryan Terminal, the $203 million Wilson Station Reconstruction project, and many other capital construction, modernization or system improvement projects.

Carter has received numerous prestigious awards and honors, including the Council of University Transportation Centers’ 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award for Transportation Professional and Public Service. 

He was also the recipient of APTA’s Outstanding Public Transportation Manager Award in 2021, the same year that CTA was recognized with the Outstanding Public Transportation System Award, two of the highest honors in the North American public transportation industry, and the first time that an agency and its CEO won those awards in the same year. 

He was recognized with the 2021 Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lectureship Award from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Transportation Research Board and, in 2019, was awarded the 2019 Motorola Foundation Excellence in Public Service Award from the Civic Federation of Chicago.

Carter currently serves in leadership roles for several organizations. He co-chairs the Equity in Infrastructure Project, a national initiative to improve public contracting practices throughout the transportation industry. 

He is also a member of the Mpact Board of Directors, a national nonprofit organization focusing on the intersection of transit, mobility, land use, and development. He served as chair of the Board of Trustees for Carroll University, his alma mater.

In the coming weeks, Carter will assume leadership of Saint Anthony Hospital on Chicago’s West Side, where he will serve as president and CEO. Carter has served on Saint Anthony’s Board for more than a decade, most recently as Board chair, and will continue to utilize his management skills and experience in his new role. 

He will continue a long family tradition of serving Saint Anthony Hospital, where his father, Dr. Dorval R. Carter, Sr., worked for 40 years and served for more than 10 years as chair of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department.

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