UPDATED: Emanuel pitches Red Line extension

UPDATE 5:07 PM - Progress Illinois provides this video (shot in the Roseland neighborhood) of mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel talking about his plan for the Red Line.

Clout St:

Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel today said his first transportation priority is an expansion of CTA’s Red Line, “the backbone” of the city's rail system.

He wants to secure federal funding to rebuild deteriorating tracks south to 95th Street, extend the line to 130th and renovate and modernize lines north of Belmont.
...
The $1.2 billion effort was meant to reach out to disadvantaged minority neighborhoods by adding four additional stations — at 103rd, 111th, 115th and 130th Streets — as well as bus terminals and park-and-ride lots.

Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, acknowledged that the major infrastructure investment will require “active and sustained lobbying on the federal and state level for funding.”

“It’s a heads up to Washington, D.C. and Springfield that this will be a priority if I’m elected mayor,” Emanuel said inside a South Side business that he said could benefit from increased traffic. The Red Line has “lacked the investment other parts of the system have received. I’ll secure it.”

I hope he comes to the affected communities that could benefit from the extension to show that he's serious about the expansion.