Blue Line to receive improvement money

The nation's second largest transit system has already begun using federal stimulus money to repair Chicago's aging subway network.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley told reporters at one subway station on Monday that $88 million is being spent to update the Chicago Transit Authority's Blue Line.

They say the work began over the weekend.

One of the goals is to remove slow zones along the line. Long stretches of Chicago's subway track are so shoddy that trains designed to travel more than 50 mph must slow to the pace of a horse at trot.

The perennially cash-strapped CTA is set to receive a total $240 million in stimulus money. But CTA officials say they'll need nearly $7 billion to bring the more than century-old network into good working.