A Chicago regional planning agency is making the case that the CTA Red Line train should be extended south.

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning completed a report that says an extension would improve the liveability for nearby residents.

Currently, the Chicago Transit Authority stops at 95th Street; an extension would go to 130th Street. Highlights from the report say expanding the Red Line would: provide more transportation choices, shorten commutes and create local jobs.

Randy Blankenhorn, executive director of CMAP, said it wasn’t enough for the agency to just say the extension was needed.

“It’s incumbent on us to keep moving this forward and keep putting pressure on not only the federal government but our state and local resources as ways to fund this project,” Blankenhorn said.

CMAP has also invested $1 million in engineering on the project. CTA is working on an environmental study. The Red Line extension would cost $1.5 billion.

Gwendolyn Rice is executive director of Developing Communities Project, a nonprofit in the Roseland neighborhood that has been working on the Red Line project for a decade. She said the latest report give the project a boost.

“What is most important is that it, it’s something that’s going to benefit the residents and it’s been well thought through so people can really think about the impact it can have on their lives,” Rice said.