LINCOLN SQUARE – Commuters should expect delays and service interruptions at the Western Brown Line stop as city workers continue to renovate this busy transit hub.
Starting at 10 p.m. Friday, trains to Kimball will no longer stop at the Western Avenue Brown Line station. The disruption will last until September 20, according to the office of Ald. Matt Martin (47th).
Brown Line passengers who need to board a Kimball-bound train at the Western Avenue station should take a Loop-bound train to the Damen station and transfer to the Kimball-bound train there.
In addition, commuters who take a Brown Line train heading to Kimball and need to get off at the Western Avenue stop should travel to Rockwell and transfer to a Loop-bound train there, Martin’s office said.
Due to the construction work, Brown Line train service between Kimball and Irving Park will also be interrupted twice for 14 hours over the next few weeks.
The first shutdown will last from August 30th, 22:00, to August 31st, 12:00.
The second closure will occur between 10 p.m. on September 6 and noon on September 7, according to Martin’s office.
“The CTA will operate shuttle buses in both directions on this portion of the route,” said Martin’s chief of staff Josh Mark.
The nearly $20 million renovation of the public transportation hub in the heart of Lincoln Square has been announced for 2022.
The completed project will include a new bus stop and canopy structure, renewed floors and interior walls, new elevator cabs, and a repaired concrete platform, among other features requested by neighbors.
During construction on the platform, commuters must begin “backing up” at the Western station, allowing workers to work on only one side of the platform at a time, Steve Mascheri, CTA’s vice president of capital construction, previously explained.
The rail line was built in 1907 and the stop’s bus turnaround was added in 1949, officials said. The station building was built in 1980 and the station’s last major upgrade was in 2009, when the CTA rebuilt the platforms to accommodate eight-car trains, officials said.
The Western Brown Line station counted nearly 700,000 rides last year.
In a separate but related project, the Western Brown Line station plaza will be redesigned to be more pedestrian-friendly.
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