CTA’s Forest Park Branch Blue Line Reopens; Racine Station Under Construction

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CHICAGO – Chicago Transit Authority announces its Forest Park Branch Blue Line Track has fully reopened.

In a news release, Chicago Transit Authority announces its Forest Park Branch Blue Line Track has fully reopened. As part of phase 1 of its Forest Park Branch Rebuild, major track work has finished, and trains on the Blue Line are running between O’Hare and Forest Park stations.

Dorval R. Carter, Jr, CTA President, thanked those who worked on the project: “This line-cut has finished on-time and on-budget – a timely benefit to the entire Blue Line. . . We knew that project work of this scale would be a disruption to our riders, which is why we kept an aggressive pace for the line-cut, working around the clock to resume normal service along our second busiest rail line.”

The project total cost is $268 million, and crews worked to rebuild close to three miles of track between LaSalle and Illinois Medical District stations over the course of 11 weeks. Other Phase 1 work continues as planned, which includes the “complete reconstruction of the Racine main station entrance and auxiliary entrance, as well as construction of the new Morgan substation.”

Additional Phase 1 work comes as part of an “aggressive timeline” to reduce impact on customers. The CTA “sequenced” the project to finish trackwork and complete signal work, all while trains are still operating. However, trains will run at reduced speeds between the LaSalle and IMD stations with restoration of full speed by the end of the year.

CTA announced more impacts to its Blue Line service will occur in 2024 and 2025 during its Phase 1 work. This work will entail “upgrading the Morgan Street substation and the reconstruction of the Racine station.” Impacts to rail service are expected as reconstruction work occurs west of UIC-Halsted station. Detailed information on customer impacts during reconstruction of Morgan Middle can be found here.

For its new substation over the right-of-way at Morgan Street, CTA reported work will continue to upgrade the traction power system as well as “other upgrades being made to power system components in the area (e.g., switchgear, transformers, and rectifiers at the Hermitage Substation).”

With Racine station expected to open in late 2024, crews have already begun construction work to make it “fully accessible to those who use mobility devices as part of the CTA’s All Stations Accessibility Program (ASAP).” As of reporting, there are only 4 stations on the Forest Park Branch of the Blue Line that are accessible.

Irma Gomez-Fierro, manager of ADA Compliance Programs at CTA, commented on CTA’s goal of creating equity among its customers: “It is the reality of many Chicagoans – particularly on the Forest Park Branch – who live by a station and cannot access it. . . We are excited that Racine Station will soon be accessible and are working to expand our network of accessible stations in the coming years.” 

Racine Station’s Loomis St. auxiliary entrance has re-opened since track work was completed. Additionally, the station house at the main entrance (which will remain closed until late 2024) will have a brand-new elevator along with a longer platform and new stairs. These will replace the ramp “that once connected the platform to street level at Racine Avenue.” Once the main entrance re-opens, the Loomis St. auxiliary entrance will close for reconstruction in 2025.