Rail Service Temporarily Suspended in Blue Line’s Dearborn Subway This Weekend
5/21/2009
Rail service will be temporarily suspended in the Blue Line’s Dearborn Subway from Clark/Lake to Western/Milwaukee from 10 p.m. Friday, May 22 until 4 a.m. Monday, May 25 due to track replacement work.
Bus shuttles will operate as a substitute for rail service making stops at Western/Milwaukee, Damen, Division, Chicago, Grand and Clark/Lake. CTA customers are advised to allow extra travel time. Both the Western/Milwaukee and Clark/Lake stations are accessible to customers with disabilities.
Blue Line trains will operate normally from Forest Park to Clark/Lake, and from O’Hare to Western/Milwaukee.
Service through the Dearborn Subway will resume normal operation after 4 a.m. on Monday, May 25.
In 2007, CTA began a project to eliminate existing slow zones in the Dearborn subway that were having a major impact on travel time for riders. With the funds available at the time CTA was able to make temporary repairs that allowed trains to resume normal speeds.
From July to September 2007, repairs were made to 6,336 feet of slow zones between the Damen and Clark/Lake stations. Crews replaced more than 5,000 deteriorated wooden rail ties with concrete rail ties.
Recently the CTA received federal stimulus funding that allows it to renew all of the remaining track (approximately seven miles or 39,000 feet) from Division on the O’Hare branch to Clinton on the Forest Park branch. Crews are replacing deteriorated wooden half ties with concrete half ties, and replacing running rail and contact (third) rail to remove emerging slow zones and help prevent the creation of new slow zones.
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