12/15/06
Beginning Sunday, December 17, at 4 p.m., the Chicago Transit Authority will temporarily relocate the entrance to the Belmont station on the Red, Brown and Purple lines. The new temporary entrance will be approximately 75 feet to the east of the existing entrance. The customer assistant booth, turnstiles and farecard vending machines will move to the new temporary entrance as well. Customers will continue to use the existing stairways to the elevated platforms to access Purple Line Express and Red and Brown Line trains. The temporary entrance is expected to be in place for approximately 24 months while CTA continues work to rebuild the Belmont station and extend platforms.
CTA's #77 Belmont bus, which provides direct service to the Belmont station, will not be affected.
Plans for renovating Belmont station include relocating the existing historic stationhouse to the north side of Belmont Avenue and building a new accessible stationhouse in its place. Additional work includes installing brighter lighting, tactile edging and accessible turnstiles, realigning tracks to allow for elevator installation, widening platforms and upgrading the public address system.
In addition to the Belmont station, 17 additional stations on the Brown Line are being renovated as part of the capacity expansion project. Platforms will be lengthened to accommodate eight-car trains instead of the six-car trains currently in use to allow many more customers to board. In addition, stations will be made accessible to customers with disabilities by installing ramps or elevators and accessible turnstiles. The stations themselves will be rebuilt, with wider stairways, additional turnstiles and improved entrances and exits to allow for a better flow of customer traffic.
Throughout the Brown Line construction project, slow zones and single track operation are periodically necessary near construction activity so, as a general rule, rail customers should allow extra travel time. Information on scheduled service impacts is being provided through Customer Alerts in rail stations, on CTA buses and trains, provided to media through press releases and posted on CTA's Brown Line web site at www.ctabrownline.com, as well as CTA's web site at www.transitchicago.com.
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