4/3/03
The CTA is sure to hit a home run with Red Line customers and Chicago White Sox fans alike with the completion of the newly renovated Sox/35th station and the return of #35 35th and #39 Pershing buses to their regular routes. The changes go into effect Friday, April 4 at 5:30 a.m. in time for the morning rush period and the Sox home opener scheduled for 3:05 p.m. that afternoon.
Beginning Friday, customers who only had access to the station's 33rd Street entrance during construction will be able, once again, to use the 35th Street entrance, as well. With the completed station, two CTA buses ? #35 35th and #39 Pershing ? will return to their regular routes and make their Red Line connections at the 35th Street entrance. Since October, these buses have been dropping off and picking up customers at the 33rd Street entrance.
Sox/35th Red Line station also is served by the CTA's #29 State Street bus, which is not affected by the station construction.
Since rehabilitation work at the station began in January, the CTA has completed $1.5 million in upgrades designed with the comfort and convenience of CTA customers in mind. Station renovations include a new ceiling and Customer Information kiosk, signage, the replacement of more than twenty windows and durable granite flooring complete with an 8' x 10' Chicago White Sox logo with stainless steel border.
Rehabilitation of the station took place in conjunction with a Chicago Department of Transportation bridge rehabilitation project at 35th Street currently underway. Work to reconstruct the 40-year-old bridge will continue for several weeks. Crews will finish installing two architecturally detailed canopies to protect pedestrians and CTA users -- one along the north side of 35th between LaSalle and Wentworth, the other across 35th Street. Other items to be completed include new railings, lighting and a median planter. New traffic signals, which will regulate traffic crossing on the bridge, are also part of the project.
The completed Sox/35th station work is a precursor to the rehabilitation of the Dan Ryan branch of the Red Line that will get underway this spring. By the time the project concludes in fall 2005, the CTA will have rehabilitated bus bridges at 69th and 95th Streets, improved signal, communications and power substation systems and rehabbed eight of the most heavily used facilities located between Cermak Road and 87th among others.
Additional upgrades to the Sox/35th Station will be made near the end of the Dan Ryan rehabilitation project and will include the installation of new escalators, a rebuilt station facade, a new roof, and an upgraded platform.
The Red Line is the busiest rail line in the CTA system, totaling 64,730,009 rides in 2002, of which 1,227,597 rides were taken from Sox/35th.
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