The CTA’s Brown Line Wellington station will reopen to customers and resume rail service Thursday, July 30 following a 16-month temporary closure for construction as part of the line’s capacity expansion project.
A new stationhouse was built in the same location as the previous stationhouse at 945 W. Wellington Avenue and a new auxiliary exit has been built just north of the station on Nelson Street for added customer convenience and passage.
With the addition of two elevators, the Wellington station now is accessible to customers with disabilities. With this station reopening, 89 of CTA’s 144 rail stations are accessible.
The platforms at Wellington were reconfigured to accommodate eight-car trains which allow more customers to board. Other conveniences include accessible turnstiles, brighter lighting, new signs – including Braille signs – and a bike rack.
Wellington is the sixteenth of 18 stations included in the Brown Line capacity expansion project to be completed. To date, work also has been completed at Kimball, Kedzie, Rockwell, Francisco, Western, Sedgwick, Montrose, Addison, Southport, Armitage, Diversey, Chicago, Damen, Irving Park and Paulina.
With the completion of Wellington, all of the Brown Line stations temporarily closed for renovation now are open. Although construction remains under way at Belmont and Fullerton, service continues to operate at both stations.
Prior to the start of construction, the average weekday ridership at the Wellington station was 2,700. Average weekday ridership on the Brown Line is more than 80,000.
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