Top News

WBBM 780's Bob Roberts and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Two years of pain begin Monday for the 150,000 daily riders who use the CTA's Red Line, Brown Line and Purple Express trains, when reconstruction of the Fullerton and Belmont platforms force track and service reductions.

The Chicago Transit Authority board voted unanimously Friday to start three-tracking on April 2 after CTA President Frank Kruesi assured board members that new switches and signals installed near the two stations were working properly and beefed-up service on the Blue Line and alternate bus routes were ready to go.

"It's going to be challenging, it's going to be awful, but please be patient," implored CTA Board Chairwoman Carole Brown.

The CTA is rebuilding the Belmont and Fullerton stations with wider and longer platforms, a change requiring all four tracks to be rebuilt. The goal is to accommodate longer trains, more riders and elevators that will make stations handicapped-accessible. The project costs $530 million.

As one track is rebuilt, another will be taken out of service. Rail service at Belmont and Fullerton will continue throughout the project but with fewer trains running.

For the first nine months or so, riders who travel northbound during the evening rush will be the hardest hit, since Red, Brown and Purple line trains will share one northbound track instead of two. Southbound trains will remain on two tracks.

Between 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., there will be 24 fewer northbound trains in service, reducing capacity by nearly 17,400 passengers. Nine fewer trains will run southbound between 6 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.

The worst delays are expected to occur during the first few days of three-tracking, when commuters may be forced to budget twice as long to get home and 50 percent longer to get to work, CTA officials have said.

Transit officials are urging riders to be flexible.

"It may mean bus to train to bus, or bus to bus to bus," said CTA President Frank Kruesi, who said he already uses a handful of different ways to commute to and from work at the West Loop CTA headquarters.

For some, CTA planners say, flexibility will mean beginning each trip at sometime other than the peak of the rush hour. For others, it will mean different routes to and from work, since the northbound trip on the "L" will be much slower.

The CTA recommends riders affected by the Brown Line project take an alternate bus route, switch to Metra or the Blue Line, or time trips to avoid traveling at the height of rush hour.

The rush-hour frequency of nine North Side bus routes will increase Monday.

Buses will operate every two or three minutes morning and afternoon on the 11/Lincoln and 22/Clark lines. Two other lines will have service doubled each afternoon. The 147/Outer Drive Express and 148/Clarendon-Michigan Express will have service every 2-1/2 to 5 minutes.

In the morning, extra service will be concentrated on the 134/Stockton-LaSalle Express, 135/Clarendon-LaSalle Express and 151/Sheridan routes.

Metra is also offering additional service on its Union Pacific North Line, which passes through Rogers Park, Evanston and Wilmette.

On the 'L,' the CTA plans to deploy trains displaced by the construction to the Blue Line to run during rush hours between the Jefferson Park and UIC-Halsted stations. Some Brown Line trains will be turned at Belmont for the return trip downtown.

The schedules are a work in progress.

"The service we have day one won't necessarily be the service we have day 30," Kruesi said.

Top transit officials will meet after each rush hour to determine what worked and what didn't and if service should be adjusted.

The CTA also will have a reserve pool of buses that can be deployed to a number of routes should conditions warrant.

While transit officials said savvy CTA users will have the easiest time navigating the changes and avoiding delays, help will be in stations, on platforms and at key bus stops for at least two weeks as the transit agency deploys additional customer service representatives.

Despite that, Kruesi said, there will be no way to avert delays completely.

"Consider that we've got 150-thousand people a day on these trains on these routes," he said. "We're talking about a lot of people who have come to rely on us and I'm sure it's going to be an inconvenience. I'm not going to minimize this."

The rail corridor between Armitage and Addison, ground zero for the three-tracking nightmare, is the busiest in the CTA system with roughly 185,000 riders passing through it each weekday.

In addition to elevated station reconstruction, the stationhouses at Belmont and Fullerton are also being completely rebuilt, and in the case of Belmont, the historic stationhouse is being moved across the street and refurbished.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)