CTA announces reopening of Forest Park Blue Line tracks

The Chicago Transit Authority has announced the completion of major track work as part of Phase 1 of the Forest Park Branch Rebuild. Blue Line trains are now running between the O’Hare and Forest Park stations, making all stops for the first since late-July.

“Thanks to the coordination and tireless work from across the agency, this line-cut has finished on-time and on-budget— a timely benefit to the entire Blue Line,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “We knew that project work of this scale would be a disruption to our riders, which is why we kept an aggressive pace for the line-cut, working around the clock to resume normal service along our second busiest rail line.”

As part of this $268 million project, crews have completely rebuilt almost three miles of track, between the LaSalle and Illinois Medical District (IMD) stations in 11 weeks. Additional work planned as part of Phase 1 project work continues, including the complete reconstruction of the Racine main station entrance and auxiliary entrance, as well as construction of the new Morgan substation.

As the work was planned to minimize impact on customers, CTA sequenced the project to complete the trackwork with bus shuttle support and then complete the signal work while trains are running.  As such, trains will run temporarily at a reduced speed between LaSalle and IMD and then gradually increase up to the posted speed.  The full speed restoration is anticipated by the end of this year.

Anticipated impacts to Blue Line service are expected in 2024-2025 as the remaining portions of Phase 1 project work is completed. Crews are continuing work to upgrade the traction power system that provides electricity to the system and will result in improved service reliability for the Blue Line. This work entails the construction of a new substation over the right-of-way at Morgan Street, as well as other upgrades being made to power system components in the area.

The existing Racine station has already been demolished and crews have begun to rebuild the Racine main station entrance to make it fully accessible to those who use mobility devices. The station house at the main Racine entrance will include a new elevator. In addition to the elevator, a longer platform and new stairs will replace the ramp that once connected the platform to street level at Racine Avenue.

The main entrance of the Racine station will remain closed and is expected to re-open in late-2024, at which time the Loomis St. auxiliary entrance will close for reconstruction through 2025. The Loomis St. auxiliary entrance of the Racine station reopened following the completion of track work.