CTA Train Track Overhaul Nets $156 Million In Federal Funds
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Feb 11, 2016 7:41PM
Chicago's aging CTA Red and Purple Line North Side tracks are long overdue for a makeover, and the transit authority is counting on millions of dollars in federal transportation aid to make that happen this year.
The city is getting $156 million in funding to modernize the transit system, and another $125 million has been earmarked in President Barack Obama's 2017 fiscal budget proposal to go specifically to the Red and Purple Line modernization. According to the Associated Press, the city's goal is to double the capacity of the train routes running from Evanston to the Loop and replace certain sections of the tracks that are over one hundred years old.
Some of that money would also go toward controversial plans to construct a bypass at Belmont Avenue's CTA station. Transit officials have been pushing for a multi-million dollar overpass, where Brown Line trains could travel without waiting on Red or Purple Line trains, for over a year now. But critics, including many Lakeview residents, say it is going to be unnecessarily costly and detrimental to the community.