New Belmont platform, tracks ready for use Aug. 9
The new platform and tracks on the east side of the Belmont station will be put into use starting at 9 pm on Thursday, Aug. 9, the CTA has announced.
I'm looking forward to checking out the new platform. I wonder if the elevator and escalators will be working.
In other CTA news:
Canopy work at Sedgwick. Next weekend, northbound Brown Line trains will share the track with southbound trains to allow workers to install the canopy. From 1 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, to 4:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 13, northbound riders should board on the southbound side.
Weeknight Red Line reroutes to elevated tracks. The Red Line tunnel slow zone work picks up the pace next week when the northbound trains will run on the elevated tracks. From 9 pm till 5 am starting Monday, Aug. 6, through Thursday, Aug. 9, you'll have to use the elevated stops to catch a Red Line headed north. Also, the CTA says, "weeknights (Monday to Thursday) through November either northbound or southbound Red Line trains will be rerouted to the elevated tracks to allow crews to replace deteriorated wooden rail ties with concrete rail ties and eliminate slow zones from Grand to Clark/Division.
I've been peeking through the green cover and the new belmont stop looks super nice. Concrete on to walk on (instead of wood), and signs that show where the stairs are. The roof is translucent plastic. I can't wait!
Posted by: Victoria | August 03, 2007 at 09:27 AM
Would it be overly naive to say it seems like things are picking up for the CTA? Obviously there is the whole "We are going to have to shut down from lack of funding thing", but if we ignore that :) it seem like we are getting over the hump on a lot of the work the CTA has been doing and the CTA is trying to make further improvements.
Posted by: Jacob Tomaq | August 03, 2007 at 09:44 AM
There's no escalators planned for Belmont -- got scrapped when they made design cuts to meet the smaller budget. I'm wondering if the glass blocks in the platform will be done though.
Posted by: Lee | August 04, 2007 at 01:01 AM
You're right, the escalators at Belmont and Fullerton were removed when the stations had to be redesigned in the wake of too-high bids from contractors. But at the the time, the CTA promised that if money were found or some costs came in under budget that some of those things would be put back.
Well, I have it on good authority that the CTA is putting back the escalators at Belmont (but not Fullerton... yet)! Not sure why CTA is publicizing that good news, but I believe it is going to happen. We'll see!
Posted by: Bill Saver | August 05, 2007 at 11:57 PM