Great news for Illinois Masonic patients and employees -- the CTA's Brown Line Wellington station will reopen to customers and resume rail service Thursday, July 30 following a 16-month closure for construction as part of the line's capacity expansion project. It was the last Brown Line station still closed for renovation.
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, according to the CTA.
With the addition of two elevators, the Wellington station now is accessible to customers with disabilities. With this station, 89 of CTA's 144 rail stations are accessible, the CTA said.
The platforms at Wellington were reconfigured to accommodate eight-car trains which allow more customers to board. The CTA boasts other conveniences, including 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. Work is still going on at Fullerton and Belmont, but those busy stations have remained open.
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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