The newly renovated and fully accessible CTA Green Line station at Austin Boulevard was officially “re-opened” Friday morning with Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson among those celebrating.
The $25 million renovation project includes a new elevator, an escalator, an accessible ramp, and other elements of the station reconstructed to comply with modern standards. The station’s boarding platform was also extended to the east and a second, non-handicapped accessible station entrance built a block away at Mason Avenue.
Funding for the project came from the federal Surface Transportation Program (STP) and Illinois’ Rebuild Illinois Capital Plan. STP provided $20.3M in funding and Rebuild Illinois provided $5.3M for a total budget of $25.6M.
The extensively renovated rapid transit station, which is heavily used by both West Side and Oak Park residents, had not seen any improvements since it was rebuilt when the train tracks were moved from street level in 1962.
One person standing to the side observing Friday’s events was Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw. He noted that many Oak Park residents use the Green Line as well. With the new Austin station, 110 of CTA’s 146 stations, 75%, are wheelchair accessible. The only other station in Oak Park with wheelchair access is two miles west, where the Harlem Avenue station is accessible via the Marion Street entrance.
Straw said he’s looking forward to the CTA planning renovations at the Ridgeland Avenue and Oak Park Avenue Green Line stations.
Nora Leerhsen, the acting president of the CTA said public transit “is about connecting people to opportunity, and every accessible station brings us one step closer to a Chicago where everyone can travel freely.”
Leerhsen expressed pride that the CTA “worked very hard to keep this station open for the last 18 months as we did construction to support the community and make sure that we put our riders first.”
Leerhsen also echoed the comments of several elected officials, who stressed that accessibility barriers do not affect just the physically disabled.
The ADA improvements, Leerhsen said, benefit riders with wheelchairs and elderly adults, parents with baby strollers, and people traveling with luggage. She also mentioned the connectivity that the Green Line serves, noting that the Austin station is served by three PACE bus routes, including a line that goes to Midway Airport.
Mayor Johnson was one of several speakers who said that “accessibility is opportunity,” and that the ability for all citizens to get from place to place impacts the region’s economy.
“This new $25 million station will transform the daily life for residents of Austin and those of us who live on the West side with the new stairs, ADA accessible ramp and elevator,” he said.
“Accessibility is a fundamental right and it is our responsibility to ensure that every resident and visitor can move freely through our city,” Johnson said. “Residents rely on our transit system every single day to go to school, work, doctors’ appointments, grocery stores and to see their little ones.”
Johnson said the new transit station is “a powerful symbol of a commitment to investing in the West Side and all the community areas of Chicago that have been historically denied investments and neglected for far too long.”
“Today we tell the people of Austin that their neighborhood actually matters,” Johnson said.
Cong. Danny Davis, who lives just a few blocks from the station, is retiring in January. He took the moment to reiterate his “ardent support” for both public transit and accessibility for the disabled and the elderly. And also took the opportunity to crow just a bit at his role in earmarking the federal funds that eventually were approved in legislation passed during the Biden administration.
“We gotta know that our work is always unfinished,” Davis said. “We’ve done a lot, but I can tell you there’s so much more to do and I could never be at a public gathering without mentioning how hard it is to keep going forward and never going backward.”
Pritzker has made funding transportation projects a center piece of his administration since being elected in 2018. Through his Rebuild Illinois Capital Program. A total of $2 billion of state funding is going to Chicago transit projects.
Pritzker said that “every single rider of CTA transport is important to our economy,” and that “that is why investing in transit has been among my highest priorities through Rebuild Illinois, the most robust infrastructure program in our state history.”
“The Austin Green Line station opened more than 125 years ago, and generations of riders have passed through these platforms,” Pritzker said, “but the investment needed to maintain it along with a growing city, haven’t really kept up for our communities. And our economy has paid the price, Illinoisans with disabilities have paid the price, and that’s not right.”
Pritzker, who is running for re-election as Illinois governor, and who is widely assumed to be preparing a subsequent run for U.S. president, offered a 30,000-foot view on public transit and how Illinois officials responded to the many challenges.
“Too many cities and states responded to the challenges of their transit systems by cutting service, by raising fares and asking riders to accept less,” Pritzker said. “Illinois chose to invest, modernize and build. It’s the right thing to do for our people and for our economy.”