New Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line Station Opens Sunday
(CBS) -- Just in time for next weekend's Chicago Auto Show, the CTA is opening its new Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line station.
The station, at 13 E. Cermak Rd., will be impossible to miss, thanks to the distinctive tube-shaped canopy that encloses the platform. CTA spokesman Brian Steele said there has been no station on the Green Line between Roosevelt and the 35th/IIT-Bronzeville station since the 1970s.
When McCormick Place first opened in 1960, CTA tried to attract conventioneers into using the original, 1890s-vintage Cermak station, but it failed to gain traction. By the late 1960s, patronage dwindled and by the mid-1970s CTA restricted boarding to weekday rush hours, effectively killing it as a transit option. The original station closed in September 1977 and was torn down.
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McCormick Place once again is expected to generate a lot of traffic at the new station, which will be serviced by four bus lines, although McCormick Place is only two blocks to the east.
Steele said that in addition to conventioneers, CTA hopes to attract fans visiting the new $173 million DePaul University basketball arena, the expanding Motor Row nightlife district and new housing in the area.
CTA hopes to replicate the success it has had at its Morgan Green Line station, once the site of a little-used station that closed in 1948. The new Morgan station opened in May 2012 and Steele said that today it is helping to spearhead the revival of its near West Side neighborhood.
The $50 million station's amenities will include a Divvy bicycle-sharing station and parking for 80 bicycles. It is handicapped-accessible and has state-of-the-art security. Riders will be able to enter or exit from either side of Cermak Road and from 23rd Street.
The new station will be open at all times that the Green Line is in operation. At other times, riders can still use the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line station, which is located two blocks to the west and is open around the clock.
