CTA closes Blue Line branch

54TH/CERMAK | Cites low ridership, offers alternate routes

Beginning today, the CTA is cutting the 54th/Cermak branch of the Blue Line, which runs west to Cicero, citing low ridership.

Pink Line trains cover most of the affected 54th/Cermak route and will take West Side riders to and from downtown.

Riders who use the 54th/Cermak Blue Line to go to the University of Illinois at Chicago campus will have to either switch to the Forest Park branch or get off at Polk and take the #7 Harrison bus.

Also affected will be Cicero and West Side residents who take the Blue Line to O'Hare -- they'll either have to take the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line or transfer to an O'Hare-bound train downtown.

The elimination of the Cermak Blue Line branch is part of a six-month experiment to reallocate West Side service. Extra service is being added to the Green Line and the other two branches of the Blue Line -- the east-west Forest Park branch and the northwest O'Hare branch. More bus service is also planned.

Also on the CTA, northbound Red Line trains will be rerouted from the subway to the L tracks from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. beginning Monday night through Friday morning between Cermak-Chinatown and Fullerton.

Trains will stop at Roosevelt/Wabash, Adams/Wabash, Madison/Wabash, Randolph/Wabash, State/Lake, Clark/Lake, Merchandise Mart, Chicago/Franklin and Sedgwick.

The Cermak/Chinatown station, which was struck by a semitruck Friday at rush hour, went back into service Saturday morning. Riders should use the auxiliary entrance on the south side.

The main entrance on the north side is closed for repairs. The accident killed two women.

"The Ride" column will return next week.