Fresh Kermit: Checking out the CTA Green Line’s new, ADA-compliant Austin Station

Reporting for this article was done by J. Niimi, with additional commentary by John Greenfield. A lifelong Chicagoland resident, J. is the author of “R.E.M’s Murmur,” part of the “33 1/3” book series.

Last week, federal, state and city officials cut the ribbon on the $25 million reconstruction of the Green Line’s Austin Station, located just east of the border of Chicago’s Austin neighborhood and suburban Oak Park. The ‘L’ stop first debuted in 1899, and hasn’t been renovated since 1962, in the middle of President John F. Kennedy’s administration. The recently completed project included a new escalator and elevator to the platform, as well as a wheelchair-friendly station entrance ramp. These finally make the facility ADA compliant.

The rehab was bankrolled by the federal Surface Transportation Program, which provided $20.3M, and the Rebuild Illinois state infrastructure bill, which chipped in $5.3M.

“As someone who uses public transportation a little differently than most, I know accessibility isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity,” stated U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, who sustained disabilities during her service in the Iraq War. “The newly rebuilt Austin Green Line station is more than just a beautiful new station, making these essential accessibility upgrades opens doors for more Chicagoans to use public transportation confidently.”

The Austin Station renovations began at the end of last year as part of the CTA’s roughly $7 billion 2025-2029 Capital Improvement Program. The agency’s All Stations Accessibility Program, a strategic plan released in 2018, set the goal of making every train stop wheelchair-friendly by 2038. With the makeover of the Austin facility, 110 of the system’s 146 stations, or 75 percent, are now accessible. Thirteen more have recently opened, or are currently funded and are in the planning, design, and/or construction stages.

Austin Station is a transit hub for the region, offering connections with the CTA’s 91 Austin bus route, plus Pace lines 309 Lake Street, 313 St. Charles Road, and 315 Austin Boulevard. These routes stop at several Metra stations, as well as key destinations like Midway Airport.

The Austin Green Line stop is located right next to the track embankment, which created a design challenge for the engineers tasked with installing an elevator to complement the existing escalator.

Austin now boasts a slender new double-door-equipped elevator tucked away handily to the side of the brand-new escalator system. The wheelchair ramp winds up into the entryway, along newly poured concrete non-slip steps at the main west entrance. There is now a real-time elevator status display as well, and a full complement of tactile signage on the walls, turnstiles, and platform surfaces.

The decrepit former station house was razed and an entirely new one was built in its place. The new structure is brightly lit and still immaculately clean (replete with that new-station smell, even.) Above the station house, the train platform was extended to a slight degree.

During yesterday’s afternoon rush, riders and CTA staff at Austin Station seemed to agree that the comprehensive overhaul is a vast improvement over the old structure. A Customer Assistant told Streetsblog she’s a fan of the renovated station.

“It’s amazing,” seconded an Austin resident named Theora, who was commuting home from downtown. She did have some minor misgivings about the east entrance not yet being open to the public. “But I know they’re still working on it,” she said. She also noticed they had yet to replace the screen outside the station entrance that relays the arrival times of the trains. She noted that some riders don’t have smartphones to look up this info on applications like the Ventra app.

Asked if she had tried the new, smoothly-running escalator yet, Theora replied, “I took the elevator the first day – I have a phobia of escalators.” She added that she felt the area immediately surrounding the elevator on the platform felt somewhat narrow to her. Her comment reflects the site’s inherent logistical limitations due to its narrow footprint between the embankment and the street. In fact, the CTA was initially planning to remove the escalator to make room for the elevator, but ultimately decided not to.

Here’s a gallery of more images from Thursday evening at the new Austin Station. All photos are by J. Niimi.

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