For nearly a century, the north Red and Purple Lines have been an integral part of the growth
and success of the communities they connect.
But now, the Red and Purple lines have reached the end of their useful life spans.
Most tracks and bridges are now nearly 100 years old.
Continuing to operate a busy rail line on this outdated infrastructure results in unusually
high maintenance costs, the need for frequent repairs that disrupt service and slow travel,
and outdated, inadequate stations that can’t accommodate modern amenities for customers.
To address these issues, The Chicago Transit Authority is undertaking the largest capital
improvement project in its history: the Red and Purple Modernization Program or RPM.
This major initiative will be completed in phases to rebuild the northern portion of
the Red and Purple lines from Belmont to Howard station and the Purple Line, which extends
further north to the Linden station in Wilmette.
RPM accommodates current and future ridership needs by comprehensively upgrading tracks
and reconstructing stations.
RPM also will increase the number of passengers that pass through these stations by expanding
the number of trains that can travel on the Red Line—an improvement that will allow
CTA to better serve customers for generations to come.
By building the RPM Project in phases, CTA can provide great improvements while minimizing
impacts to passengers on CTA’s most traveled line.
Phase One includes two main components: the Red-Purple Bypass Project and the Lawrence
to Bryn Mawr Modernization Project.
“Your attention please – we are being delayed, waiting for signal clearance.
We expect to be moving shortly.”
Sound familiar?
Construction of a new Red-Purple Bypass north of the Belmont station would eliminate the
need for Red, Purple, and Brown line trains to stop and wait for crossing trains, increasing
the speed of all trains traveling through this area.
The new bypass would reduce delays for all three lines and allow CTA to accommodate more
than 7,200 riders per hour through the busy corridor as ridership grows.
Also included in RPM Phase One is the complete reconstruction of the Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn,
and Bryn Mawr stations to include modern amenities and elevators to make them fully accessible
to customers with disabilities.
During Phase One CTA also would rebuild all tracks, support structures, bridges, and viaducts
on the mile-plus stretch between these stations, improving train speed and reliability.
RPM Phase One will also create thousands of good-paying jobs including nearly 6,000 direct
design and construction jobs.
Future phases of RPM would bring the same level of infrastructure and station improvements
to the Red and Purple lines north of Belmont to Linden station in Wilmette, and are contingent
upon funding availability.
In moving RPM forward, the City can leverage more than $1 billion in federal funding for
Phase One of the project, which would pay for half of the total estimated $2.1 billion
cost.
However, in order to secure these federal funds, a local funding match is required.
In June 2016, the Illinois General Assembly approved a new financial tool for this purpose,
known as Transit-Tax Increment Financing or the Transit TIF for short.
Transit TIF is an economic development tool to support investment in large-scale, long-term
transit projects.
Transit TIF funds are created by growth in property value, known as increment, that occurs
because of the investment in transit.
The RPM Transit TIF would support the RPM project only, providing a portion of the needed
matching funds.
Without these local matching funds the Transit TIF will provide, Chicagoans would likely
have to pay the full cost of the project.
RPM is just one part of the CTA’s Red Ahead Program, a comprehensive initiative to maintain,
modernize, and expand Chicago’s most traveled rail line.
For the most up-to-date information on the Red Purple Modernization Program, visit our
website at transitchicago-dot-com, forward slash RPM Project.
You can also join the contact list by sending an e-mail request to RPM at transitchicago-dot-com.