Red, Purple Line inbound commutes about to get longer

CHICAGO (WLS) -- If you ride the Red or Purple Line south during the morning rush, you can add between two and six minutes to your commute through the rest of the year and into next.

Travel on the Red Line between Addison and Loyola is going to be pretty inconvenient this weekend. Work begins this weekend on the next stage of the Wilson station reconstruction project, and the commute could be complicated for the first few days. From Friday night until Monday morning, you may have to travel farther than you intended and then board a train in the opposite direction to get off where you're going. That lasts only until Monday. At that point, southbound Red and Purple Line tracks share a track between the Howard and Belmont stops.

Purple Line trains that normally run express from Howard to Belmont will also stop at Wilson, Sheridan and Addison.

There is no question the CTA's 100-year-old infrastructure needs some work - especially since more people are riding the rails than ever before. El ridership is up nearly four percent year-to-year, while bus ridership is down eight percent. The CTA says that follows a national trend seen in most major city transit systems.

The authority also says fewer people used buses last year because of the cold weather and fewer CPS school days.

Renovation for the CTA Wilson station, located in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, should be complete by late 2017.

"To all the riders, I want to apologize upfront for all the inconvenience it will create, but knowing in the long term it will also speed their commute to work, to neighborhood and for their family," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.

The mayor stopped in Uptown Friday morning for a photo op with construction workers breaking ground on the new phase of the CTA's Red Line improvement program.

"Our whole goal is to modernize the entire Red Line, literally from Howard down to 95th, the rail as well as all the stations. So, neighborhood by neighborhood, station by station," Emanuel said.

"I think in the long run the benefits will be really good for the station. It really needs the change and since they're going to have a Purple Line stop eventually, I think that will be really beneficial," said Daniel Ramos. "Look at it. Standing on the platform it looks like it's falling apart sometimes. It really needs it compared to other stations in the city."