With the snap of a grand opening banner on Sunday, the four new stops are now pulling into the future.
Four stations reopened on Sunday: Lawrence at 1120 W. Lawrence Ave., Argyle at 1118 W. Argyle St., Berwyn at 1119 W. Berwyn St. and Bryn Mawr at 1116 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.
The renovations were part of a historic $2.1 billion Red and Purple Line modernization project to rebuild the 100-year-old busy passenger hubs.
North Side passengers onboard the inaugural train said they've been looking forward to this for years.
"We are so excited to show this to our customers. They've been waiting for years." said Tammy Chase with the CTA.
Commuters can expect substantial upgrades to their daily commute at the stations, including better elevators and escalators, wider platforms, overhead canopies for protection from bad weather, new benches and more.
"If you have mobility issues you can use an elevator to get up to our platform instead of hauling upstairs, so this is really a game changer," Chase said. "We've got all kind of concrete walls and concrete tracks. That's new, if you think of the old steel 'clank, clank, clank screech,' That is missing up here. That's a good thing for the neighborhood."
Some of the first passengers to disembark trains at the new stations said they've been waiting a long time for this moment.
"Clean, much more open, much more spacious, nice elevators, nice escalators," CTA rider Ryan Chapman said.
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"We've been along the construction since it started five to six years ago, so it was a long time coming being able to stop at these stations," CTA rider Scott James Smith said. "It's just like, finally we are here."
Other riders like Luka Bettich celebrated the occasion by visiting all four new stations to experience the changes for himself.
"I think the biggest thing I noticed was how wider the platform is," Bettich said. "Those old stations felt kind of dangerous almost, but this is a huge improvement."