CTA Cleanup Coming to Evanston

Chicago Transit Authority rail stations across the Chicago area are getting a facelift, and work in Evanston has already begun.

At a news conference Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool announced the debut of a public-private partnership that will result in makeovers for more than 100 rail stations.

The effort will utilize a mix of city employees and private contractors — dubbed the "Renew Crew" — to perform the work over the course of a year, moving from one station to the next painting walls and ceilings, repairing masonry and busted concrete, planting trees, washing tunnel walls and replacing signage. Other work will take place behind-the-scenes. (See the CTA's Flickr page for examples at a few rail stations across the city.)

“This is sort of a SWAT team approach to comprehensively address all the outstanding issues at a station at once – cleaning, repairing and improving rather than the piecemeal approach used previously," Claypool said in a news release.

The CTA has created a website alerting users to the schedule for clean-ups. 

"Noyes St. station will be next the station addressed in Evanston. CTA plans to begin its work in a few weeks and it will extend into early December," according to an email from Evanston officials about the project.

"The rest of the Evanston CTA stations will be addressed in 2012 with Davis scheduled to begin sometime in the early summer. All others will follow Davis," it said.

Commuters are also encouraged to take the CTA's "Station Renewal Survey."

The Chicago Tribune reports the cleanup effort will cost $25 million, using money Claypool said became available after cuts the agency's bureaucracy and efficiencies in the repair process. Yet the CTA continues to wrestle with a budget gap, and Emanuel and Claypool at Tuesday's news conference wouldn't rule out fare hikes for commuters.

The CTA's budget is expected to come out in a month.