The CTA launched a $1 million study of the Blue Line stretch that runs along the Eisenhower Expressway, a possible step toward the first major reconstruction of the rail line since it opened more than a half-century ago.

The eight-month study, announced two days before the rail segment's 55th anniversary, is being touted as opening the door to boosting ridership and aiding struggling neighborhoods along the Forest Park branch.

For many residents who use the Blue Line between Forest Park and the Clinton stop in the West Loop, such an overhaul couldn't come soon enough.

The West Side branch tracks are at the end of their useful life, and trains crawl through numerous slow zones — often barely traveling faster than the cars and trucks mired in rush-hour congestion on that part of Interstate 290.

Inferior CTA service and sweeping demographic changes over the years in the neighborhoods along the Forest Park branch are responsible for the difficult slog for riders, officials said.

No money is currently available to transform the rail corridor, as the CTA is now doing on the south branch of the Red Line between Cermak-Chinatown and 95th Street, with a $425 million track-replacement project and station improvements.

But the Blue Line study, scheduled to be completed early next year, aims to help establish cost estimates and determine sources of funding for design, engineering and construction of such a project, which would be the first major reconstruction of the rail line since it opened as the Congress Line on June 22, 1958.

Stations, park-and-ride facilities and commuter access points that are difficult for pedestrians to navigate also will be examined, officials said.

"In addition to a basic modernization of the line, we are working with the city and with Oak Park to make sure pedestrian access to stations is improved,'' said Michael McLaughlin, CTA vice president of planning and federal affairs. "We want to make it a much more livable and enjoyable experience for people to get to the stations.''

Blue Line patrons waiting for the train Thursday afternoon in Oak Park had their own suggestions for changes.

Gabriel Ortega, 31, of Oak Park, said he would like to see more space for bicycles in the rail cars. While customer service could be better, said Ortega, a waiter, the Blue Line is functional as it is.

"It is a little bumpy, but you just read a book, watch a movie on YouTube, listen to music — get from point A to point B," Ortega said.

Clayton Daughenbaugh, 56, of Berwyn, would like to see more heating on the line's windy platforms in winter.

The study, funded by federal planning grants that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., helped secure, will be conducted in conjunction with long-range planning by the state to widen and rebuild the Eisenhower, officials said.

Four proposals that IDOT is analyzing to improve travel on the Eisenhower all include extending the Blue Line to Mannheim Road and linking it to express bus service going westward from Mannheim.

Widening the Ike has long been a hot-button issue in Oak Park, where officials and residents fear the possible loss of parks to highway expansion and a negative effect on the quality of life in the suburb.

For their part, officials at the CTA said its study will not look at extending the Forest Park Blue Line branch farther west, something that area public officials say would be helpful.

For instance, public transportation demand brings so many drivers to Oak Park from more remote suburbs that the village has had to restrict parking near its Blue Line stops, said Assistant Village Manager Rob Cole.

For people who don't own a vehicle, Cole said, Chicago's highway-based transportation system is "little better than the network of cattle paths and foot trails that existed at the turn of the century.''

Tribune reporter Wes Venteicher contributed.

jhilkevitch@tribune.com

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