Merchandise Mart station

Merchandise Mart
Location 350 North Wells Street
Chicago, Illinois 60654
Coordinates 41°53′19″N 87°38′02″W / 41.888675°N 87.633966°W / 41.888675; -87.633966
Owned by Chicago Transit Authority
Line(s)
  Brown Line
  Purple Line weekday rush hours only
Platforms 2 Side platforms
Tracks 2
Construction
Structure type Elevated
Disabled access Yes
History
Opened December 5, 1930
Rebuilt 1987–1988
Traffic
Passengers (2015) 2,091,451[1] Decrease 0.4%
Rank 30 out of 143[lower-alpha 1]
Services
Preceding station   Chicago "L"   Following station
toward Kimball
Brown Line
toward The Loop
One-way operation
toward Linden
Purple Line
toward The Loop
One-way operation
Route map

Merchandise Mart[2][3] is a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system, located in the Near North Side neighborhood at 350 North Wells Street in Chicago, Illinois (directional coordinates 320 north, 200 west). The station is elevated above street level, on a steel structure. The turnstiles and customer assistant booth of the current station are located on the second level of the Merchandise Mart itself. This is the main entrance to the station, although there are two fare-card only, unattended entrances atop two long stairways accessed directly from Wells Street, just north of Kinzie Avenue. The station is constructed mostly of steel, with wooden platforms covered by a canopy most of their length. There are two side platforms both long enough to support eight-car trains, the longest possible on the CTA system. The southbound platform is just slightly below the level of the station entrance while an enclosed bridge over the tracks connects to the northbound platform on the opposite side. The station is fully accessible, resulting in a complicated elevator setup. The elevator on the southbound platform can lower from the entrance to the platform, as well as go up to the top of the bridge. Another elevator on the opposite side of the bridge lowers to the northbound platform.

History

The original station opened on December 5, 1930, and was rebuilt from 1987 to 1988. Prior to 1963 the station also served interurban trains of the North Shore Line. The primary purpose of the station is to serve the Merchandise Mart, one of the world's largest commercial buildings, although there are some galleries and restaurants nearby.

Service

Merchandise Mart serves the Brown Line, but Purple Line Express trains also stop at the station during weekday rush hours. Merchandise Mart is the only Brown Line station not scheduled to receive upgrades or renovation during the Brown Line Capacity Expansion Project. Because of its recent construction from 1987 to 1988, the station is ADA-compliant and is already of sufficient length to accommodate eight-car trains, thus no major renovation is needed.

Bus connections

CTA

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Due to possible double-counting of physically-connected stations, the CTA's official 2015 tally of stations was 146, but for ridership purposes reported having only 143 stations.

References

  1. ↑ "Monthly Ridership Report – December 2015" (PDF). Chicago Transit Authority Ridership Analysis and Reporting. January 11, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Merchandise Mart". Chicago Transit Authority. transitchicago.com. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
  3. ↑ Cox, Jeremiah. "Merchandise Mart". The Subway Nut. subwaynut.com. Retrieved November 9, 2012.

Media related to Merchandise Mart (CTA) at Wikimedia Commons

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