Two South Shore Line stations in Chicago will close Saturday and Sunday to accommodate construction. Buses will be used to transport riders between Millennium Station and Metra’s 18th Street Station, a ride of about 10 minutes, the railroad announced Monday.
The Museum Campus and Van Buren stations will be closed both days; buses won’t stop there. The 18th Street Station has a large flight of stairs, so passengers with mobility issues should use the McCormick Place stop instead.
Westbound South Shore Line riders can take the buses as far as McCormick Place, but bikes will be prohibited on buses.
The construction project is part of the $650 million expansion of South Shore Line service on the Metra system, expanding capacity north of 18th Street to accommodate additional South Shore Line trains.
The work includes track realignments and upgrades to the catenary system that supplies power to the trains. The West Lake Corridor project extending service south to Dyer will add even more trains than the Double Track NWI project has, necessitating the addition of the fourth rail line to Millennium Station to relieve the bottleneck.
