By Alexis Schofield, Pat Reinhofer and Matt Miller
@redlineproject
Accessibility to CTA stations has been an ongoing concern for Chicago residents with disabilities or other mobility barriers for several years.
For Bharat Shah, a junior at UIC who relies on public transportation, these difficulties are part of his everyday life.
“I have cerebral palsy,” he said. “There are parts of [the CTA] where the [train] stations and cars make it difficult for accessibility, but you just get used to certain things at a point.”
Mason Brucker, a frequent visitor to Chicago who deals with health problems creating physical disability, also knows what it’s like to encounter obstacles when riding the CTA, particularly when accessing the Belmont Brown Line stop in Lakeview.
“The main station that is accessible was closed for the night, so you had to use the turnstiles on the side, and it was super narrow,” Brucker said. “If I were using my cane, I probably wouldn’t have been able to go through.”
Shah and Brucker’s experiences shed light on the everyday accessibility barriers in CTA train stations — issues that often go overlooked or unnoticed by able-bodied commuters.
Of Chicago’s 146 CTA stations, only 104 are fully accessible, leaving 42 stations without the necessary accommodations for individuals with disabilities or other barriers to entry. On top of this, maintenance issues at existing accessible stations often go unresolved for extended periods of time, further limiting access to those who need it.
In response to these rising accessibility concerns, the All Stations Accessibility Program (ASAP) was launched in July 2018 with the goal of making the entire CTA train system fully accessible by 2038.
The program includes a four-phase plan to make all stations vertically accessible with ramps, elevators, and escalators. The plan also includes improving rail system signage and other navigational features to be easier and more intuitive for those who are deaf or visually impaired.
Phase one of the program is fully funded at $423.5 million and set to be completed by 2027, which includes the Red Purple Modernization Program. Phase two is currently almost halfway funded with a total projected budget of $617.5 million, while funds have yet to be allocated for phases three and four of the program.
Due to a high demand for funding, station upgrades are prioritized based on two factors: greater need and lower complexity. This plan accounts for the fact that more complex stations will require additional time for planning and funding, pushing them into phases three and four to be completed in later years.
However, many residents with disabilities are frustrated by the long wait, as updates to their local stations may not happen for many years. With concerns about future funding and construction delays, many question whether the 2038 goal is even achievable.
Dr. Joseph Schwieterman, a professor of Sustainable Urban Development at DePaul University, described the 2038 timeline as “really ambitious” — given the financial issues currently standing for the ASAP plan.
“With the financial cliff coming, with pressure to add more service on more police officers — I know the programs are mainly capital funding, and operations are a different budget,” he said. “But nonetheless, it’s going to test our commitment, starting in 2026 when in all probability, there are widespread budget problems everywhere.”
Given the growing concern for future budget issues, many residents with disabilities who rely on public transit feel more action needs to be taken to secure the necessary funding and keep the ASAP plan on track — this includes Shah.
“I would say more would have to be done,” Shah said. “From what I understand, the CTA is the main transit source for a lot of people. Because of that, I would think it would have to be taken up by a campaign really.”
Although all CTA buses are fully accessible, equipped with ramps at the front doors for wheelchair users and priority seating with wheelchair securement areas, many train stations still pose significant barriers for riders who rely on mobility aids or face other physical challenges.
For instance, the Sheridan Red Line stop in Wrigleyville lacks an elevator, making it impossible for someone in a wheelchair to access the platform. Additionally, across the street, visitors to Nourishing Hope, a nearby food pantry, often have shopping carts and struggle to get upstairs to the platform without considerable assistance.
Similarly, the Damen Blue Line stop in Wicker Park has no elevator, making it entirely inaccessible for wheelchair users in this area. This is also a concern for travelers with large luggage, many of whom are heading to or from O’Hare Airport.
While the CTA remains a main source of transportation for many Chicago residents, especially those with disabilities, overall ridership is still significantly lower than before the pandemic.
Experts say this decline is largely due to post-pandemic effects, such as more people working from home, leading to budget challenges, staffing shortages, and longer delays in fixing unreliable accessibility features.
For those with disabilities or other barriers to accessing the CTA, even when elevators are available, maintenance problems and uncertainty about their location or functionality often leave limited options: struggle with the stairs or be unable to access the station.
While the CTA provides system status updates for out-of-service elevators and other maintenance alerts, many only discover these outages upon getting to the station. This leaves commuters like Brucker, who is unfamiliar with each station’s accessibility features, with no choice but to rely on the stairs.
“I just remember running up the stairs, and I was dying a little bit at those times,” he said. “I’m sure there were elevators, but you have to go out of the way to use them. It slows everyone down.”
In addition, maintenance issues with elevators and other features in CTA stations often worsen during the colder months, when extreme weather conditions can lead to more frequent power outages and malfunctions.
“We also have severe weather, which makes the effects of broken elevators and malfunctioning lifts and things more problematic,” Schwieterman said. “I go to Midway Airport, and maybe every, I don’t know, 10th trip the elevator is down, and there’s just one elevator. And when it’s cold, that’s a big crisis for somebody.”
Fortunately, the ASAP plan is going beyond federal ADA guidelines and requirements to improve accessibility. Rather than only adding required features, the plan also includes rehabilitation or replacement of malfunctioning navigation elements, such as elevators, to reduce future problems for riders.
Despite its challenges, Chicago’s public transit system remains far ahead of many other major cities in terms of accessibility. By contrast, about 70% of New York City’s subway systems are inaccessible, with plans to reach 95% accessibility by 2055 — highlighting Chicago as a leader in transit accessibility.
For riders like Shah, accessibility isn’t just about physical infrastructure or accommodating features — it’s also about the human aspect of the system.
“This one time, I was going on a class trip and I missed the bus,” Shah said. “I had very limited experience with the CTA, so I’m very panicked and stressed out. The CTA guy [came] up to me, was very helpful and gave me space to vent. Most times though, I would just get overlooked, but once you get the hang of it, you get the hang of it.”
Unfortunately, many people without disabilities or mobility barriers don’t recognize the importance of accessibility on the CTA. Brucker, the frequent visitor to Chicago, points to this lack of public awareness.
“I feel like there is not enough public awareness for pretty much any disability issue,” he said. “Most people don’t even think about it … I didn’t start noticing it until I started having health problems.”
Although the ASAP program maintains its promise to make all train stations accessible by 2038, growing frustration among the disability community over the lack of progress and lack of public awareness point to the need for stronger actions to keep the program on track and securely funded.
“Now, I notice most people aren’t even thinking about accessibility in their everyday life just because it doesn’t really affect them,” Brucker said.