Lydia McDonald was on her way downtown to shop for clothes Monday morning when she got an early gift: Her CTA bus driver announced the new Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line station in the South Loop is now open to commuters.
McDonald, who lives in the South Loop, said she typically takes a bus to downtown but expects the Green Line to be faster. As she waited for a train Monday morning, she said she liked the layout of the outdoor elevated station, which has an indoor feel because the platform is enclosed by a tunnel-like roof.
"Seems like maybe it will be a little less windy" than other stations, said McDonald, 61.
The city quietly opened the Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line station to riders Sunday, more than a month behind schedule and just two weeks before the mayoral election Feb. 24. The $50 million stop, off Cermak Road and Wabash Avenue, is the newest station since spring 2012, when the CTA opened the Morgan station on the Green and Pink lines and the Oakton-Skokie Yellow Line station.
Commuters on Monday told RedEye they liked the look of the station, which has elevators from the platform to the street, energy-efficient lighting and art that depicts the history of the area.
The stop also fills in a 2 1/2-mile stretch along the southern Green Line without a station. The closest Green Line stops are the Roosevelt station in the South Loop and the 35th-Bronzeville-IIT station. The Cermak-Chinatown Red Line stop is about four blocks away from the new Green Line stop.
Bart Crouch, 46, said he typically rides his bike from his Pilsen home to get to his job at a nonprofit organization in the Loop. He saw online that the station had opened and decided to check it out. He said he planned to use the stop when it's too cold to bike the entire way to the Loop.
"[The station] has a lot of bike parking," Crouch said.
Mayor Emanuel and Chicago officials who cut the station ribbon in a Monday morning ceremony said they expected the station to spark economic development for the South Loop area. The project was paid for with tax-increment financing, or TIF funds, taxpayer money intended to spur development in certain neighborhoods.
The station is the closest CTA stop to McCormick Place, where visitors have long used buses and taxis to get around the area.
"It's truly a 21st-century station and long overdue," CTA President Forrest Claypool said Monday at the ribbon cutting.
When the city Department of Transportation broke ground on the station in August 2013, officials said the new station would be ready by the end of 2014. Rebekah Scheinfeld, CDOT commissioner, on Monday blamed the delays on last winter's polar vortex, which brought major snowfall and sub-zero temperatures, and the recent snowy weather.
Both Claypool and a CDOT spokesman said two months ago the station would open in the spring.
It's unclear how many new riders the station will attract. A CTA spokeswoman didn't immediately know how many riders entered or exited the station Sunday and Monday morning.
When the Morgan Green and Pink Line stop opened in 2012 on the Near West Side, it drew riders from the neighboring Clinton and Ashland stations, according to CTA data. The Green Line sees about 63,900 riders on an average weekday, according to the city.
Greg Motes, 48, used the station Monday morning as his new transfer point to downtown. Motes said he typically drives to the Red Line from his South Side home in the Grand Boulevard community, drops off his car and rides the train into the Loop for work.
Motes said he appreciates the convenience and the design of the new station.
"It's new. It's fresh. It makes you want to ride," Motes said.