Merchandise Mart is a station on the

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In , the system had a ridership of , ...

's 'L' system, located in the Near North Side neighborhood at 350 North Wells Street in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

(directional coordinates 320 north, 200 west). The station is elevated above street level, on a steel structure. The

turnstile A turnstile (also called a turnpike, gateline, baffle gate, automated gate, turn gate in some regions) is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. A turnstile can be configured to enforce one-way human traffic. In addition, a ...

s and customer assistant booth of the station are located on the second level of the

Merchandise Mart The Merchandise Mart (or the Merch Mart, or the Mart) is a commercial building located in downtown Chicago, Illinois. When it was opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world, with of floor space. The Art Deco structure is locate ...

itself. This is the main entrance to the station. 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 Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...

, resulting in a complicated

elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They a ...

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

Kinzie station

Kinzie was a station on the

Northwestern Elevated Railroad The Northwestern Elevated Railroad was the last of the privately constructed rapid transit lines to be built in Chicago. The line ran from the Loop in downtown Chicago north to Wilson Avenue in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood with a branch to Raven ...

's North Side Main Line, which is now part of the

's Brown Line. The station was located at Kinzie Street and Wells Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Kinzie opened on May 31, 1900, and closed in 1921; it was replaced by the

Grand Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and c ...

station. Today, Kinzie Street is serviced by the Brown Line and Purple Line Express at the Merchandise Mart station.

Merchandise Mart station

The current station opened on December 5, 1930, and was rebuilt from 1987 to 1988. Until 1963 the station also served

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

trains of the North Shore Line. The primary purpose of the station is to serve the

, 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 was 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 accessible to passengers with disabilities and is already of sufficient length to accommodate eight-car trains, thus no major renovation was needed during the project.

Bus connections

CTA * 37 Sedgwick (Weekdays only) * 125 Water Tower Express (Weekday rush hours only)

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

Merchandise Mart
a
Chicago-'L'.org

Train schedule (PDF)
a
CTA official siteKinzie Street exit-only stairs from Google Maps Street View
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merchandise Mart (Cta) CTA Brown Line stations CTA Purple Line stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1930 Former North Shore Line stations