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CTA To Receive Grant To Upgrade Wilson 'L' Stop

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Transit Authority will receive federal aid to replace old buses and one of the biggest eyesores on its 'L' system.

Activists for years have called the Wilson Red Line station everything from dilapidated to dangerous. When built into its current configuration as the Uptown Station in the 1920s, it was posh, but for decades, it has been a hodge-podge of deteriorating storefronts.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bob Roberts reports

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With the grant, riders will get elevator access to platforms and the exterior will be rehabbed.

Additionally, a $30 million grant will go toward purchase of additional diesel-hybrid buses, and a $2 million grant will finance a study of lakefront bus service stretching from the city's northern limits at Howard Street to 103rd Street.

The 18 CTA bus lines in the corridor currently carry 109,000 riders each weekday. Not only will the study look at ways to improve existing lines, it will look at making access ore convenient to job centers outside of the Loop.

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