The Wellington station reopened to customers and resumed rail service Thursday, July 30, 2009 following a 16-month temporary closure for construction as part of the Brown Line capacity expansion project. 

A new stationhouse was built in the same location as the previous stationhouse at 945 W. Wellington Avenue and a new auxiliary exit has been built just north of the station on Nelson Street for added customer convenience and passage. 

With the addition of two elevators, the Wellington station now is accessible to customers with disabilities.  With this station reopening, 89 of CTA’s 144 rail stations are accessible. 

The platforms at Wellington were reconfigured to accommodate eight-car trains which allow more customers to board.  Other conveniences include accessible turnstiles, brighter lighting, new signs - including Braille signs - and a bike rack. 

Wellington is the sixteenth of 18 stations included in the Brown Line capacity expansion project to be completed.  To date, work also has been completed at Kimball, Kedzie, Rockwell, Francisco, Western, Sedgwick, Montrose, Addison, Southport, Armitage, Diversey, Chicago, Damen, Irving Park and Paulina. 

With the completion of Wellington, all of the Brown Line stations temporarily closed for renovation now are open.  Although construction remains under way at Belmont and Fullerton, service continues to operate at both stations.

The Wellington station is scheduled to reopen on time in late July 2009. 

Wellington has been closed for more than a year because CTA opened the Diversey station earlier than planned.  As a result, Wellington was closed earlier than planned to accommodate the switch to eight-car trains on the entire Brown Line.

The decision was made to close the station early to accommodate the switch to eight-car trains to benefit all Brown Line riders with greater capacity.

The closures were scheduled so that no two adjacent stations would be closed at the same time.  The closure periods are planned by the contractor (with CTA) in advance and the contractor orders staff and materials based on this plan.

On March 30, 2008 the Wellington station on the Brown Line temporarily closed for renovation. The Wellington station is temporarily closed while construction crews work to upgrade and extend platforms, rebuild the station house and make the station accessible to customers with disabilities. The adjacent stations – Diversey and Belmont – will remain open during the temporary closure of the Wellington station so customers may continue to use them to access Brown Line service.

The Wellington station is located in an area where existing CTA service is plentiful. In addition to nearby rail stations, there are existing CTA bus routes that provide service near Wellington station.