The prospects for a pair of outdoor elevators at Winnetka’s Elm Street train station are looking up after Metra on Tuesday abandoned plans to replace them with two 300-foot ramps.
Yielding to concerns from local advocates for the disabled, who believed the below-grade train platform would become less accessible, officials backtracked at a Village Council meeting and agreed to upgrade the elevators by next year.
“It’s very gratifying the decision took into account the expressed needs of the community and that logic prevailed,” said David Olson, 54, head of the New Trier Township Committee on Disabilities, which met with Metra officials last month.
Built in 1989, the elevators are housed in glass-and-brick towers on each side of the tracks, which were lowered more than a half-century ago after a rash of grade-crossing accidents. Exposed to the elements, the hydraulic elevators have been plagued by problems, with frequent service interruptions and about $25,000 in repair bills over the last three years.
The plan to replace the elevators surfaced last year as part of Metra’s $3 million renovation of the 60-year-old station on the southeast corner of Green Bay Road and Elm Street. Despite the elevators’ reliability issues, many disabled residents such as Olson, who uses crutches, expressed a preference for them over the uncovered ramps, each the length of a football field.
“I think what we didn’t consider was the fact that there’s really been an asset here in the elevator,” said Clayton Weaver, Metra’s director of technical services. “To those people using the elevators, converting to ramps seemed like a step backward.”
The improvements, estimated to cost about $250,000 for each elevator, will heat the shafts and fit them with new mechanisms. In addition, replacement of an adjacent pedestrian bridge over the tracks will include a heated 10-foot enclosed vestibule in front of the elevator doors, which will help keep the elements at bay, according to Weaver.
“New elevators, designed properly, won’t be free of breakdowns,” said Weaver. “But I think they can be far more reliable and that we can really run these things at a pretty reasonable cost.”
Metra also agreed to continue to maintain the elevators.
“A big concern of mine was that if we go to elevators … all of a sudden the village is in the business of maintaining elevators,” said Trustee Jessica Tucker. “I’m glad to hear that Metra has reconsidered.”
With the maintenance issues resolved, the council approved the plan to improve the elevators, and Weaver hopes to return by summer with a specific proposal. Pending federal funding, Metra will start the work in about a year, Weaver said.
