Getting from the parking lot of Harvey’s 147th Street/Sibley Boulevard station on the Metra Electric Line to the platform involves a stroll along a darkened, litter strewed sidewalk through a viaduct under the tracks.

Improving that walk to and from the station platform is on the list of changes coming to the station under a $13 million renovation recently announced by Metra.

The Harvey stop is one of several Chicago and south suburban stations on the Metra Electric line due for rehabilitation in the coming years, according to Metra.

Work at the station will begin sometime in the first quarter of 2022 and take 15 months to complete, according to Metra, which said the project represents the first major upgrade to the station since 1989.

The work is being funded through the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital program.

The street-level entrance will be replaced and an elevator installed to make the station accessible to people with disabilities.

A small gravel parking lot on the west side of the tracks, near the platform entrance, will be converted to a passenger drop-off area and bicycle parking will be installed, according to Metra.

The existing concrete passenger platform will be replaced with a longer lasting composite, passenger shelters will be replaced and a canopy covering most of the platform installed, according to Metra.

The sidewalk under the viaduct connecting the platform with the parking lot on the east side of the tracks is going to be spruced up, with new lighting there as well as on the platform, according to Metra.

“This project will enable more of our residents to safely and comfortably get to their jobs and their destinations,” Harvey Mayor Christopher Clark said in a news release.

A $14 million renovation of the Homewood station on the Electric Line is scheduled to get underway next year.

Work there will involve replacing the existing station at Harwood Avenue and Ridge Road as well as renovating a pedestrian tunnel, built in 1911, that runs under the tracks.

Suffering from water leaks, the tunnel will be waterproofed and upgraded with improved lighting and ventilation systems as well as graffiti resistant finishes.

In the next two years, according to Metra, station upgrades are planned at city stops on the Electric Line including 95th, 103rd and 111th streets.

In the next five years, Harvey’s second Electric Line station, at 154th Street and Park Avenue, is due for renovations along with stations in Olympia Fields and University Park, according to

Metra.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Electric Line has experienced steadily declining ridership, according to Metra.

All Metra lines saw a sharp drop in ridership in 2020 due to business shutdowns as a result of the pandemic, but from 2015 through 2019, Electric Line ridership dropped almost 20%, according to Metra.

In September and October of this year, however, ridership figures surged on the line, and last month the Electric Line was Metra’s second-busiest, behind the Burlington Northern.

Metra estimates ridership based on monthly ticket sales and the type of ticket sold.

With pandemic restrictions easing, Metra had expected to see a steady recovery in ridership throughout the year.

While ridership is up, Metra, says it has not seen the big gains it anticipated.

Workers have not flooded back in to downtown offices, and continue to spend part of their week working remotely, Metra said in its 2022 budget, approved Nov. 12.

In that budget, Metra expects to end 2021 with 14 million passenger trips along all of its lines.

That would compare to 19 million trips in 2020 and 74 million in 2019.

Metra is forecasting passenger trips to rise to 22 million by the end of next year and to 37 million by the end of 2023. If that forecast holds true, within two years ridership would still be at 65% of pre-pandemic levels, Metra said.

In January, Metra, Pace and Cook County launched a three-year pilot program that reduces fares on area rail and bus lines.

The Fair Transit South Cook initiative is intended to make mass transit more affordable for south suburban areas where households spend a disproportionate amount of their income on transportation.

The program reduces fares by 50% on the Electric Line along with the Rock Island Line, which serves areas of the Southwest Side and southwest suburbs.

mnolan@tribpub.com