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The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) will spend another $22.8 million to improve 8,280 feet of track on the north end of the Red Line and sections of the Brown Line, where trains currently operate at slow speeds because of poor track conditions.

The authority approved the funds to replace wood ties and old tie plates with recycled plastic ties and insulated tie plates, and replace track on the Brown Line between Belmont and Western stations, and on the Red Line between Belmont and Sheridan stations. Work on both lines is scheduled to begin in May. The Brown Line project is scheduled to conclude in December and the Red Line, in summer 2009.

CTA launched a slow zone elimination program last summer. Since then, the authority has removed nearly 25 percent of slow zones throughout its system. Currently, the zones occupy 15.9 percent, or 187,911 feet, of the entire rail system, down from 250,057 feet prior to the program's launch.