By TINA SFONDELES

Staff Reporter

tsfondeles (at) suntimes.com

Last Modified: Jan 27, 2011 02:38AM

CTA’s top brass want to hear what riders have to say about plans to close up to three North Side stations and two others in Evanston along Red and Purple Lines.

Track repair and station renovations also are part of possible changes on a “dilapidated” 9.5-mile stretch of track from Belmont to the Linden terminal in Evanston, built between 1900 and 1920. The plans call for making 15 of 21 stations along that route handicap accessible. The project could top $4.2 billion.

But some officials, like Evanston Ald. Coleen Burrus, fear closure of stations at Foster and South Boulevard would be a blow to Evanston commuters. Station closures also are being considered at Thorndale, Lawrence and Jarvis stops in Chicago.

CTA spokeswoman Lambrini Lukidis said the plans are “more of a consolidation.”

“It would be closing some entrances and opening them up somewhere else — in some cases just a block away,’’ she added. “It’s not exactly eliminating.”

A public meeting is scheduled for 6 tonight at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center in Evanston.