Map of the Chicago 'L'

Main article: List of stations on the 'L'

Chicago's rapid transit system currently consists of eight principal routes. Since 1993 'L' lines have been identified by color,^[10] although older route names survive to some extent in CTA publications and popular usage to distinguish branches of longer lines:

[edit] Red Line

█ Red Line, consisting of the Howard and Dan Ryan branches

The Red Line is the busiest 'L' route, serving approximately 213,800 passengers each weekday.^[11] It includes 34 stations on its 21.8 mile route, traveling from Howard Street terminal on the city's northern border with Evanston, through downtown Chicago via the State Street subway, then down the Dan Ryan Expressway median to 95th Street on the Far South Side. Despite its length, the Red Line stops five miles short of the city's southern border and there are intermittent pleas to extend it. The Red Line is one of two 'L' lines operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

[edit] Blue Line

█ Blue Line, consisting of the O'Hare and Congress branches

The Blue Line extends from O'Hare International Airport through the Loop via the Milwaukee-Dearborn-Congress subway to the West Side. Most Blue Line trains travel to Des Plaines Avenue in Forest Park via the Eisenhower Expressway median, but during rush hour some trains operate between O'Hare and 54/Cermak in Cicero via the Douglas branch. (Most service to 54/Cermak is provided by the Pink Line; see below.) The length of the route is from O'Hare to Desplaines Ave in Forest Park is 26.93 miles and from O'Hare to 54th St. it is 24.23 miles. The combined number of stations is 44. Until 1970 the northern section of the Blue Line terminated at Logan Square, during which time it was called the Milwaukee route after the parallel street; in that year service was extended to Jefferson Park via the Kennedy Expressway median, and in 1984 to O'Hare. The Blue Line is the CTA's second busiest, with 119,700 weekday boardings. It operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

[edit] Brown Line

█ Brown Line, or Ravenswood

The Brown Line follows an 11.4 mile route, with 19 stations between Kimball Avenue in Albany Park and downtown Chicago. The Brown Line has an average weekday ridership of 66,000. ^[12]

[edit] Green Line

█ Green Line, consisting of the Lake Street and Englewood-Jackson Park branches

A completely elevated route utilizing the system's oldest segments (dating back to 1892), the Green Line extends 20.8 miles with 29 stops between Forest Park and Oak Park (Harlem/Lake), through Chicago's Loop, to the South Side. South of the Garfield station the line branches, with trains alternately heading to Ashland/63rd in Englewood and Cottage Grove/63rd in Woodlawn. The East 63rd branch formerly extended to Jackson Park, but the portion east of Cottage Grove, which ran above 63rd Street, was demolished in stages in the 1980s and 1990s due to structural problems and then not replaced due to community demands. The average number of weekday boardings is 36,300.

[edit] Orange Line

█ Orange Line or Midway

The 13 mile long Orange Line was constructed in the early 1990s on existing railroad embankments and new concrete and steel elevated structure. It runs from Chicago Midway International Airport on the Southwest Side to the Loop in downtown Chicago. Average weekday ridership is 28,400.

[edit] Pink Line

█ Pink Line

The Pink Line is an 11.2 mile trial rerouting of former Blue Line Douglas Park branch trains from Cicero (54/Cermak) via the previously non-revenue Paulina Connector and the Green Line on Lake Street to the Loop. Its average weekday ridership is 12,600.

[edit] Purple Line

█ Purple Line, or Evanston, Evanston Express

The Purple Line is a 3.9 mile branch serving north suburban Evanston and Wilmette with express service to the Loop during rush hour. The local service operates from the Wilmette terminal at Linden Avenue through Evanston to the Howard Street terminal where it connects with the Red and Yellow lines. The rush hour express service continues from Howard to the Loop, running nonstop on the four-track line used by the Red Line to Belmont station, then serving all Brown Line stops to the Loop. Average weekday ridership is 10,300, although this does not count boardings from Belmont south, which are included in Red and Brown line statistics. The stops from Belmont to Chicago Avenue were added in the 1990s to relieve crowding on the Red and Brown lines.^[13]

[edit] Yellow Line

█ Yellow Line, or Skokie Swift

The Yellow Line is a 4.7 mile nonstop shuttle that runs from the Howard Street terminal to Dempster Street terminal in suburban Skokie. The Yellow Line is the only 'L' route that does not provide direct service to the Loop or run on weekends. This line was originally part of the North Shore Electric commuter rail service, and was acquired by the CTA in the 1960's. Its average weekday ridership is 2,600.

[edit] Circle Line (Proposed)

The Circle Line is a proposed addition to the CTA rail system that would form an outer circle or loop around the downtown area, making connections easier further outside the original downtown core. Several routes have been proposed, with no selection having been made to date.

Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, and Purple Line express trains serve downtown Chicago via the Loop elevated. The Green Line is the Loop's only through service; the other four lines circle the Loop and return to their starting points. The Loop forms a rectangle roughly 0.4 miles (650m long) east-to-west and 0.6 miles (960m) long north-to-south. While many believe that the city's central business district was named after this conspicuous section of the "L", the term actually predates the "L" and refers to a now-retired circular routing of streetcars through downtown, which followed the same basic route as the present day elevated tracks. The Loop's nine stations average 64,800 weekday boardings.

[edit] Mid-City Line (Proposed)

The Mid-City Line is another proposed line that would run along a route similar to the failed Crosstown Expressway, though primarily on existing railroad right of way. The route would link various points in the city from the northwest, west & southwest sides outside of the downtown area & their existing transit lines.

The line would run mostly on existing Union Pacific and Belt Railway right of way and, unlike existing Chicago Transit Authority routes that radiate from the Loop, would connect city neighborhoods on the Northwest, West and South Sides.

Beginning approximately at the location of the Jefferson Park station on the Blue Line, it would head south paralleling Cicero Avenue (the planned corridor for the original Crosstown), past Midway Airport before curving east along 75th Street, eventually terminating at 87th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Besides the Blue Line, the Mid-City route would intersect with the CTA's Green, Orange and Red Lines.

The Mid-City Line, along with the Circle Line would greatly improve transit in Chicago by linking the different spokes of the present rail lines like a spiders web. Both plans are pending further studies & funding. If Chicago wins the bid for the 2016 Olympics, there is no doubt that one or even both of the plans could finally become reality as Federal funding would more easily secured.

[edit] History

The 'L' in 1921

The first 'L' began revenue service on June 6, 1892, when a small steam locomotive pulling four wooden coaches with 30 passengers left the 39th Street station of the Chicago & South Side Rapid Transit Railroad and arrived at Congress Street 14 minutes later over tracks still used today by the Green Line.^[14] The following year service was extended to 63rd Street and Stony Island Avenue, then the entrance to the popular World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. Later in 1893 trains began running on the Lake Street Elevated and in 1895 on the Metropolitan West Side Elevated, which consisted of the Douglas Park, Garfield Park (since replaced), Humboldt Park (since demolished), and Milwaukee lines – see map. The Metropolitan was the world's first non-exhibition rapid transit system powered by electric traction motors, a technology whose practicality had been previously demonstrated on the "intramural railway" at the world's fair. Two years later the South Side 'L' introduced multiple-unit control, in which several or all the cars in a train are motorized and under the control of the operator, not just the lead unit. Electrification and m.u. control remain standard features of most of the world's rapid transit systems.

A drawback of early 'L' service was that none of the lines entered the central business district. Instead trains dropped passengers at stub terminals on the periphery due to a state law requiring approval by neighboring property owners for tracks built over public streets, something not easily obtained downtown. This obstacle was overcome by the legendary traction magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes, who went on to play a pivotal role in the development of the London Underground and was immortalized by Theodore Dreiser as the ruthless schemer Frank Cowperwood in The Titan (1914) and other novels. Yerkes, who controlled much of the city's streetcar system, obtained the necessary signatures through cash and guile – at one point he secured a franchise to build a mile-long 'L' over Van Buren Street from Wabash Avenue to Halsted Street, extracting the requisite majority from the pliable owners on the western half of the route, then building tracks chiefly over the eastern half, where property owners had opposed him. The Union Loop opened in 1897, greatly increasing the rapid transit system's convenience but at the cost of noisy, obstructed streets, a fact of life in downtown Chicago to this day. Operation on the Yerkes-owned Northwestern Elevated, which built the North Side 'L' lines, began three years later, essentially completing the elevated infrastructure in the urban core although extensions and branches continued to be constructed in outlying areas through the 1920s.

Rarely profitable, the 'L' lines after 1911 came under the control of Samuel Insull, president of the Chicago Edison electric utility (now Commonwealth Edison), whose interest stemmed initially from the fact that the trains were the city's largest consumer of electricity. Insull instituted many improvements, including free transfers and through routing, although he did not formally combine the original firms into the Chicago Rapid Transit Company until 1924. He also bought three other Chicago electrified railroads, the North Shore, Aurora and Elgin, and South Shore interurban lines, and ran the trains of the first two into downtown Chicago via the 'L' tracks. This period of relative prosperity ended when Insull's empire collapsed in 1932, but later in the decade the city with the help of the federal government accumulated sufficient funds to begin construction of two subway lines to supplement and, some hoped, permit eventual replacement of the Loop elevated. The State Street subway was completed in 1943; the Dearborn subway, work on which was suspended during World War II, opened in 1951. The subways bypassed a number of tight curves and circuitous routings on the original elevated lines (Milwaukee trains, for example, originated on Chicago's northwest side but entered the Loop at the southwest corner), speeding service for many riders.

By the 1940s the financial condition of the 'L,' and of Chicago mass transit in general, had become too precarious to permit continued private operation, and the necessary steps were taken to enable public takeover. In 1947 the Chicago Transit Authority acquired the assets of the Chicago Rapid Transit Company and the Chicago Surface Lines, operator of the city's streetcars. Over the next few years the CTA modernized the 'L,' replacing antiquated wooden cars with new steel ones and closing lightly used branch lines and stations, many of which had been spaced only a quarter mile apart. The first air-conditioned cars were introduced in 1964 and the last pre-World War II cars retired in 1973. New lines were built in expressway medians, the Congress branch replacing the Garfield Park 'L' in 1958 and the Dan Ryan branch opening in 1969, followed by the first Kennedy Expressway extension in 1970.