Blue Line (Chicago Transit Authority)
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The Blue Line (O'Hare-Congress & O'Hare-Douglas Services), consists of a 19.5 mile trunk line in the Chicago Transit Authority's rapid transit system which extends through Chicago's Loop from O'Hare International Airport at the far northwest end of the city, through downtown via the Milwaukee-Dearborn-Congress subway, and across the West Side with two branches at its southwest end, one to Forest Park (Congress) and the other to Cicero (Douglas). It is the CTA's second busiest rail line, serving more than 119,700 passengers each weekday. The route's full length is 34.6 miles with a total of 44 stations.
The Blue Line and Red Line are the only two routes on the CTA rail system to presently run 24 hours a day. Service to 54th/Cermak only operates weekday rush hours only. It operates from 5:30 a.m. until 9:30 a.m. and again from 2:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.
The Blue Line was formerly called the West-Northwest route or more commonly, the O'Hare-Congress-Douglas route for its three branches. The Congress and Douglas branches were renamed for their respective terminals, Forest Park and 54th/Cermak, when the current color naming system was adopted in 1993, however many Chicago historians and expert 'L' riders still refer to the old route names.
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[edit] O'Hare Branch
The O'Hare Branch is the longest section of the Blue Line (14.6 miles) and comprises the oldest and newest segments of the entire route. It begins at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport underneath the main parking garage. It runs in subway to a portal location in the airport grounds then climbs to the surface in the median of the Kennedy Expressway (Interstate 190) about a mile west of Mannheim Road. The rapid transit line follows the Kennedy east through Rosemont then tunnels beneath the Kennedy Expressway/Northwest Tollway interchange near the Des Plaines River and continues in the median of the Kennedy Expressway (now Interstate 90) east and southeast towards the city to another subway portal just south of Addison Street. The line then runs in a short subway connection (built in 1970) under Kimball and Milwaukee Avenues through Logan Square to another portal. Here, the line climbs onto elevated structure paralleling Milwaukee Avenue (built in 1895) and continuing southeast towards downtown Chicago.
[edit] Milwaukee-Dearborn-Congress Subway
After the Damen station, Blue Line trains drops into Chicago's second subway route, continuing southeast under Milwaukee Avenue, east under Lake Street (crossing beneath the Chicago River) south under Dearborn Street (through the central business district) and west under Congress Parkway (and a second river crossing) to a portal near Halsted Street. It emerges from underground now occupying the median of the Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate 290) and continues west. After two median strip stations at University of Illinois at Chicago and Racine, the line splits into two branches: the Congress (Forest Park) Branch and the Douglas (54th/Cermak) Branch.
A downtown superstation has been proposed to provide express service from the Loop to O'Hare and Midway Airport, via the Blue and Orange Line. The station would provide services such as baggage check. However, budget issues plague the operation and have prevented construction
[edit] Congress (Forest Park) Branch
The Congress Branch begins at Des Plaines Avenue in Forest Park (7650 W. - 600 S.). It runs eastward towards the city following the CSX Railroad tracks across Des Plaines Avenue on elevated structure on the north side of the Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate 290), then curves over the expressway to the south side of the right-of-way and tunnels beneath the CSX tracks. The Congress tracks then continues on the surface between the railroad tracks and the expressway in the south half of the combined and below surface level right-of-way from there, through Oak Park. The Harlem, Oak Park and Austin stations are located in this section. Near Central Avenue, the Congress Branch tunnels beneath the eastbound expressway lanes and continues east at grade in the median of the Eisenhower Expressway through the west side of Chicago, stopping at Cicero, Pulaski, Kedzie-Homan, Western and Medical Center. Leaving Medical Center station, the Congress tracks widens to allow the Douglas Branch elevated structure to connect with the median of the expressway. The Congress (Forest Park) Branch merges with the Douglas (54th/Cermak) Branch before Racine station, where both continue east to the Loop and the northwest side as the O'Hare Branch.this line from congress to forest park is made in 1907.
[edit] Douglas (54th/Cermak) Branch
The Douglas Branch begins at 54th Avenue and Cermak Road in Cicero (5400 W. - 2200 S.). The line runs east on street level right-of-way just north of and parallel to Cermak Road from the terminal to about a quarter-mile east of Cicero Avenue, then follows a reverse curve to the north and east to Kostner Avenue. The Cicero station is located in this section. It then continues east between 21st Street and Cullerton Street, climbing up from surface level to elevated structure, through the North Lawndale, Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods of Chicago, with stops at Kostner, Pulaski, Central Park, Kedzie, California, Western and Damen. The line turns north near Paulina Street stopping at 18th and Polk Streets then curves east over the Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate 290). The Douglas tracks ramps down to the surface of the median of the expressway and joins the Congress (Forest Park) Branch just before the Racine station, where both continue east towards the Loop and the northwest side as the O'Hare Branch.
[edit] Douglas (54th/Cermak) Branch reroute
In January 2005, the CTA held hearings on its proposal to reroute 54th/Cermak (Douglas) Branch trains via the recently rebuilt Paulina Connector to the Lake Street Green Line, carrying 54th/Cermak Branch trains to and around the elevated Chicago Loop (clockwise) for the first since Douglas trains began using the Dearborn Avenue Subway in downtown Chicago in 1958. It will be the first stage of what may become the "Pink Line". This would allow a doubling of Blue Line trains to Forest Park on the Congress Line, since service would no longer be divided between the Forest Park and 54th/Cermak destinations. The CTA has also promised that 54th/Cermak (Douglas) Branch service would be increased 50% during rush hour.
Opposition to the plan centers on loss of access to other Blue Line destinations. The CTA has said that two rush hour trains per hour from 54th/Cermak (Douglas) will be routed through the subway to O'Hare.
On February 15, 2006, the CTA approved the separate operation of the Douglas Branch plan. All non-rush hour trains would all be routed via the Loop, Green Line, and Paulina Connector. During rush hour, service will be available on this routing as well as the original route via the Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway. These changes are scheduled to be implemented for a 180-day trial period beginning in July 2006.
The Chicago Transit Board has decided that this new route will be known as the Pink Line.
[edit] History
The most vintage components of the Blue Line began as part of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad in 1895. The first section to be built by this company extended west in the vicinity of Van Buren Street from an independent downtown terminal at Franklin and Jackson Streets to Marshfield Avenue, and thence northward in the vicinity of Paulina Street to Damen and Milwaukee Avenues. Service on this section was started May 6, 1895. The structure was completed from Damen Avenue to Logan Square on May 25, 1895.
The next stage in the development of the West Side "L" came on June 17, 1895 when the Garfield Park Branch was added, extending west in the vicinity of Van Buren Street and Harrison Street from Marshfield Avenue to Cicero Avenue. Service to the terminal at Forest Park was established on March 11, 1905, and to Westchester on October 1, 1926. Service on the Westechester extension of the Garfield Park Branch was discontinued December 9, 1951.
Another branch line was added to the rapidly growing Metropolitan System on July 29, 1895, when trains began operating over the Humboldt Park Branch, paralleling North Avenue from Damen Avenue to a terminal at Lawndale Avenue. The route was discontinued on May 3, 1952. This was followed by still another addition when the Douglas Park Branch was placed in operation as far south as 18th Street on August 28, 1895.
As the southwest area of the city developed, the Douglas Park Branch was extended from 18th Street to Western Avenue in September, 1896; to Pulaski Road in June, 1902; to Cicero Avenue in December, 1907; to Central Avenue in August, 1912; to 62nd Avenue in August, 1915, and to Oak Park Avenue in Berwyn on March 16, 1924. The present west terminal of the Douglas Branch is 54th Avenue, Cicero.
The Metropolitan West Side Elevated began service around the Union Loop on October 12, 1897 and a rush period stub terminal at Wells Street was added October 3, 1904. For much of the early twentieth century and through the 1940's, service on the West Side Elevated lines went unchanged until the Chicago Transit Authority took control of Chicago's Rapid Transit System in October, 1947, initiating a series of massive service curtailments and station closings (that would last until the 1980's).
On February 25, 1951, Chicago's second subway route (#2), Milwaukee-Dearborn-Congress, was placed in operation by CTA, connecting the Milwaukee Avenue elevated route (formerly Logan Square) with the Central Business District on a fast, efficient and more direct routing through the heart of the city. With opening of the Dearborn Subway, the old elevated alignment between Evergreen and Marshfield Avenues was therefore closed and used only for moving out-of-service rail cars. The north section of this connection between Evergreen Avenue and Lake Street was subsequently demolished in 1960's, leaving the Lake Street Branch-to-Douglas Branch section or the "Paulina Connector" still in existence.
The Garfield Park elevated was replaced by the Congress route on June 22, 1958, pioneering the world's first use of rail rapid transit and a multi-lane automobile expressway in the same grade-separated right-of-way. (Pacific Electric Railway "Red Car" tracks ran in the median of the Cahuenga Parkway in Los Angeles from 1944 until its expansion into the Hollywood Freeway in 1954, but the Pacific Electric service was an interurban streetcar rather than true rapid transit.) It connects with the Milwaukee-Dearborn-Congress Subway at the Chicago River and extends westward to Des Plaines Avenue, Forest Park. An incline connection en route permits Douglas trains to operate through the subway as well. Thus, in June, 1958, the second through service in Chicago was created, the West-Northwest route.
A five-mile extension of the route via the short subway connection and the Kennedy Expressway median between Logan Square and Jefferson Park was added on February 1, 1970. It was also built by the City of Chicago using federal monies. From Logan Square, trains veers off of the old elevated structure and enters the subway under Milwaukee and Kedzie Avenues to a portal just south of Addison Street, then continues northwest in the median of the Kennedy Expressway to the temporary terminal at Jefferson Park. In January, 1979, construction began on the O'Hare Airport extension of the Kennedy route between Jefferson Park and the airport. The first section between Jefferson Park and Rosemont was placed in service on February 27, 1983, and the final section to O'Hare International Airport on September 3, 1984.
In 1993, the Chicago Transit Authority adopted a color-coded naming system to the rapid transit system, and the West-Northwest route (OHare-Congress/Douglas) became the Blue Line. On April 26, 1998, the Cermak (Douglas) Branch lost its overnight (owl) and weekend service and began operating between 4 a.m. and 1 a.m. on weekdays only as a result of funding shortages requiring CTA cut services. Congress (Forest Park) service was effectively doubled through much of the day since service frequency from O'Hare required shorter headways than what would have been left.
One reason for the Cermak (Douglas) Branch reduction in service was due to its low ridership, badly deteriorated condition, and funding problems, while many residents in the communities it runs through had claimed that it was just another attempt by the CTA to deter transit service on the West Side.
In September, 2001, the CTA began a historic reconstruction of the Cermak Branch to repair its aging infrastructure. The work was officially completed on January 5, 2005 with new elevated structures, track, stations, new communiciation networks and an upgraded traction power system along the route. On January 1, 2005, weekend service was restored.
On 11 July 2006, a rear derailment caused a smokey fire on the Blue Line's O'Hare branch. There were injuries from smoke inhalation, but no fatalities. The comparatively minor incident prompted heavy news coverage and a temporary stoppage of Chicago subway service because it occurred hours after train bombings in Mumbai earlier the same day.
[edit] Points of interest
The Blue Line serves as a vital link to various airline destinations from the O'Hare International Airport (O'Hare), Rosemont Convention Center and Allstate Arena (Rosemont), James R. Thompson Center (Clark/Lake), City Hall-Cook County Building and the Richard J. Daley Center (Washington), Bank One Plaza (Monroe), the Federal Center Buildings (Jackson), La Salle Street Metra Station (La Salle), Amtrak and Metra Union Station, Main Post Office and Greyhound Lines station (Clinton), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC-Halsted and Racine), UIC Pavilion (Racine) Cook County Hospital, Malcolm X College and the United Center (Medical Center) University of Illinois Medical Center (Polk), Pilsen (18th), Oak Park (Austin and Oak Park), Cicero (Cicero and 54th/Cermak) and Forest Park (Harlem and Forest Park) among others and several Metra train stations (Jefferson Park, Irving Park and Western-Douglas).
[edit] Station listing
| Blue Line (O'Hare branch) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Station | Location | Points of interest |
O'Hare  |
1000 O'Hare Drive | O'Hare International Airport |
| Rosemont |
5801 N River Road | Allstate Arena, home of the Chicago Wolves |
| Cumberland |
5800 N. Cumberland Avenue | |
| Harlem |
5550 N. Harlem Avenue | |
| Jefferson Park |
4917 N. Milwaukee Avenue | Jefferson Park |
| Montrose | 4647 W. Montrose Avenue | |
| Irving Park | 4011 W. Irving Park Road | |
| Addison | 3630 W. Addison Street | |
| Belmont | 3355 W. Belmont Avenue | |
| Logan Square |
2620 N. Kedzie Avenue | Logan Square |
| California | 2211 N. California Avenue | |
| Western |
1909 W. Western Avenue | |
| Damen | 1558 N. Milwaukee Avenue | Bucktown |
| Division | 1560 W. Division Avenue | Wicker Park |
| Chicago | 1123 W. Chicago Avenue | |
| Grand | 502 N. Milwaukee Avenue | |
| Blue Line (Dearborn Street Subway/Near West Side) | ||
| Station | Location | Points of interest |
| Clark/Lake |
124 W. Lake Street | James R. Thompson Center, Richard J. Daley Center, Chicago City Hall
Transfer station for Orange, Green, Purple, Brown, and Pink Lines |
| Washington | 127 N. Dearborn Street | Former Transfer station for Red Line (You can no longer transfer to the Red Line at Washington. The Red Line Washington stop is closed until 2008) |
| Monroe | 30 S. Dearborn Street | |
| Jackson |
312 S. Dearborn Street | Federal Center
Transfer station for Brown, Orange, Pink, Purple, and Red Lines |
| LaSalle | 150 W. Congress Parkway | Harold Washington Library Center, Metropolitan Correctional Center, LaSalle Street Station |
| Clinton | 426 S. Clinton Street | Union Station, Greyhound Terminal |
| UIC-Halsted |
430 S. Halsted Street | University of Illinois at Chicago, Greektown |
| Racine | 430 S. Racine Avenue | UIC Pavilion, Little Italy
Transfer station for Forest Park and 54/Cermak bound trains |
| Blue Line (Forest Park branch) | ||
| Station | Location | Points of interest |
| Illinois Medical District |
431 S. Ogden Avenue | Illinois Medical District, United Center |
| Western | 500 S. Western Avenue | |
| Kedzie-Homan | 530 S. Kedzie Avenue | |
| Pulaski | 530 S. Pulaski Road | |
| Cicero | 720 S. Cicero Avenue | |
| Austin | 660 S. Austin Avenue | |
| Oak Park | 600 S. Oak Park Avenue | Oak Park |
| Harlem | 550 S. Harlem Avenue | |
| Forest Park |
711 S. Desplaines Avenue | Forest Park |
| Blue Line (Douglas branch) | ||
| Station | Location | Points of interest |
| Polk |
1713 W. Polk Street | Transfer station for Pink Line |
| 18th |
1710 W. 18th Street | Pilsen, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum |
| Damen |
2010 S. Damen Avenue | Heart of Chicago |
| Western |
2010 S. Western Avenue | BNSF Railway Line (Metra) Station |
| California |
2010 S. California Avenue | |
| Kedzie |
1944 S. Kedzie Avenue | |
| Central Park |
1944 S. Central Park Avenue | |
| Pulaski |
2021 S. Pulaski Road | |
| Kostner |
2019 S. Kostner Avenue | |
| Cicero |
2134 S. Cicero Avenue | Cicero, BNSF Railway Line (Metra) Station |
| 54/Cermak
|
2151 S. 54th Avenue | |
