The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago "L" and CTA bus service. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 279,146,200, or about 881,400 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2024.
The Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) is a tram design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful domestically, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the world where PCC based cars were made. The PCC car has proved to be a long-lasting icon of streetcar design, and many remain in service around the world.
The Yellow Line, alternatively known as the Skokie Swift, is a branch of the Chicago "L" train system in Chicago, Illinois. The 4.7-mile (7.6 km) route runs from the Howard Terminal on the north side of Chicago, through the southern part of Evanston and to the Dempster Terminal in Skokie, Illinois, making one intermediate stop at Oakton Street in downtown Skokie.
The Purple Line of the Chicago "L" is a 3.9-mile (6.3 km) route on the northernmost section of the system. The service normally begins from Linden in Wilmette and ends at Howard on Chicago's north border, passing through the city of Evanston.
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887 to 1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
The J. G. Brill Company manufactured streetcars, interurban coaches, motor buses, trolleybuses and railroad cars in the United States for nearly 90 years, hence the longest-lasting trolley and interurban manufacturer. At its height, Brill was the largest manufacturer of streetcars and interurban cars in the US and produced more streetcars, interurbans and gas-electric cars than any other manufacturer, building more than 45,000 streetcars alone.
The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, also known as the North Shore Line, was an interurban railroad that operated passenger and freight service over an 88.9-mile (143.1 km) route between the Chicago Loop and downtown Milwaukee, as well as an 8.6-mile (13.8 km) branch line between the villages of Lake Bluff and Mundelein, Illinois. The North Shore Line also provided streetcar, city bus and motor coach services along its interurban route.
The Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad (CA&E), known colloquially as the "Roarin' Elgin" or the "Great Third Rail", was an interurban railroad that operated passenger and freight service on its line between Chicago and Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles, and Elgin, Illinois. The railroad also operated a small branch to Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Hillside and owned a branch line to Westchester.
The M-Line Trolley is a heritage streetcar line in the Uptown neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. The trolley line, which has been in service since 1989, is notable for its use of restored historic streetcar vehicles, as opposed to modern replicas.
The Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) was operator of the street railway system of Chicago, Illinois, from 1913 to 1947. The firm is a predecessor of today's publicly owned operator, the Chicago Transit Authority.
Streetcars were part of the public transit service in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the first third of the 20th century, and returned to this role in the year 2000.
The Fox River Trolley Museum is a railroad museum in South Elgin, Illinois. Incorporated in 1961 as R.E.L.I.C., it opened in 1966 and became the Fox River Trolley Museum in 1984.
The Indiana Railroad (IR) was the last of the typical Midwestern United States interurban lines. It was formed in 1930–31 by combining the operations of the five major interurban systems in central Indiana into one entity. The predecessor companies came under the control of Midland Utilities, owned by Samuel Insull. His plan was to modernize the profitable routes and abandon the unprofitable ones. With the onset of the Great Depression, the Insull empire collapsed and the Indiana Railroad was left with a decaying infrastructure and little hope of overcoming the growing competition of the automobile for passenger business and the truck for freight business. The IR faced bankruptcy in 1933, and Bowman Elder was designated as the receiver to run the company. Payments on bonded debt were suspended. Elder was able to keep the system virtually intact for four years, and IR operated about 600 miles (970 km) of interurban lines throughout Indiana during this period. During the late 1930s, the routes were abandoned one by one until a 1941 wreck with fatalities south of Indianapolis put an abrupt end to the Indiana Railroad's last passenger operations.
The current rolling stock of the Chicago "L" rapid transit system consists of four series of railcars. The oldest series is the 2600-series which was built between 1981 and 1987 and refurbished between 1999 and 2002. The second series is the 3200-series, built between 1992 and 1994 and refurbished between 2015 and 2018. The third and newest series is known as the 5000-series; built between 2009 and 2015, they feature new technologies such as LED color signs, security cameras, new seating configuration, AC motors, and interior LED signs displaying date and time. The most recent order consists of the 7000-series cars that are planned to replace the 2600-series cars, with options for additional cars that would replace the 3200-series cars.
The 2000-series was a series of Chicago "L" car built in 1964 by Pullman-Standard of Chicago, Illinois. 180 cars were built.
The 1–50 series was a series of Chicago "L" cars built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1959 and 1960. Unlike cars in the similar 6000 series, which were designed for married pair operation, the 1–50 series cars were double-ended to facilitate single car operation. There was a limited need for single cars, however, so cars 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 19, 21, 23, 24, and 31 were later rebuilt as married units and were renumbered 61a/b–65a/b.
In Atlanta, Georgia, trolleybuses, generally called trackless trolleys there, were a major component of the public transportation system in the middle decades of the 20th century, carrying some 80 percent of all transit riders during the period when the system was at its maximum size. At the end of 1949 Atlanta had a fleet of 453 trolleybuses, the largest in the United States, and it retained this distinction until 1952, when it was surpassed by Chicago.
The State-of-the-Art Car (SOAC) was a heavy rail mass transit demonstrator vehicle produced for the United States Department of Transportation's Urban Mass Transportation Administration in the 1970s. It was intended to demonstrate the latest technologies to operating agencies and the riding public, and serve to promote existing and proposed transit lines. A single married pair was produced by the St. Louis Car Company in 1972. It operated in intermittent revenue service on six rapid transit systems in five United States cities between May 1974 and January 1977. Since 1989, the two cars have been on display at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine.
The Logan Square branch was an elevated rapid transit line of the Chicago "L", where it was one of the branches of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad. Diverging north from the Metropolitan's main line west of Marshfield station, it opened in 1895 and served Chicago's Logan Square and West Town neighborhoods. North of Damen station, the Humboldt Park branch diverged from the Logan Square branch, going west to serve Humboldt Park. The original Logan Square branch was separated into several sections in 1951, some of which remain in revenue service as of 2023.
