The Chicago "L" used skip-stop service, wherein certain trains would stop only at certain designated stations on a route, from 1948 to 1995. It was implemented as a way to speed up travel within a route, and was one of the Chicago Transit Authority's first reforms upon its assumption of the "L"'s operations.
The main part of the Chicago "L" was built in stages between 1892 and 1900. Originally the purview of four private companies, those companies merged to form the Chicago Rapid Transit Company in 1924. [1] There was very little spending on expanding rapid transit within the city from the 1910s to the 1930s. By 1936 Manhattan had more miles of rapid transit than the entire city of Chicago, despite having a tenth of the land area and a lower population. [2]
By the 1920s, the "L" was criticized for its mismanagement, in particular Chicago's lack of a subway system in contrast to other cities such as New York and Boston. Construction of a subway was a plank of William Emmett Dever's unsuccessful campaign in the 1927 mayoral election. [3] As late as 1936 "[a] subway for Chicago [was] still a dream." [4] Even after the State Street Subway was finished in 1943, another one under Dearborn Street wasn't finished until a decade later, and most of Chicago's rapid transit remains above-ground. [5] [6]
Perhaps most indicting on the management of the "L", however, was the trains' sluggish speed. By the late 1940s, wooden cars from the 1890s were still in use throughout most of the system, and many stations were just a few blocks away from one another. The majority of "L" tracks were only double-tracked and did not allow for physical segregation of local and express services, [lower-alpha 1] limiting the possible options for reform. When the Chicago Transit Authority assumed control of the "L" in 1947, these factors were leading to a decline in ridership, and action was felt needed. [7]
On April 5, 1948, skip-stop came to the Lake Street Elevated. The line was particularly plagued by competing streetcar lines, closely-spaced stations, and aging infrastructure. It was combined with the closure of ten stations that were used by only eight percent of the line's ridership. It applied to the surviving stations east of Pulaski, which alternated between being "B" stations and "A" stations (except for Lake Street Transfer, which remained all-stop), and only between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays. Stations in the Loop were unaffected. These changes were accompanied by the closure and demolition of the old Market Terminal station and the abandonment of the line's pre-existing third express track. [7] [8]
The Lake Street experiment was considered a success, having cut its operating times by a third, and other routes soon followed. [7] The "North-South route" (Howard–Englewood–Jackson Park) and Ravenswood branch were targeted next, adopting the skip-stop pattern on August 1, 1949, in concert with the closure of 23 lightly used stations. All stations were subject to the scheme. Stations on the Englewood branch were all "A" stations and those on the Jackson Park branch were all "B" stations. Service on the line ran from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays. Sunday skip-stop was tried on the route from 1950 to 1952 but created excessive wait times at the stations. No other routes attempted Sunday skip-stop. [7]
Upon the Milwaukee-Dearborn subway's opening on February 25, 1951, a Sunday, it received weekday A/B service. This was discontinued the following morning after only one rush-hour period. This was due to the difficulty of changing the signage on the rolling stock due to the high ridership of the subway. [7] Skip-stop returned to the subway in 1958, and remained until the system's discontinuation. [7]
The Evanston Line (the modern-day Purple Line) and the Skokie Swift (modern-day Yellow Line) never had skip-stop service. [7]
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The following station designations were used: [7]
A station's skip-stop status was indicated by its signage. From the 1940s to the 1970s, A stations were indicated by red or yellow bars on their station signage. B stations were indicated by blue or green bars. AB stations had both bars. Starting in the 1970s, A stations had red signs on their platforms, B stations had green signs and AB stations had blue signs. This system was replaced by having all stations have blue signs regardless of skip-stop type in the early 1990s. [9]
In spite of the CTA's efforts of the late 1940s and early 1950s, ridership on the "L" continued to decline as more people moved from the city to the suburbs. This declining ridership led to the gaps between trains becoming larger, leaving passengers who had missed one train being irate at seeing a train that did not stop at the station even if travel time was reduced once on the train. [7]
This led to a diminution of the service over time. In 1993, the North-South route and West-South route swapped through routes south of the Loop, creating the Red Line and Green Line. Skip-stop service was abandoned on the Green Line due to lower ridership, while the Red Line abandoned skip-stop on the Dan Ryan branch due to stations being further apart. [7] When the Orange Line opened later in 1993, it had all-stop service. By early 1995, skip-stop was only used during rush hour periods on the Howard portion of the Red Line, the O'Hare portion of the Blue Line, and the Brown Line. [10] This dwindling ridership led to the practice's ultimate discontinuation in the Spring of 1995. [7]
The Chicago "L" is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs in the U.S. state of Illinois. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), it is the fourth-largest rapid transit system in the United States in terms of total route length, at 102.8 miles (165.4 km) long as of 2014, and the third-busiest rapid transit system in the United States. In 2016, the "L" had 1,492 rail cars, eight different routes, and 145 train stations. In 2023, the system had 117,447,000 rides, or about 373,800 per weekday in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The J Nassau Street Local and Z Nassau Street Express are two rapid transit services in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Their route emblems, or "bullets", are colored brown since they use the BMT Nassau Street Line in Lower Manhattan.
The Red Line is a rapid transit line in Chicago, run by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) as part of the Chicago "L" system. It is the busiest line on the "L" system, with an average of 93,457 passengers boarding each weekday in 2022. The route is 26 miles (42 km) long with a total of 33 stations. It runs elevated from the Howard station in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side, through a subway on the Near North Side, Downtown, and the South Loop, and then through the Dan Ryan Expressway median to 95th/Dan Ryan in the Roseland neighborhood on the South Side.
The Blue Line is a 26.93-mile-long (43.34 km) Chicago "L" line which extends through The Loop from O'Hare International Airport at the far northwest end of the city, through downtown via the Milwaukee–Dearborn subway and across the West Side to its southwest end at Forest Park, with a total of 33 stations. At about 27 miles, it is the longest line on the Chicago "L" system and second busiest, and one of the longest local subway/elevated lines in the world. It has an average of 64,978 passengers boarding each weekday in 2022.
The Green Line is a rapid transit line in Chicago, Illinois, operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) as part of the Chicago "L" system. It is the only completely elevated route in the "L" system. All other routes may have various combinations of elevated, subway, street level, or freeway median sections.
Skip-stop is a public transit service pattern which reduces travel times and increases capacity by having vehicles skip certain stops along a route. Originating in rapid transit systems, skip-stop may be also used in light rail and bus systems.
Argyle is a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line, located at 1118 West Argyle Street in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It is an elevated station with an island platform. Purple Line weekday rush hour express service passes through this station but does not stop, normally on the outermost tracks, but due to the reconstruction going on until 2025, they currently use the same tracks as Red Line trains.
Grand, is an "L" station on the CTA's Red Line. It serves Navy Pier, which is accessible via bus on Illinois Street one block south.
Damen is a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L", currently serving the O'Hare branch of its Blue Line. Opened on May 6, 1895, as Robey, it is the oldest station on the Blue Line. The station serves the popular Bucktown and Wicker Park neighborhoods, and is consistently in the top 40 highest-ridership "L" stations. It has two wooden side platforms and a brick station house at street level. The west platform, serving southbound trains, contains a tower that has never been used but is a relic of the station's past. The station is served by three bus routes on Damen, Milwaukee, and North Avenues, which are each descended from streetcar lines on those streets in the early 20th century. The Blue Line has owl service; while the surrounding streetcar lines also had owl service in the early 20th century, the modern bus services do not.
Pulaski is a station on the Chicago 'L' system, serving the Blue Line's Forest Park branch. The station is located in the median of the Eisenhower Expressway and serves the West Garfield Park neighborhood. A long ramp connects the platform to the station house on the Pulaski Road overpass. There was originally a similar entrance from the Keeler Avenue overpass; the entrance from Keeler was closed to cut costs on January 15, 1973, but retained as an exit, and the exit was fully closed on December 28, 1978. The structure for this exit still stands but it is closed to the public.
The Metropolitan main line was a rapid transit line of the Chicago "L" system from 1895 to 1958. It ran west from downtown to a junction at Marshfield station. At this point the Garfield Park branch continued westward, while the Douglas Park branch turned south, and the Logan Square branch turned north with the Humboldt Park branch branching from it. In addition to serving the Chicago "L", its tracks and those of the Garfield Park branch also carried the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad, an interurban that served Chicago's western suburbs, between 1905 and 1953.
Roosevelt is an "L" station on the CTA's Red, Green, and Orange Lines, located between the Chicago Loop and the Near South Side in Chicago, Illinois. It is situated at 1167 S State Street, just north of Roosevelt Road. The station is also the closest "L" station to the Museum Campus of Chicago and Soldier Field, which are about 1⁄2 mile (800 m) to the east. The Museum Campus/11th Street Metra station is also about 1⁄3 mile (500 m) to the east.
The Lake Street Elevated, also known as the Lake branch, is a 8.75 mi (14.08 km) long branch of the Chicago "L" which is located west of the Chicago Loop and serves the Green Line for its entire length, as well as the Pink Line east of Ashland Avenue. As of February 2013, the branch serves an average of 27,217 passengers each weekday. It serves the Near West Side, East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park, and Austin neighborhoods of Chicago, as well as the suburbs Oak Park and Forest Park. It owes its name to Lake Street, the street that the branch overlooks for 6.25 mi (10.06 km) before continuing its route straight west, adjacent to South Boulevard, towards the terminus at Harlem/Lake.
The Garfield Park Branch was a rapid transit line which was part of the Chicago "L" system from 1895 to 1958. The branch served Chicago's Near West Side, East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park, and Austin neighborhoods, and the suburbs of Oak Park, and Forest Park, and consisted of twenty-two stations. It opened on June 19, 1895 and closed on June 22, 1958, when it was replaced by the Congress branch of the Blue Line.
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.
The Lake Street Transfer station was a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L", serving as a transfer station between its Lake Street Elevated Railroad and the Logan Square branch of its Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad. Located where the Logan Square branch crossed over the Lake Street Elevated, it was in service from 1913 to 1951, when it was rendered obsolete by the opening of the Dearborn Street subway.
Marshfield was a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L" in service between 1895 and 1954. Constructed by the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad, it was the westernmost station of the Metropolitan's main line, which then diverged into three branches. Marshfield was also served by the Aurora Elgin and Chicago Railway (AE&C) and its descendant the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad (CA&E), an interurban, between 1905 and 1953.
Laflin was a rapid transit station operated by the Chicago "L"'s Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad and located on its main line. The station existed from 1895 to 1951, when it was closed due to low ridership. The entire main line would soon be demolished for construction of the Eisenhower Expressway and its Congress Line, and the niche served by the Laflin would be filled by an entrance on the new line's Racine station.
Canal was a rapid transit station located on the Metropolitan main line of the Chicago "L" that was in service from 1895 to 1958, when the entire main line was replaced by the Congress Line located in the median of the nearby Eisenhower Expressway. Starting in 1927, the interurban Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad (CA&E) also served the station, continuing until 1953. The station connected with Chicago's Union Station, which was one of the city's rail terminals. One of the busiest stations on the Metropolitan's routes, and of the "L" in general, it opened a second entrance on Clinton Street in 1914.
Grand was a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L"'s Logan Square branch, one of the several branches of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad. Located on Grand Avenue, the station was constructed by the Metropolitan in the early 1890s and began service on May 6, 1895.
