[il-talk] Fw: WBEZ Historical Article about the CTA

[Linda Hendle]

That was an interesting article, Steve!  I kind of remember the Grand Avenue 
CTA bus, in the late 60's, had the electric lines over the street, and the 
bus had lines going from the top of the bus to the lines that were higher 
up.    That was no more in the 70's when the buses were updated.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Steven Hastalis
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 4:02 PM
To: NFB of Illinois Mailing List
Subject: [il-talk] Fw: WBEZ Historical Article about the CTA

I thought you would enjoy a bit of Chicago "L" history.

Cordially,

Steve Hastalis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Levinson, Cara
To: Garland and Heather Armstrong ; rbarnes at progresscil.org ; 
dbogus at cityofchicago.org ; macappelleri at comcast.net ; yeisen2 at uic.edu ; 
mfantus97 at gmail.com ; j.aiello-fantus at comcast.net ; steve.hastalis at gmail.com 
; laura at equipforequality.org ; greg.polman at chicagolighthouse.org ; 
ajserpe at cps.k12.il.us ; rsiler at accessliving.org ; rockrachroll at mac.com ; 
abilitychicago at yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 3:30 PM
Subject: WBEZ Historical Article about the CTA


Dear ADA Advisory Committee Members:

Jim Watkins asked that I share the following article with everyone.  It's 
from the WBEZ website.

Enjoy,
Cara
The 'L' in the CTA era
June 7, 2012
By: John R. Schmidt
Chicago’s first subway opened in 1943. The project was funded by the city, 
with help from the feds. Chicago Rapid Transit, the private company that 
operated the trains, was on its last legs.

Government control of mass transit came in 1947, when the new Chicago 
Transit Authority bought out CRT. The agency then set out to modernize the 
system.


Dozens of little-used stations were closed. Money-losing branch lines were 
abandoned. Modern "L" cars were put into service, using components from 
scrapped surface streetcars.

In 1951 the long-delayed Dearborn-Lake-Milwaukee subway was completed. At 
the time CTA also had plans for a short downtown subway under Jackson 
Boulevard, the first step in replacing the Loop "L." This project never got 
off the drawing board.


CTA did pioneer the use of expressway medians for rapid transit lines. In 
1958 trains began running on the Congress (Eisenhower) Expressway. The Dan 
Ryan line followed in 1969, and the Kennedy line in 1970. Though CTA 
intended to extend Kennedy service all the way to O’Hare Airport, that was 
not accomplished until 1983.

CTA had discontinued its ground-level Niles Center "L" line to Skokie in 
1948. Then came the postwar suburban boom. The old line was reborn as the 
Skokie Swift in 1964, and did quite well.


The one part of the city that had never gotten "L" service was the Southwest 
Side. In the 1940s the city had floated plans for a subway under Archer 
Avenue to Midway Airport. Later, when the Stevenson Expressway opened, there 
was talk about putting an "L" line on its median. The current Orange Line to 
Midway finally opened in 1993.


In recent decades CTA has also done some major cost-cutting. Train 
conductors were phased out. The introduction of fare cards meant that 
station agents were also eliminated. Service schedules were slashed—which 
led to greater headway between trains, and the end of “A” and “B” expresses.

As the system approached its 100th birthday, many of the older "L" 
structures were deteriorating. The Lake Street and Douglas Park lines 
underwent major rebuilding. The historic line to Jackson Park was cut back 
to a new terminal at Cottage Grove.


So here we are after 120 years. We now use colors instead of names for the 
"L" lines, and some outer neighborhoods are still without service. Yet after 
decades of decline, ridership has been going up. And each day the trains 
move thousands of people, and do put a dent in traffic congestion. What 
would Chicago be without the "L"?

It would be Los Angeles—with snow.


*** Note New Phone Number ***
Cara B. Levinson
ADA Compliance Officer
Chicago Transit Authority
567 West Lake Street, 4th Fl.
Chicago, Illinois 60661-1498
TEL 312-681-2608
FAX 312-681-2696
clevinson at transitchicago.com
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