Riding the Chicago L Train - Chicago’s Northside to the Downtown Loop – Chicago Illinois
Riding the
Chicago L Train Brown Line 6x –
Chicago’s
North End (
Fullerton) to the
Downtown Loop –
Chicago Illinois
The
Chicago 'L ' (sometimes written as "L" or "el", short for "elevated")[3] is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs, in the
U.S. state of
Illinois. It is 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[
1][note 1]), and the third busiest rail mass transit system in the United States after the
New York City Subway and the
Washington Metro.[4] Chicago's 'L' provides
24-hour service on some portions of its network, being one of only four heavy rail rapid transit systems in the United States (the 'L', New York City Subway,
PATH, and
Philadelphia's
PATCO Speedline) to do so. The oldest sections of the 'L' started operations in 1892, making it the second-oldest rapid transit system in the
Americas, after
Boston's "T".[5]
The 'L' has been credited with fostering the growth of Chicago's dense city core that is one of the city's distinguishing features.[6] The 'L' consists of eight rapid transit lines laid out in a spoke-hub distribution paradigm mainly focusing transit towards the
Loop. Although the 'L' gained its nickname because large parts of the system are elevated,[7][8] portions of the network are also in subway tunnels, at grade level, or open cut.[1]
In
2013 the 'L' had an average of 726,459 passenger boardings each weekday,
456,993 each Saturday, and 328,553 each Sunday.[2] In a
2005 poll,
Chicago Tribune readers voted it one of the "seven wonders of Chicago,"[9] behind the lakefront and
Wrigley Field but ahead of
Willis Tower (formerly the
Sears Tower), the
Water Tower, the
University of Chicago, and the
Museum of Science and Industry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loop_%28CTA%29
The Brown Line (or the
Ravenswood Line) of the Chicago L' rapid transit system, is an 11.4-mile (18.3 km) route with 28 stations between Chicago's
Albany Park neighborhood and downtown Chicago. It runs completely above ground and is almost entirely grade-separated. It is the third busiest 'L' route, with an average of
101,
881 passengers boarding each weekday in
2011.[1]
The Brown Line operates to the Loop weekdays and Saturdays from 4:00 am to 1:30 am and on
Sundays from 6:30 am to 12:20 am. The Brown Line
Shuttle service, running only between the northern terminus
Kimball and
Belmont, runs from 4:00 am to 2:25 am on weekdays and Saturdays, and 5:00 am to 12:25 am on Sundays. At Belmont, southbound riders can transfer to the 24-hour
Red Line.
Before CTA lines were color-coded in
1993, the Brown Line was known as the Ravenswood
Route; specifically, the series of stations from Belmont to Kimball were called the
Ravenswood branch. Accordingly, the Kimball-Belmont shuttle service was called the Ravenswood
Shuttle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Line_%28CTA%29
The Loop (historically
Union Loop, or commonly Loop) is the 1.79-mile (2.88 km) long circuit of elevated railroad that forms the hub of the
Chicago 'L' rapid transit system in
Chicago, Illinois.
As of 2012, the branch has served 74,651 passengers every weekday.[1] The Loop is so named because the railroad loops around a rectangle formed by
Lake Street (north side),
Wabash Avenue (east),
Van Buren Street (south), and
Wells Street (west). The railroad loop has given its name to Chicago's downtown, which is known as the Loop. Numerous accounts assert that the use of this term predates the elevated railroad, deriving from the multiple cable car turntables, or loops, that terminated in the district, and especially those of two lines that shared a loop, constructed in
1882, bounded by
Madison,
Wabash,
State, and
Lake.[2] However, transportation historian
Bruce Moffat has concluded that "The Loop" was not used as a proper noun until after
Charles Yerkes'
1895–97 construction of the elevated structure.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loop_(CTA)