![]() ![]() And stations all over the system on existing lines were eliminated in the name of cost cutting and the reality of serving a shrinking transit-riding patronage. Map of chicago 1930 full#(The Skokie line was later resurrected as the Yellow Line.) Due to low ridership, stations all around the city were closed, in many cases increasing the distance between stops from a quarter-mile to a half-mile or even, in some cases, a full mile.Īt the end of 1957, the system was in many ways a shadow of its former self.Īs the following map shows, CTA branch lines that once served communities on the South and West sides were eliminated. As documented by, starting in 1948, the authority eliminated service on the Skokie branch, then soon after, the Westchester, far Douglas, Humboldt Park, Normal Park, Stock Yards, and Kenwood branches. Population adjusted based on decennial Census estimates rail ridership adjusted to include station entries only, not cross-platform transfers.ĬTA’s approach was a massive cutback in stations and services. The number of boardings fell by 30 percent between 19, as shown in the following chart.ĭata: CTA records, U.S. As the region’s economy shifted away from the resource shortages that characterized the wartime period, increasing numbers of residents chose to buy and use personal automobiles and the result was a reduction in transit use. The CTA’s immediate need was to adjust service to a continued drop-off in ridership. In 1945, the publicly run CTA was founded by the State of Illinois, and, because of the failure of the private companies to keep the system going, took over the city’s El and streetcar lines in 1947. Rail ridership on the system peaked in 1926, when almost 347 million rides were taken on the lines, but it declined steadily until the early 1930s, when it plateaued, before rising due to the industrial mobilization related to World War II. As a matter of practice, stations were generally located about a quarter-mile from one another, which, for reference, is the distance between stops like Diversey, Wellington and Belmont in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.īy the 1930s, the private operators suffered from a number of problems: One, they were not making much money-if any-from the services they were providing two, both rolling stock and the physical infrastructure of the system were literally falling apart due to a failure to ensure proper maintenance. The initial set of Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) rapid transit lines were constructed between 18 by private companies that had received contracts from the city to build the mostly elevated services. That doesn’t include dozens of stations that once operated on branches of the El that have since been torn down, including the Humboldt Park, Kenwood and Stockyards branches, among others. Indeed, a comparison of today’s rapid transit system with the networks that were in place in 19 shows that a total of 64 stations have been eliminated along lines that are still operating today. What they may not realize is that there used to be many, many more of them on the lines traveling through their neighborhoods. People throughout the Chicago region rely on these stations for their daily commutes and other types of daily travel. ![]() With 145 stations, Chicago’s El system has the second-most number of stops of any heavy rail rapid transit network in the United States after New York City. Read In the Loop for the latest transportation headlines. ![]() Published monthly, MPC’s Talking Transit, supported by Bombardier, provides updates about transit-related activities around the world. Chicagoans are packing into trains as if it were the 1940s. ![]()
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