The Chicago 'L' (short for Chicago Elevated) is an urban rapid transit metro serving Chicago and eight of its adjacent suburbs. Its oldest segments date to 1892, while its newest extension, the Orange Line to Midway Airport, opened in 1993.

In 2003, according to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), on average:

• 494,743 people rode the 'L' each weekday
• 262,791 rode each Saturday
• 180,951 rode each Sunday

While the 'L' is the most famous and distinctive of Chicagoland's mass transit offerings, most transit trips in the City of Chicago use the CTA's 148-route bus network at least in part, at about a 2-1 ratio.

Unlike many cities' systems, considerable parts of the 'L' are elevated -- hence the system's nickname. Other parts of the 'L', though, reside in subways, at grade level, or in expressway medians. Chicago pioneered this last form of right_of_way in the 1950s. Regardless of altitude, Chicagoans refer their rapid transit system's entirety as "the 'L'" (and alternatively the El_train or The El).

Lines

Previously, riders would need to understand the basic routing (i.e., today's Blue Line used to be the "West_Northwest Route") they would need to use to get to their destination, and use station platform signs to determine the destination of a particular train. Trains did not display destinations, and the colors used did not coincide with the separate colors used on various maps to indicate each route.

In 1993, the CTA began to refer to rail routes by assigned colors rather than route names, often derived from a given line's terminals or the outlying areas it would serve, with the following seven color names (listed in order of ridership):

• Red (formerly "Howard - Dan Ryan")
• Blue ("O'Hare - Congress - Douglas")
• Brown ("Ravenswood")
• Green ("Lake - Englewood - Jackson Park")
• Orange (marketed as "Midway Orange Line" at 1993 opening; direct connection to Midway Airport)
• Purple ("Evanston Express" and "Evanston Shuttle") The Purple Line Express, connecting Chicago to Evanston, Illinois and Wilmette, Illinois, runs through the Loop only during rush hour.
• Yellow ("Skokie Swift")

As part of the effort to make the 'L' easier to navigate for newcomers, current terminal or branch names for some lines have changed from the historical neighborhood names to terminal station names. The changes are:

• The "Douglas" branch of the Blue Line now carries "54th/Cermak" destination signs.
• The "Congress" branch of the Blue Line now carries "Forest Park" destination signs.
• The Brown Line towards Ravenswood now carries a "Kimball" destination sign.
• The "Lake" branch of the Green Line carries "Harlem/Lake" destination signs.
• The "Englewood" branch of the Green Line now carries "Ashland/63" destination signs.
• The "Jackson Park" branch of the Green Line now carries "East 63rd" destination signs and no longer goes as far as Jackson Park.
• The Purple Line toward Evanston now carries a "Linden" destination sign.

Four 'L' lines (Brown, Green, Orange, and Purple) converge in Chicago's central business district to form a small rectangular nexus around Chicago's central business district referred to as the "Loop," roughly 500m long east-to-west and 900m long north-to-south. While many believe that the city's center earned the name "Loop" from this very conspicuous section of the 'L', the term actually predates the 'L' and refers to a now_retired circular routing of streetcars through downtown.

The Red and Blue lines serve the heart of Chicago via subways under State and Dearborn streets, respectively. These are the only 24_hour lines in the system, but having them makes it distinctive along with the New York Subway as one of the only American 24_hour rapid transit systems. The Skokie Swift, a shuttle from Howard Street at the city's northmost limit to Dempster Street in suburban Skokie, does not serve the vicinity of the Loop, and is the only 'L' line not to run on weekends.

Expansion Plans

An increase in ridership in general (despite minor drops early 2004) has led to extension in service hours, especially on the increasingly popular Brown and Purple lines. Long eras of past neglect have made the CTA's current largest priority renewal of the existing system rather than expansion. The Douglas branch of the Blue line has been undergoing massive infrastructure renovation, to be completed in January 2005. Next on the projects list is an ambitious renewal and capacity_expansion project for the Brown line, a line that has been largely untouched since the first decade of the twentieth century. A new, eighth line has been proposed, the Circle line, which would form a large circle around the Loop and connect other various lines and Metra trains. Other possible future extensions include

• bringing the Yellow Line out to the Old Orchard Shopping Center and possible adding a station or two within the length of the Skokie Swift.
• bringing the Orange Line to its originally-planned terminus at Ford City Shopping Center. The destination signs on Orange Line trains already have this as a possible destinations, so eventual construction of this piece of the system is likely.
• bringing the south end of the Red Line to a new southern terminus. Several possible alignments have been mentioned.

Chicagoland Connections

Connections to commuter rail, intercity rail, intercity bus and airports:

• Chicago Union Station, terminal for all Amtrak and many Metra trains, is closest to the 'L's Clinton (Blue Line) and Quincy (Loop Brown, Orange, and Purple Line) stations.
• Chicago Ogilvie Transportation Center (formerly Northwestern Station), terminal for many Metra trains, is closest to the 'L's Clinton (Green Line) and Washington (Loop Brown, Orange and Purple Line) stations.
• Chicago Randolph Station, terminal for Metra Electric and South Shore/South Bend trains, is closest to the 'L's Randolph (Loop Brown, Orange, Green and Purple Line) station.
• Chicago LaSalle Street Station, terminal for many Metra trains, is closest to the 'L's LaSalle (Blue Line) and LaSalle (Loop Brown, Orange and Purple Line) stations.
• The downtown Chicago Greyhound bus terminal is near the 'L's Clinton (Blue Line) station.
• The 'L' directly serves both O'Hare Airport (Blue Line) and Midway Airport (Orange Line).

Outlying transfer points between 'L' trains and Metra:

• Main St, Purple Line / Main St, Metra UP-N
• Davis St, Purple Line / Main St, Metra UP-N
• Irving Park, Blue Line / Irving Park UP-NW
• Montrose, Blue Line / Mayfair, Metra MD-N
• Jefferson Park, Blue Line / Jefferson Park UP-NW
• Kedzie, Green Line / Kedzie UP-W
• Harlem, Green Line / Oak Park UP-W
• Western, Blue Line (Douglas Branch) / Western Ave BNSF
• Damen, Brown Line / Ravenswood, Metra UP-N

Outlying transfer points between 'L' trains and Greyhound Lines bus service:

• Chicago 95th and Dan Ryan destination is directly above the 95th/Dan Ryan (Red Line) station.
• Cumberland destination is closest to the Cumberland (Blue Line) station.
• Chicago Latinos destination is closest to the California (Blue Line-Douglas Branch) station.
• Skokie destination is near the Skokie (Yellow Line) station.

Suburbs served by the L, in alphabetical order:

• Cicero, Illinois
• Evanston, Illinois
• Forest Park, Illinois
• Oak Park, Illinois
• River Forest, Illinois
• Rosemont, Illinois
• Skokie, Illinois
• Wilmette, Illinois

List of stations:

• List of Chicago El stations

External links

• Chicago Transit Authority (http://www.transitchicago.com) - operates CTA buses and Chicago L trains
• Chicago-L.org (http://www.chicago-l.org) - an unofficial, extensive fan site
• This is Grand (http://www.thisisgrand.org/) - Stories of Chicago's Rapid Transit
• CTA Tattler (http://kjo84.typepad.com/cta_tattler) - Daily blog of 'L' stories