Cumberland - CTA Blue Line

Cumberland is a Blue Line station in the median of the Kennedy Expressway (I-80) and opened on February 27, 1983 as an intermediate stop on the initial extension to Rosemont that was later extended all the way into O'Hare Airport.The station serves suburbia and has the normal freeway median island platform that is completely covered by a white canopy structure that also covers the tracks and is held up by beams there. The middle of the canopy over the middle of the platform is a translucent dome. Although the overpass of Cumberland Avenue is directly above the eastern end of the platform, the one exit is at the extreme western end of the station platform. Here plexiglass walls cover the edges of both platforms. Two narrow escalators, followed by a staircase, followed by an elevator lead up to the station's mezzanine and fare control area with a single bank of turnstiles.

To leave the station a long footbridge leads across the Kennedy Expressway and the exit ramps adjacent to the station. Everyone is walking quite a bit to exit. The northern end of this footbridge has a staircase and elevator down to first to an exit to a parking lot in a suburban office park before the sidewalk continues north to Higgins Road. Going south leads to first two escalators and a staircase down to street level, these provide the easiest access to the parking garage before leading to a wide atrium with an elevator and staircase that winds its way down to street level. The footbridge continues a highway off ramp to a staircase and sidewalk along the off-ramp between it and an adjacent suburban office park that doesn't have very good transit access (and plenty of free parking for employees).

The atrium is a unique space on the CTA and in the middle of it beneath a round, domed skylight is a bronze, granite, and liquid-filled acrylic sculpture Rock Bow by Charles Ross. On the first floor of the atrium is the Cumberland Concession (as the original sign says), a newsstand. There is also a Greyhound Lines ticket office, this is one of two Greyhound agencies to serve the fridges of Chicago, another Greyhound station is at 95th & Dan Ryan Red Line Station. A covered (the normal white canopy) bus loop covers 8 parallel bus bays, the one closest to the station is used by Greyhound. Beyond the bus bays (along Cumberland Avenue) is the station's 4 level concrete parking garage. This garage is the CTA's largest facility and contains 1,633 parking spaces.
All Photos Taken on 3 July, 2013

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