Dempster-Skokie
8800N
5000W
5000W
Dempster-Skokie is the terminus of the Skokie Swift (Yellow Line). The station station used to simply named Skokie, these were on a unique black background with a unique yellow Skokie Swift logo beneath them until 2012 when the Skokie/Oakton Station opened and the top signs were replaced by conventional grey ones with the yellow boxes on each side, the Skokie Swift signs beneath were luckily allowed to stay (http://www.chicago-l.org/stations/images/Skokie/skokie10.jpg Photo). The station used temporary platforms at a 'temporary terminal' for 30 years from 1964 when the Skokie Swift began operations until 1994 when today's permanent station was dedicated. The stop is the only terminus on the CTA that normally requires passengers to pay again to return to the city (after for example a joyride on the Skokie Swift, the only other time this may happen is if your train arrives on the southern platform at Cottage Grove but this seems to be a rarity). Terminating trains discharge their passengers on the side exit platform before continuing through a pedestrian grade crossing and enter a single relay track. They then reverse direction and switch onto the opposite track and reenter service at the Howard-bound boarding side platform. The stop was also by far the last station on the CTA to still have catenary wire for electrification which was finally converted to third rail in September 2004 and removed that November. A bit east of the station is the historic North Shore Line brick station building built in 1925 and was relocated from its original location adjacent to the station to farther away from the station in 2003 to accommodate a new bus loop that has been built there. It presently houses some commercial businesses including a Starbucks with a drive-through window.
The station also has the shortest platforms on the CTA system, they can only platform 2 cars (along with the relay track as well) and Yellow Line trains are limited to this length. Each platform has simple white posts holding up canopies that run the full length of both platforms. From that point on the design of the platforms differ. The exit platform has a simple low white fence at its edge and a few staircases lead down from it to the 441 space park & ride lot. A wheelchair compliant ramp leads down from the northern (terminating end) of the platform down to the pedestrian grade crossing between the station and relay track leading to a bus loop north of the station. This is covered in a similar way to the platform. To enter the Howard-bound boarding platform there are entrance doors from the pedestrian grade crossing that is along a path that continues to a subdivision across from the station parking lot on Terminal Avenue. Here there is a modern large brick station house with green glass doors and a flat white roof that first leads to the FVMs and Turnstiles followed by a gradual ramp up inside the building to the short boarding platform. Strangely there is an 'Out to street and buses' sign inside the station building. The platform has benches and a full height transperient windscreen since passengers do have to wait for trains on this one unlike the exit platform.
All photos taken on 4 August, 2011
