Well, my plan was to make the next update of the middle of the Red Line, the State Street Subway but I was overly dithering with myself over how to address downtown with its continuos platform plus a station I visited in the midst of a renovation. I needed a break and a branch that I had visited every station on that were extremely simple (and outside so I could write the summaries via Google Maps’ Satellite and Street View).
I decided to write the Douglas Branch of the Chicago ‘L’ Blue Line that runs down the median of the Eisenhower Expressway and was the first median transit line to open in the nation. Writing this section I regret slightly that I didn’t make the ridiculous and seemingly endless walks up the ramps to get more of the station houses and entrances. I am happy that Chicago learned that ridiculously long ramps to reach station platforms isn’t rider friendly and built simpler staircases to the exits of the two other expressway median lines.
Without further ado here are the 11 Stations of the Blue Line that shoots due west of downtown:
- UIC-Halsted–(25 photos)
- Racine–(13 photos)
- Illinois Medical District–(23 photos)
- Western–(19 photos)
- Kedzie-Homan–(12 photos)
- Pulaski–(20 photos)
- Cicero–(20 photos)
- Austin–(38 photos)
- Oak Park–(17 photos)
- Harlem–(35 photos)
- Forest Park–(33 photos)
Enjoy! I finished this update while I was lisitening to Baltimore win the Wild Card Playoff game and kept thinking it would have only been fitting to write the Baltimore Metro System as I listened.