The Loop (Chicago Transit Authority)
The Loop (historically Union Loop) is the long circuit of elevated rail that forms the hub of the Chicago "L" system in the United States. As of 2012, the branch has served 74,651 passengers every weekday. The Loop is so named because the elevated tracks loop around a rectangle formed by Lake Street (north side), Wabash Avenue (east), Van Buren Street (south), and Wells Street (west). The railway loop has given its name to Chicago's downtown, which is also known as the Loop. Transit began to appear in Chicago in the latter half of the 19th century as the city grew rapidly, and rapid transit started to be built in the late 1880s. When the first rapid transit lines opened in the 1890s, they were independently owned and each had terminals that were located immediately outside of Chicago's downtown, where it was considered too expensive and politically inexpedient to build rapid transit. Charles Tyson Yerkes aggregated the competing rapid transit lines and built a loop connecting ...
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Rapid Transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be called a subway, tube, or underground. Unlike buses or trams, rapid transit systems are railways (usually electric railway, electric) that operate on an exclusive right-of-way (transportation), right-of-way, which cannot be accessed by pedestrians or other vehicles, and which is often grade-separated in tunnels or on elevated railways. Modern services on rapid transit systems are provided on designated lines between rapid transit station, stations typically using electric multiple units on rail tracks, although some systems use guided rubber tires, magnetic levitation (''maglev''), or monorail. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains, requiring custom-made trains in order to minimize gaps between train a ...
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