The Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) was operator of the
street railway system of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
, from 1913 to 1947. The firm is a predecessor of today's publicly owned operator, the
Chicago Transit Authority
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In , the system had a ridership of , ...
.
History
The first streetcars in
Chicago
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were
horse cars run by the
Chicago City Railway
The Chicago City Railway Company (CCRy) was an urban transit company that operated horse, cable, and electric streetcars on Chicago's South Side between 1859 and 1914, when it became merged into and part of the Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) metr ...
Company and the
North Chicago City Railway Company around 1858-1861. This method was slow and expensive, and the companies began substituting
cable cars in the 1880s. Chicago City Railway was the first in (1881), and with the addition of the Chicago Passenger Railway (1883) and the West Chicago Street Railroad Company (1887), Chicago had the largest
cable railway system in the world. The north and west side cable car systems were constructed by an investment syndicate under the direction of
Charles Yerkes
Charles Tyson Yerkes Jr. ( ; June 25, 1837 – December 29, 1905) was an American financier. He played a part in developing mass-transit systems in Chicago and London.
Philadelphia
Yerkes was born into a Quaker family in the Northern Liberties ...
.
It was also in the 1880s that electric-powered "
trolleys" first became practical. The Chicago companies hesitated at first to install these faster and more efficient systems because of their heavy investment in cable cars. But the smaller Illinois cities and the Calumet Electric Street Railway of the South Side built successful systems, causing the Chicago companies to feel themselves dropping behind. By the mid-1890s most of them had begun the conversion to electricity, which was completed in 1906.
A political conflict dubbed the
Chicago Traction Wars arose concerning the franchise and ownership of the city's streetcars.
The 1890s saw the consolidation of many of the Chicago companies, and this reorganization continued into the next century. In 1907 to 1909, the companies were granted franchises pursuant to various ordinances, under which the city reserved the right to purchase the systems. The Settlement Ordinance of 1907 imposed various operating requirements on two of the underlying companies, the Chicago City Railway Company and Chicago Railways, and established a new bureau, the Board of Supervising Engineers (Chicago Traction), a board of engineers and accountants with responsibilities for assuring compliance with the ordinances, and setting standards for equipment and construction.
Through Routes over the lines of several companies were instituted in 1910, and, for instance, resulted in joint service by the Chicago City Railway Company and Calumet and South Chicago Railway between downtown and 119th Street via Cottage Grove. There was also joint service operated by the
South Chicago City Railway and the
Hammond, Whiting, and East Chicago Electric Railway into
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, with each company collecting its own fare, which continued until the
Hammond company converted to buses in 1940.
The continuous reorganization was finally completed by the Unification Ordinance of 1913, which stipulated that all lines would come under the management of a single operating association called the Chicago Surface Lines (CSL), and unified operations commenced in 1914. Four companies formed the CSL: the
Chicago Railways Company
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Chicago City Railway
The Chicago City Railway Company (CCRy) was an urban transit company that operated horse, cable, and electric streetcars on Chicago's South Side between 1859 and 1914, when it became merged into and part of the Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) metr ...
,
Calumet and South Chicago Railway, and
Southern Street Railway. At this time, Chicago had the largest street railway system, the longest one-fare ride, the longest average ride, and the most liberal
transfer privileges in the world.
The 1920s saw continued growth despite the increasing competition from the automobile, and while the 1933-1934
World's Fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
and wartime demand supported ridership, the underlying companies were
bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
. Creditors' bills were filed against the Chicago Railways in 1926 and the Chicago City Railway and Calumet and South Chicago in 1930, resulting in the appointment of receivers and bringing their property into the custody of the Federal District Court. In 1944, the proceedings were converted to those under the Bankruptcy Act, and trustees were appointed. By 10 June 1958 (line 22), the
Chicago Transit Authority
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In , the system had a ridership of , ...
, which took over the Chicago Surface Lines in 1947, had abandoned the remaining streetcars lines, which were "
bustituted." Before that, CSL had introduced
gasoline buses for light routes in 1927, and
trolley buses to the northwest side starting 17 April 1930. Trolleybus system of Chicago scrapped 25 March 1973.
Fleet
The Chicago Surface Lines was primarily a trolley operation, with approximately 3100 streetcars on the roster at the time of the CTA takeover. It purchased small lots of
motor bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
es, totaling 693 at the time of the CTA takeover, mostly consisting of smaller buses used on extension routes or to replace two-man streetcars on routes such as Hegewisch and 111th Street, because conductors were required to flag streetcars across mainline railroads where there was not a watchman at the crossing. Most postwar PCC cars were scrapped and parts reused in the 6000-series rapid transit cars for the CTA. The trolley bus fleet consisted of 152 vehicles.
[See Bill Vandervoort's ''Chicago Transit and Railfan'' fo]
Streetcar Roster
an
generally based on Lind.
Streetcars
A table of passenger railway cars in use during the CSL era is shown below. Ownership resided with one of the underlying companies: Chicago Railways (CRY), Chicago City Railway (CCR), Calumet & South Chicago Railway (CSC) or Southern Street Railway (SSR). Other predecessors include Chicago Union Traction (CUT), absorbed into Chicago Railways in 1908, and Chicago & Southern Traction (C&ST), absorbed into Chicago City Railway in 1912. Following unification many car orders (e.g. 169 Cars, Sedans, PCCs) were split between the various underlying companies.
Electric Trolley Buses
A table of electric trolley buses owned by CSL is shown below. In 1952 all trolley buses still in service were renumbered by Chicago Transit Authority by adding "9" to the beginning of their number (e.g. 193 becoming 9193).
Motor Buses
A table of motor buses owned by the CSL is shown below. In September 1944 all existing buses, previously numbered in separate series depending on corporate owner, were renumbered into a unified series.
Routes
The CSL had dozens of routes and over of trackage at its height. The table below shows a basic overview of CSL routes at their height. Many changes to routing and terminals were made at various times. Abandonment dates noted are dates that routes were completely changed over to bus or trolley bus, or eliminated altogether. Many routes were converted in sections. Some routes, notably through routes, that were eliminated prior to the formation of the CSL are not included.
Remnants
The primary remnants of the CSL system are the 77th Street & Vincennes car barns, the Ardmore temporary bus garage, and buildings that were electricity substations. Cable-car survivors include powerhouses at LaSalle and Illinois (NCSR), Washington and Jefferson (WCSR), a small barn on Blue Island east of Western (WCSR), and other structures on Armitage west of Campbell, and Lake Park south of 55th street. Burnside car barn at 93rd & Drexel is still basically intact. Some cars of CSL and its predecessors are preserved at the
Illinois Railway Museum
The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM, reporting mark IRMX) is the largest railroad museum in the United States. It is located in the Chicago metropolitan area at 7000 Olson Road in Union, Illinois, northwest of downtown Chicago.
Overview
Hist ...
and other museums. Stand-in for CSL
PCC
PCC may refer to:
Science and technology
* Pearson correlation coefficient (''r''), in statistics
* Periodic counter-current chromatography, a type of affinity chromatography
* Portable C Compiler, an early compiler for the C programming language
...
"Green Hornet" streetcars (actually streetcars from other cities repainted in CSL colors) operate over the
Kenosha Electric Railway in
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenos ...
and the
F-Market Line in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. CSL Motor Bus 3407 is preserved at the
Illinois Railway Museum
The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM, reporting mark IRMX) is the largest railroad museum in the United States. It is located in the Chicago metropolitan area at 7000 Olson Road in Union, Illinois, northwest of downtown Chicago.
Overview
Hist ...
. A few CTA bus routes (notably 4 Cottage Grove, 8 Halsted, 9 Ashland, 20 Madison, 22 Clark, and 36 Broadway) still have their original CSL Through Route numbers. One can find rails from the old system around the city, although they have been significantly cemented and often only the tops of the rails can be seen.
Notes
Footnotes
References
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Chicago Surface Line Drawings, 1886-1926Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
* Bill Vandervoort's ''Chicago Transit and Railfan'' - unofficial enthusiast's site:
*
*
*
* Chicago History Museum
Streetcars BibliographyChicago Streetcar Renaissance -- Proposal for a New Chicago Streetcar SystemHistoryIllinois Railway Museum's CTA History Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago Surface Lines
Transportation in Chicago
History of Chicago
Streetcars in Illinois
Public transport operators
Defunct public transport operators in the United States
Cable car railways in the United States
Defunct companies based in Chicago
Defunct Illinois railroads
Chicago
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Electric railways in Illinois
1913 establishments in Illinois
1947 disestablishments in Illinois