The Green Line (formerly known as the Shaker Line) is a
light rail line of the
RTA Rapid Transit system in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
and
Shaker Heights,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, running from
Tower City Center downtown, then east to Green Road near
Beachwood. of track, including two stations (
Tri-C–Campus District and
East 55th), are shared with the
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 c ...
Red Line, the stations have low platforms for the Green Line and high platforms for the Red Line. The Green Line shares the
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
with the
Blue Line in Cleveland, and splits off after passing through
Shaker Square. The Green Line also operates through service to the
Waterfront Line
The Waterfront Line is a light rail line of the RTA Rapid Transit system in Cleveland, Ohio, running from Tower City Center downtown, then north and northeast to station, adjacent to the Cleveland Municipal Parking Lot. The Waterfront Line is th ...
. All RTA light rail lines use
overhead lines
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as:
* Overhead catenary
* Overhead contact system (OCS)
* Overhead equipmen ...
and
pantographs
A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...
to draw power.
Interurban portion
From Tower City to just east of
East 55th Street, the Blue and Green Lines share track with the Red Line for 2.6 miles (4.2 km) along a private right-of-way originally acquired in 1930 to bring intercity trains into Cleveland Union Terminal (the site of today's
Tower City Center). The
Tri-C–Campus District station
Tri-C–Campus District is station on the RTA Rapid Transit system in Cleveland, Ohio, serving the Red, Blue, and Green Lines. It is located just east of East 34th Street near the intersection of East 34th and Broadway, on the north side of the C ...
and the East 55th station are shared by the
heavy rail
Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas:
Rapid transit
A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid accelerati ...
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 c ...
Red Line and the
light rail Blue and Green Lines on the same platform, an arrangement unique in North American rail transit. The shared stations have low platforms for the Blue and Green Lines directly adjacent to high platforms for the Red Line. RTA Central Rail yards and headquarters are located at the East 55th station, where trains of all rail lines are stored and serviced.
East of East 55th, the Blue and Green Lines split from the Red Line and travel east on a separate, dedicated, grade-separated right-of-way. A complex of tunnels existed at this junction to provide means for the Blue and Green Line trains to switch from right to left side running from East 55th to Tower City, but right side running is now used throughout the system, and the tunnels have been closed.
The private right of way extends from this junction to
Woodhill Road at the western end of Shaker Boulevard and then below grade through an excavated cut in the
median
In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...
of Shaker Boulevard to
Shaker Square. Along this portion of the lines are
East 79th station,
Woodhill station and
East 116th Station. The lines then rise to street level at Shaker Square.
Suburban portion
From Shaker Square eastward, both lines enter
Shaker Heights and operate at street level with grade crossings, reflecting this portion of the lines' history as
streetcar lines. The Green Line separates from the Blue Line just east of Shaker Square at , with the Green Line continuing east in the median of Shaker Boulevard. The station-stops east of Shaker Square are adjacent to street intersections and most comprise merely concrete platforms with simple shelters. The central median of Shaker Boulevard expands at Warrensville Road—it was originally planned for a high-speed parkway—and the Green Line continues along this median with Warrensville Road crossing on a bridge overhead. There is also a bridge at
Green Road, although the station is actually just west of the bridge and only layover tracks extend beneath the bridge. The Green Line terminates at Green Road and Shaker Boulevard.
Designations
When the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit was absorbed into the
RTA, The Green line held the designation of 67A. This was later changed to 67AX. This remained with the opening of the Waterfront "line" extension of the Blue and Green lines. In the mid 2010s, the Waterfront line became a separate designation from the 67 and 67A Blue and Green lines. The Waterfront line was briefly designated as 67W. The three routes have united under the 67 designation, which is now internal and no longer shown on official timetables.
History
The Green Line is the direct, continuously operating descendant of the privately-owned Cleveland & Youngstown Railroad, Cleveland Interurban Railroad and later the municipally owned Shaker Heights Rapid Transit, built as a branch of the Shaker Heights
streetcar lines to connect the
streetcar suburb
A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...
of
Shaker Heights to
downtown Cleveland
Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio. The economic and symbolic center of the city and the Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square laid out b ...
. This line, along with the Blue Line, were the only ones to survive the
bustitution
A rail replacement bus service uses buses to replace a passenger train service on a temporary or permanent basis. The train service that is replaced may be of any type such as light rail, tram, streetcar, commuter rail, regional rail or heavy ...
of Cleveland's transit system, partly due to their use of grade-separated trackage to across much of the east side of Cleveland.
Cleveland & Youngstown Railroad
![19680225 22 SHRT 55 @ Shaker Square](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/19680225_22_SHRT_55_%40_Shaker_Square.jpg)
The
Van Sweringen brothers
Oris Paxton Van Sweringen (April 24, 1879 – November 22, 1936) and Mantis James Van Sweringen (July 8, 1881 – December 12, 1935) were American brothers who became railroad barons in order to develop Shaker Heights, Ohio. They are better know ...
purchased the land of what is now
Shaker Heights in 1906 intending to create a planned suburban community. They knew that the success of their plans depended upon the availability of
streetcar service to downtown Cleveland, so they persuaded the
Cleveland Railway to extend its Euclid Heights trolley line along Fairmount Boulevard from Cedar Road to Lee Road, which was completed by 1907.
To improve travel times to downtown, the Vans organized the Cleveland and Youngstown Railroad. On October 27, 1911, with a population of only 200, the Village of
Shaker Heights was incorporated, and two years later on December 17, 1913, the first section of the C&Y opened, from Coventry Road east down the median of the future
Shaker Boulevard
State Route 87 (SR 87) is an east–west highway in northeastern Ohio, a U.S. state. Its western terminus is at Public Square, Cleveland, Public Square in Downtown Cleveland, downtown Cleveland. It is one of 9 other routes to enter downtown C ...
(then part of Coventry Road) to Fontenay Road (west of Eaton Road). The line connected to downtown Cleveland via a line along Coventry Road, north to the 1907 Shaker Heights streetcar line on Fairmount Boulevard in
Cleveland Heights. On May 20, 1915, the eastern terminus of the C&Y was extended from Fontenay Road to
Courtland Boulevard.
Cleveland Interurban Railroad
Initially, the Shaker Line operated independently, being in operation seven years prior to the opening of what is now the Blue Line from
Lynnfield to
East 55th. When the Moreland (later Van Aken) line opened in April of 1920, the Shaker line continued to use the old line through Cleveland Heights. With the opening of the connection from Coventry to Shaker Square on August 16, 1920, the old line became a shuttle to Fairmount, and later closed on March 12, 1923.
![Coventry station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Coventry_station.jpg)
There have been several other proposals to connect the Shaker Boulevard rapid transit line with the streetcar line on Fairmount Boulevard. The Fairmount line was perpetually plagued with low ridership, and a connection to the Shaker line was seen as a way to improve service and make the Fairmount line more attractive to riders. In 1922, Cleveland Railway proposed a connection from Moreland Circle (now
Shaker Square) along North Moreland Boulevard and what is now Fairhill Road (then called Fairmount Road) to the existing tracks on Coventry Road. The trackage for the entire connection would run in the median of
divided
Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the ways that numbers are combined to make new numbers. The other operations are addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
At an elementary level the division of two natural numb ...
boulevards.
As the Van Sweringens' railroad plans grew, they constructed a new Union Terminal for Cleveland.
Cleveland Union Terminal (CUT) opened in 1930, along with a new grade-separated right-of-way with side-by-side lines for steam railroads and interurban streetcars, including the CIRR. Although their plans for another interurban line never materialized (the right-of-way was later used for the Red Line), the CIRR immediately began operations via the new right-of-way into the north part of CUT specially reserved for interurban train service. The CIRR no longer needed to run on city streetcar tracks and the ramp to Broadway and East 34th Street was removed. The first CIRR trains rolled into CUT on July 20. A further extension of the Shaker Boulevard line moved the eastern terminus to
Green Road on November 1 1936.
Shaker Heights Rapid Transit
On September 6, 1944, the City of Shaker Heights took over the financially struggling lines and began operating them as Shaker Heights Rapid Transit. The city lacked funds for major line extensions. However, it did modernize the fleet with the purchase of
PCC cars
The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a tram, streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in ...
beginning in 1947.
![Belvoir Rapid Station October 2015](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Belvoir_Rapid_Station_October_2015.JPG)
Prior to the conversion of the Fairmount streetcar line to bus service in 1948, the Cleveland Transit System (CTS), which had taken over operation of the Cleveland streetcar lines in 1941 attempted to have the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit (then operated by the City of Shaker Heights) take over the Fairmount line from Coventry Road to its terminus at Canterbury Road. The same route as in 1922 was proposed to connect the lines, and CTS further proposed extending the Fairmount line eastward to Fairmount Circle where it could attract more riders from
John Carroll University. However, Shaker Heights lacked the money to undertake the work, and Fairmount Boulevard streetcar service soon ended.
In 1955 the Cleveland Transit System (which was formed in 1942 when the City of Cleveland took over the Cleveland Railway Company) opened the first section of the city's new rapid transit line, now known as the Red Line. It used much of the right-of-way and some of the catenary poles from the Van Sweringen's planned east-west interurban line adjacent to the NYC&StL tracks. The first section of the CTS rapid transit east from Cleveland Union Terminal included and two stations shared with the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit line, necessitating split platforms with low-level sections (for Shaker Heights rapid transit cars) and high-level sections (for CTS rapid transit cars).
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
By the 1970s the City of Shaker Heights was struggling to maintain the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit and in Cleveland, CTS was facing financial problems with its rapid transit and bus system. Significant federal money was available, but only if a regional transit system was formed. In 1974, the
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (officially the GCRTA, but historically and locally referred to as the RTA) is the public transit agency for Cleveland, Ohio, United States and the surrounding suburbs of Cuyahoga County. RTA is t ...
(or RTA) was organized to take over the municipal transit system in Cleveland and others throughout Cuyahoga County. Voters approved a county-wide sales tax increase to help subsidize the transit system and RTA officially took over the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit lines on July 14, 1975. On September 30, 1979, RTA adopted a new designation for the rapid transit lines. The Airport-Windermere Line became the Red Line, while the Shaker Rapid Transit lines (Shaker and Van Aken) became the Green and Blue Lines.
In 1980, RTA undertook a complete renovation of the Green Line, with new track, ballast, poles and overhead wiring. Existing stations were demolished and new stations constructed. The project necessitated closing the Green Line east of Shaker Square for most of the summer of 1980, with substitute bus shuttles and single-tracking along the remainder of the line from East 55th Street to Shaker Square. To run on the renovated lines, a fleet of new LRVs were purchased from an Italian firm, Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie, to replace the aging PCC cars. The new line was dedicated on October 30, 1981.
Schedule
Blue and Green Line trains operate from approximately 3:40 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. daily. On weekdays, each line operates every 10 minutes during rush hour and every 30 minutes at other times. Service between Tower City and Shaker Square operates every 5 minutes during rush hour and every 15 minutes at other times. Service on the Waterfront Line is limited to approximately every three westbound trains from 6:35 a.m. to 8:50 a.m. and again from 3:35 p.m. through 7:20 p.m. Between 8:50 a.m. and 3:35 p.m. and again between 7:20 p.m. and 10:20 p.m., all westbound trains travel along the Waterfront Line. No Waterfront Line service is provided between 10:45 p.m. and 6:35 a.m.
On weekends, each line operates every 30 minutes. Service between Tower City and Shaker Square operates every 15 minutes and all westbound trains from 9:20 a.m. through 10:20 p.m. operate on the Waterfront Line.
Rail Replacement Bus
During rail shutdowns, RTA uses the replacement bus designation "67R". Green Line shuttle buses run between Tower City and Green Road.
Rolling stock
The Blue and Green Lines use a fleet of 48
light rail vehicles (LRVs) manufactured by
Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie
Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...
in 1980 and 1981. Each car is long, high, and wide and is
articulated with operator cabs at each end, seating 84 passengers in 42 double transverse seats. The units are numbered 801–848. RTA needs 34 of the cars for regular use, and requires only 17 to operate currently scheduled service.
[
]
The cars originally had white exteriors with broad orange and red stripes, and an interior finished in earth tones with faux wood paneling and orange and brown vinyl padded seats. With the opening of the Waterfront Line in 1996, RTA renovated five cars with blue and white exteriors, gray interiors with new gray and blue fabric-covered seats, and portraits of famous Clevelanders.
The fleet is over 25 years old, and RTA is currently renovating up to 34 cars with the hope of making them last for another 15 years. The renovated cars have silver exteriors with blue and red stripes, and gray and silver interiors with blue and red seats.
The Breda LRV cars replaced a fleet of
PCC cars
The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a tram, streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in ...
, some built for the Shaker Rapid Transit in 1947 and some purchased in 1953 and 1959.
Stations
Stations between East 55th and Shaker Square were not served by the Green Line until August 16, 1920.
References
External links
Routes - Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority - RailJon Bell - Cleveland, Ohio: Green and Blue Lines*
Northern Ohio Railway Museum
Northern Ohio Railway Museum is a railroad museum located near Chippewa Lake, Ohio, United States. The museum is a non-profit, educational organization. It was established in 1965, granted 501(c)(3) status by the Internal Revenue Service in 1966 a ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green Line (RTA Rapid Transit)
Light rail in Ohio
Standard gauge railways in the United States
600 V DC railway electrification
Railway lines opened in 1913
1913 establishments in Ohio