Paulina Connector
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The Logan Square branch was an elevated
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 ...
line of the
Chicago "L" The Chicago "L" (short for "elevated") is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs in the U.S. state of Illinois. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), it is the fourth-largest rapid tr ...
, where it was one of the branches of the
Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad (known as the ''Met'' or ''Polly "L"'') was the third elevated rapid transit line to be built in Chicago, Illinois and was the first of Chicago’s elevated lines to be electrically powered. The lin ...
. Diverging north from the Metropolitan's
main line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...
west of
Marshfield station Marshfield was a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L"'s Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad. It was the western terminus of the Metropolitan's main line, after which it branched into three branches; the northwestern Logan Square bra ...
, it opened in 1895 and served Chicago's
Logan Square Logan Square may refer to: * Logan Square, Chicago, a neighborhood on the north side of the city * Logan Circle (Philadelphia) or Logan Square, a park in Philadelphia **Logan Square, Philadelphia Logan Square is a neighborhood in Philadelphia. Bou ...
and West Town neighborhoods. North of Damen station, the
Humboldt Park branch The Humboldt Park branch was a rapid transit line which was part of the Chicago "L" system from 1895 to 1952. The branch served the West Town and the Humboldt Park neighborhoods of Chicago and consisted of six elevated stations. It opened on July ...
diverged from the Logan Square branch, going west to serve Humboldt Park. The Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway opened in 1951, splitting the original branch into two sections. The branch north of the subway's entrance continued in revenue service and, after extensions in 1970 and the early 1980s and the closure of the Humboldt Park branch, currently serves as the O'Hare branch of the Blue Line. The branch south of the subway, having been rendered obsolete, nevertheless served as the only link of the surviving branch to the rest of the "L" system and was kept in non-revenue operation as the Paulina Connector. After half a century, and the demolition of its northern half, the Connector re-entered revenue service in 2006 as part of the Pink Line.


Operations

The Logan Square branch separated from the
Metropolitan Main Line The Metropolitan main line was a rapid transit line of the Chicago "L" system from 1895 to 1958. It ran west from downtown to a junction at Marshfield station. At this point the Garfield Park branch continued westward, while the Douglas Park bran ...
at the Marshfield Junction, just west of the
Marshfield station Marshfield was a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L"'s Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad. It was the western terminus of the Metropolitan's main line, after which it branched into three branches; the northwestern Logan Square bra ...
. The
Humboldt Park branch The Humboldt Park branch was a rapid transit line which was part of the Chicago "L" system from 1895 to 1952. The branch served the West Town and the Humboldt Park neighborhoods of Chicago and consisted of six elevated stations. It opened on July ...
split off just northwest of the Damen station (originally called Robey).


History

The
Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad (known as the ''Met'' or ''Polly "L"'') was the third elevated rapid transit line to be built in Chicago, Illinois and was the first of Chicago’s elevated lines to be electrically powered. The lin ...
Company was granted a 50-year franchise by the
Chicago City Council The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is gaveled into session regularly, usually mont ...
on April 7, 1892, and began securing right of way shortly thereafter. As designed, the Metropolitan's operations would comprise a main line that went west from
downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
to Marshfield, where three branchesone going northwest, one going due west to Garfield Park, and one going southwest to Douglas Parkwould diverge and serve various parts of Chicago's west side. The formally titled Northwest branch would continue to
Robey station Damen is an elevated rapid transit station on the Chicago "L", currently serving the O'Hare branch of its Blue Line. Opened on May 6, 1895, as Robey, it is the oldest station on the Blue Line. The station serves the popular Bucktown and Wi ...
, where it would split into the "Logan Square branch" going further northwest and the
Humboldt Park branch The Humboldt Park branch was a rapid transit line which was part of the Chicago "L" system from 1895 to 1952. The branch served the West Town and the Humboldt Park neighborhoods of Chicago and consisted of six elevated stations. It opened on July ...
going due west. However, as early as 1898, the Metropolitan itself was referring to the Northwest branch as part of the "Logan Square branch". The Northwest branch's tracks were finished by October 1894 and powered on in April 1895 for test runs; service on the branch and the main line commenced on May 6 between Robey and
Canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
. Service was extended to
Logan Square Logan Square may refer to: * Logan Square, Chicago, a neighborhood on the north side of the city * Logan Circle (Philadelphia) or Logan Square, a park in Philadelphia **Logan Square, Philadelphia Logan Square is a neighborhood in Philadelphia. Bou ...
on May 25, and the Humboldt Park branch opened on July 29. The Metropolitan's lines were originally operated by the West Side Construction Company, which had been responsible for constructing them, and would be transferred to the Metropolitan on October 6, 1896. The backers and officers of the two companies were largely identical, however, so this transfer of ownership was nominal. The expenses incurred in constructing the Metropolitan's vast trackage would come back to haunt the company, which entered
receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
in 1897; the similarly-named Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railway Company was organized in January 1899 and assumed operations on February 3 of that year. The new Metropolitan, along with the other companies operating "L" lines in Chicago, became a part of the
Chicago Elevated Railways (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
(CER) trust on July 1, 1911. CER acted as a ''de facto''
holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
for the "L"unifying its operations, instituting the same management across the companies, and instituting free transfers between the lines starting in 1913but kept the underlying companies intact. This continued until the companies were formally merged into the single
Chicago Rapid Transit Company The Chicago Rapid Transit Company (CRT) was a privately owned firm providing rapid transit rail service in Chicago, Illinois and several adjacent communities between 1924 and 1947. The CRT is one of the predecessors of the Chicago Transit Autho ...
(CRT) in 1924, which assumed operations on January 9; the former Metropolitan was designated the Metropolitan Division of the CRT for administrative purposes. Although municipal ownership of transit had been a hotly-contested issue for half a century, the publicly-owned
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 , o ...
(CTA) would not be created until 1945, or assume operation of the "L" until October 1, 1947.


After 1951

After the replacement of the southern half of the branch in 1951, the two sections of transit had different histories.


Closure of Humboldt Park branch, O'Hare branch

The Humboldt Park branch closed in 1952. The surviving portion of the Logan Square branch was extended to Jefferson Park in 1970, Rosemont in 1983, and O'Hare in 1984.


Paulina Connector

The portion between the subway portal the junction with the other Metropolitan West Side branches was retained as the Paulina Connector, a non-revenue connecting track, as the other Met branches were rerouted from the Loop into the south end of the Milwaukee–Dearborn subway, meaning there was no other connection to the rest of the "L" system. As part of the replacement of the
Garfield Park branch The Garfield Park Branch was a rapid transit line which was part of the Chicago "L" system from 1895 to 1958. The branch served Chicago's Near West Side, East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park, and Austin neighborhoods, and the suburbs of Oak ...
with the
Congress branch The Blue Line is a Chicago "L" line which extends through The Loop from O'Hare International Airport at the far northwest end of the city, through downtown via the Milwaukee–Dearborn subway and across the West Side to its southwest en ...
, a new junction between the Paulina Connector and the Lake Street branch was constructed, allowing trains from the
Douglas branch The Cermak branch, formerly known as the Douglas branch, is a long section of the Pink Line of the Chicago "L" system in Chicago, Illinois. It was built by the Metropolitan West Side Elevated west of the Loop. As of February 2013, it serves an ...
to continue to reach the Loop while construction was ongoing. After construction was complete, Douglas branch trains resumed using the Milwaukee–Dearborn subway, and the connector was returned to non-revenue use only. The portion north of the Lake Street branch was demolished in 1964, as the junction with the Lake Street branch rendered it superfluous. By 2003, the Paulina Connector was in need of renovation, as it remained the only connection between the Blue Line and the rest of the system. As part of a renovation of the Cermak (formerly Douglas) branch, the connector was rebuilt. Following the reconstruction, in 2006, the CTA introduced a new service pattern in which trains from the Cermak branch use the Paulina Connector to travel to the Loop via the junction with the Lake Street branch. This service is the current Pink Line. Besides the Paulina Connector and the section of the Blue Line between Damen and Logan Square, one other extant section remains at Paulina and Kinzie Streets, where a truss bridge that carried trains over the Metra rail lines (former Chicago & Northwestern and Milwaukee Road lines) has been re-used as a signal bridge.


Stations


References


Works cited

* * * * * {{Former Chicago "L" stations navbox, Logan=yes Chicago Transit Authority Defunct railroads Railway lines in Chicago Railway lines opened in 1895 Railway lines closed in 1951