Paulina Connector

The Logan Square branch was an elevated rapid transit line of the Chicago "L", where it was one of the branches of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad. Diverging north from the Metropolitan's main line west of Marshfield station, it opened in 1895 and served Chicago's Logan Square and West Town neighborhoods. North of Damen station, the Humboldt Park branch 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 at the Marshfield Junction, just west of the Marshfield station. The Humboldt Park branch split off just northwest of the Damen station (originally called Robey).

History

The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad Company was granted a 50-year franchise by the Chicago City Council 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 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, where it would split into the "Logan Square branch" going further northwest and the Humboldt Park branch 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. Service was extended to Logan Square 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 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 (CER) trust on July 1, 1911. CER acted as a ''de facto'' holding company 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 (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 (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 with the Congress branch, a new junction between the Paulina Connector and the Lake Street branch was constructed, allowing trains from the Douglas branch 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

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{{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