Western Station (CTA Blue Line O'Hare Branch)
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Western is a Chicago "L" station on 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 , ...
's Blue Line, The station is located within the Bucktown neighborhood in the larger Logan Square community area. Opened in 1895, it is one of the oldest stations on what is now the Blue Line. Western was constructed by 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 ...
to serve its
Logan Square branch 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 ope ...
. The Metropolitan's operations, along with the rest of the "L", were assumed by the private
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 ...
in 1924 and the public
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 , ...
in 1948. The rail lines that had been constructed by the Metropolitan were significantly altered in the 1950s, a process that created the "West-Northwest Route" in 1958, which was renamed the Blue Line in 1992. After the West-Northwest Route was created, the Logan Square branch was extended multiple times in the 1970s and 1980s to
O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, ...
, becoming known as the present-day "O'Hare branch" Western station itself was significantly rebuilt in 1930, and again in 20002001. Both reconstructions maintained substantial pieces of the station's historical fabric while introducing many new elements and modernizations.


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 to Marshfield, where three branches one northwest to Logan Square, one due west to Garfield Park, and one southwest to Douglas Parkwould diverge and serve various parts of Chicago's west side. A further branch to Humboldt Park would proceed due west from the Logan Square branch just past Robey Street. The Metropolitan began service at 6 a.m. on Monday, May 6, 1895, between Robey on the Logan Square branch 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 ...
on the main line. The Logan Square branch 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, an extension that included a station on Western Avenue. 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
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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 , ...
(CTA) would not be created until 1945, or assume operation of the "L" until October 1, 1947. The CTA instituted major changes on the "L", which was suffering from declining ridership, antiquated infrastructure, and complicated routing. With respect to the lines built by the Metropolitan, it instituted broad changes that had been planned since the late 1930s; the Logan Square branch south of Damen was replaced by the Milwaukee-Dearborn subway, which opened on February 25, 1951. With the subway's opening, it also restricted the Humboldt Park branch to a shuttle service to and from Damen, and closed it altogether in 1952. Combined with the replacement of the main line and Garfield Park branch with the
Congress Line 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 ...
in 1958, this formed a new route called the "West-Northwest Route", which entered service on June 22, 1958. This route was renamed the Blue Line in 1992.
Skip-stop Skip-stop is a public transit service pattern which reduces travel times and increases capacity by having vehicles ''skip'' certain ''stops'' along a route. Originating in rapid transit systems, skip-stop may be also used in light rail and bus ...
, where certain "A" and "B" trains stopped at respective "A" and "B" stations, was instituted with the 1951 opening of the subway; Western was deemed a "B" station.


Station reconstructions and renovations

In 1930, an
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style façade replaced its original station entrance. In 2000–2001, a renovation project of the station included ADA-accessible elevators. During refurbishment the station Art Deco façade was restored with the station house.


Your New Blue Program

Mayor
Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...
and Governor Pat Quinn announced on December 5, 2013, a $429 million comprehensive improvement plan called "Your New Blue" for the
O'Hare 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 end ...
and
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, both a part of the Blue Line. The improvements to Western as a part of Your New Blue include a
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installation, called "Remnants , Restos", upgrading the station house, installing secure bicycle storage, a
sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick ...
canopy,
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for the historic façade, and replacement of the roofing,
handrails A handrail is a rail that is designed to be grasped by the hand so as to provide safety or support. In Britain, handrails are referred to as banisters. Handrails are usually used to provide support for body or to hold clothings in a bathroom or ...
, and guardrails on the north and south stairs.


Station details


Operations and connections

Streetcars replaced cable cars on Milwaukee Avenue between Lawrence and downtown on August 19, 1906. An extension route from Lawrence to Imlay, near the
Forest Preserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...
, opened on December 11, 1914, and the lines were through-routed on October 1, 1927. Streetcars were typically one car each in Chicago; two-car multiple-unit control trains ran on Milwaukee Avenue between March 2, 1925 and May 5, 1929. As of 1928, the line had
owl service Night service, sometimes also known as owl service, refers to the public transport services operated during the night hours. These services are operated, mainly using buses but in certain cases using trams (or streetcars), not including int ...
between 1:05 and 5:35 a.m., wherein cars to Devon Avenue ran every 15 minutes and cars to Gale Street ran every 30 minutes; during the day, streetcars in Chicago typically had intervals of eight to fifteen minutes. Buses replaced streetcars on weekends on October 28, 1951, and altogether on May 11, 1952. A streetcar line on Western Avenue was through-routed between Roscoe and 71st Street on September 5, 1911. This route was extended north to Lawrence Avenue on October 28, 1912, and consolidated with another route to the north to form a through-route to Howard Avenue on May 1, 1923, which was termed "Through Route 10" (TR 10) in 1924. As of 1928, TR 10 had
owl service Night service, sometimes also known as owl service, refers to the public transport services operated during the night hours. These services are operated, mainly using buses but in certain cases using trams (or streetcars), not including int ...
between 1 and 4:30 a.m., wherein a car ran every thirty minutes. Southward extension through the 1920s and early 1930s brought TR 10 to 111th Street on November 8, 1931. Buses replaced streetcars on the outlying portions of the route on August 1, 1948, during weekends on the central portion of the route on December 7, 1952, and altogether on June 17, 1956; however, the central route and the two outlying routes separated by the incremental introduction of buses were not reunited. Streetcars were two-man on Western before June 19, 1955, and one-man afterwards. Another streetcar route, on Armitage Avenue, also served the station. Before 1906, this was a shuttle to Milwaukee Avenue, but became a through-route between Kostner Street and Milwaukee to downtown. The route was extended west to Cicero Avenue in 1912, and a further western extension to Grand Avenue took place on August 15, 1914. Another route on Armitage, going east of the
Chicago River The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop). Though not especially long, the river is notable because it is one of the reasons for ...
and starting from Campbell near the station, began service on June 19, 1914. One-man cars began on the east route on April 1, 1923, and east route service also extended to Grand Avenue on February 2, 1925. The west route was considered a branch of the Milwaukee Avenue route, using the same cars, crews, barns, and transfers as the route. As of 1928, the east route had owl service between 1:08 and 5 a.m., with a car running every fifteen minutes, whereas the west route did not have owl service, the last westbound car leaving downtown at 12:50 a.m. and night service being covered by the east route. Downtown service for west route cars was discontinued on Sundays on May 1, 1932, to save costs. Buses replaced streetcars east of the River on February 26, 1951, and altogether on June 24, 1951.


Bus connections

CTA * 49 Western (Owl Service) * X49 Western Express (Weekday Rush Hours only) * 56 Milwaukee * 73 Armitage


Notes


References


Works cited

* * CTA Blue Line stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1895 CTA stations located above ground {{Former Chicago "L" stations navbox, Logan=Yes