Forest Park is a
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
'L' system, located in the village of
Forest Park, Illinois
Forest Park (formerly Harlem) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, United States. The population was 14,339 at the 2020 census. The Forest Park terminal on the CTA Blue Line is the line's western terminus, located on the ...
and serving the
Blue Line. Before the Congress Line was built, it served as terminal for the Garfield Line. It is the western terminus of the Forest Park branch. The station was known as Des Plaines until 1994. It is also referred to as the Forest Park Transit Center by
Pace because it is a major terminal for Pace buses. The station contains a 1051-space
Park and Ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...
lot which uses the "Pay and Display" system, in which fees are paid at the lot entrance. It is located south of the
Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad is a terminal railroad in the Chicago area, formerly giving various other companies access to (Chicago's) Grand Central Station. It also served to connect those railroads for freight transfers, and ...
tracks which curve to the north of the station towards
Madison Street where
the line rechristens itself to the
Canadian National Railway's Waukesha Subdivision.
History
Forest Park opened in 1902, as a local
interurban
The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...
station on the
Aurora Elgin and Chicago Railway. On March 11, 1905, the
Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad extended its
Garfield Park rapid transit service west over the tracks of the Aurora Elgin and Chicago. An amusement park was located in this lot for 14 years (1908-1922) when an enormous fire incinerated parts of it, causing it to be shut down permanently. At this time Forest Park became the western terminal for the 'L' while continuing to serve as an interurban station. In 1958, the Congress Branch opened in the median of the
Eisenhower Expressway
Interstate 290 (I-290) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that runs westward from the Chicago Loop. The portion of I-290 from I-294 to its east end is officially called the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway. In short form, it is known as "t ...
, the Blue Line was rerouted and connected to the Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway Station LaSalle making Forest Park, the southern terminus of the Blue Line. Forest Park, however, is one of the few stations in the Congress Branch line that is not in the median of the Eisenhower Expressway, and is north of it. In 1966, the park-and-ride schedule of 1051 seats was opened and a new station was built and completed in December 1982 along with the Transit Center that provides connection to many bus lines.
On December 16, 2012, the CTA discontinued the 17 Westchester route, leaving only Pace buses to serve Forest Park.
The station is open 24 hours a day/7 days a week and 1,175,588 passengers used the station in 2011.
Bus connections
Pace
*
301 Roosevelt Road
*
303 Forest Park-Rosemont
*
305 East Roosevelt Road
*
308 Medical Center
*
310 Madison Street-Hillside
*
317 Westchester
*
318 West North Avenue
References
External links
Forest Park Station Page
{{CA&E, Main=y
Forest Park, Illinois
CTA Blue Line stations
Chicago "L" terminal stations
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1905
Former Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin stations
1905 establishments in Illinois
Former Chicago Great Western Railway stations