Purple Line (Chicago Transit Authority)

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The Purple Line primarily serves Evanston and Wilmette, running express services to downtown Chicago, sometimes via Wrigley Field in Lake View East.

The Purple Line of the Chicago Transit Authority is a 3.9 mile branch line on the northernmost section of the Chicago 'L' rapid transit network. Normally, it extends south from the Wilmette terminal at Linden Avenue, passing through Evanston to Howard Street, on Chicago's northern city limits.

The Purple Line operates weekdays 4 a.m. to 1 a.m., Saturdays 5 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Sundays 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. During weekday rush hours (approximately 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.), the Purple Line extends another 10.3 miles south from Howard Street to downtown Chicago running express from Howard Street to Belmont Avenue, and then making all local stops to the Loop. The express service is known as the Purple Line Express, while the Linden-Howard shuttle service is the Purple Line Shuttle.^[1]

Prior to the color-coding of CTA rail lines in 1993, the Purple Line was known as the Evanston Line, Evanston Service, or Evanston Shuttle, while the Purple Line Express was called the Evanston Express. Many Chicagoans still refer to the Purple Line by these names.^[2]

The Purple Line is useful for reaching Northwestern University (Davis, Foster, and Noyes stops in Evanston) and the Bahá'í House of Worship (Linden stop). The selection of purple as the line's color was likely no accident, as Northwestern's official school color is purple.

[edit] Operation

Beginning at the Linden Avenue terminal in Wilmette, which contains a small storage yard and car service shop, the Purple Line traverses the North Shore area on private right-of-way which begins at street grade. Running southeasterly from Wilmette, the line rises past Isabella Street on the Wilmette-Evanston border then bridges the North Shore Channel immediately north of Central Street, the first stop in Evanston. The line, now on an elevated embankment, curves southward parallel to Sherman Street. Continuing south, the line enters downtown Evanston and stops at Davis Street, then curves southeasterly again to parallel Chicago Avenue and Metra's Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way to Clark Street just north of the CTA's Howard Yard facilities.

Here the line crosses through the yard area before the junction with the Red Line and the Yellow Line. The tracks are split on grade separated structures to allow Yellow Line trains to enter the junction from the west. Immediately south of the yard lies the Howard Street terminal, where Red, Purple, and Yellow Line trains all terminate. To the west of the station is a CTA/Pace bus terminal, parking garage and a shopping center.

There are four operational tracks starting at the Howard station, continuing on to the Armitage station. During weekday rush hours, the Purple Line runs express on the outermost tracks, skipping all stops until Belmont. From Belmont to Merchandise Mart, the Purple Line and Brown Line share the outside tracks and both make all stops along the route.

At the Loop, the Purple Line extends clockwise around the Inner Loop track via Lake-Wabash-Van Buren-Wells making all Loop stops, before returning north making the same trip in reverse. In its rush hour trip, it is one of only two L lines to feature transfers to every other line, the other being the Red Line.

Currently, the Purple Line is equipped with a mixed fleet of 2400-series and 2600-series railcars. The Purple Line Shuttle usually runs two cars while the Purple Line Express runs six cars, although lengths of trains on the shuttle service can vary due to special circumstances and events.

[edit] History

The Evanston Line was placed in operation on May 16, 1908 between Central Street, Evanston and the Loop when the former Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company extended its mainline service over leased electrified steam railroad trackage owned by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. On April 2, 1912, the line reached its present-day terminal at Linden Avenue, Wilmette.

In 1922, the surface level section of the North Side 'L' was elevated onto a concrete embankment structure between Leland Avenue and Howard Street, and was expanded from two to four tracks, thus allowing complete express service from Wilmette and Evanston to downtown Chicago. Several segments of the Evanston Branch itself ran at street level until 1928, when it was elevated onto a concrete embankment between Church Street and the North Shore Channel. It was placed in operation on January 29, 1928. Nine stations existed after Howard, including a station at Cavalry. It was closed in 1931 and replaced by a new station at South Boulevard to the north.^[3]

The current service which was to become the Purple Line went into effect on July 31, 1949, after a massive service re-orientation on the North-South rapid transit system by the still infant Chicago Transit Authority. Local service was restricted between Linden Avenue and Howard Street, operating at all times. The express service ran weekday rush hours only, stopping at all Evanston stations, Howard, Morse (formerly Rogers Park), Loyola, Wilson, Chicago, Merchandise Mart, and then all Loop stations. While skip-stop service was also introduced at this time, Evanston trains continued to make all stops at their respective stations.^[4] An express surcharge was also instituted for customers traveling to and from the Loop past Howard. Several attempts were made to reduce or eliminate the fare, backed by local politicians.^[5]

Right-of-way and trackage used by the Evanston Branch and the North-South Route (today's Red Line) between Leland Avenue and the Wilmette terminal was purchased by the CTA in 1953 from the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.^[6] In turn, the railroad received $7 million USD in CTA revenue bonds.^[7]

Midday and Saturday Loop Express service was discontinued in the 1950s and the local shuttle service began using one-man operations with single unit cars in the 1960s.

On July 16, 1973, the Isabella station was closed, bringing the total number of stations on the Evanston branch to eight.^[8]

On November 8, 1973, the third rail system was installed on the Evanston Branch between South Boulevard in Evanston and the Wilmette terminal. Prior to this, Evanston shuttle trains had to be equipped with trolley poles and power collected through overhead catenary wires (similar to the Yellow Line before its conversion to third rail in 2004). The conversion to third rail allowed the CTA to retire the 4000-series railcars, which were nearly fifty years old, and put newer cars on the line. Since parts of the line are at grade level, some community members initially resisted the conversion and worried the proximity of the rail would be hazardous.^[9]

By the end of 1976, the additional stops after Howard were eliminated, and the Evanston Express ran nonstop between Howard and Merchandise Mart. The CTA cited complaints about delays in service.^[10]

However, on January 20, 1989, express trains once more began making additional stops outside the Loop, at the Belmont, Fullerton, and Chicago stations, partly in order to relieve overcrowding on the rapidly-growing Ravenswood (later Brown) Line. By the end of the 1990s, trains would make all stops between Belmont and the Loop.^[11]

The express surcharge was eventually dropped in 1997 as an incentive for customers to use the new TransitCard system.^[12]

The overnight "owl service" was eliminated during a service purge by the CTA on April 26, 1998.^[13] However, the hours of express operation were expanded on December 16, 2001 for a 180-day trial period. Trains departed Linden for downtown one hour earlier in the morning rush and one hour later in the evening rush.^[14] The expanded hours were later made permanent and in 2004 afternoon rush service was also revised to begin twenty-five minutes earlier.^[15]

In 2005, the CTA embarked on a project to replace six deteriorating viaducts on the Evanston branch of the Purple Line. The poor condition of the century-old viaducts forced the implementation of permanent slow zones and were a point of contention for many Evanston politicians. They claimed CTA had secured funds and promised to begin replacing the viaducts starting in 1999, but had diverted the funds to other projects. The CTA responded that it only provided projections and had not committed the money to any specific purpose.^[16] The Main Street viaduct was completely replaced over the weekend of November 12-13, 2005, requiring the temporary shutdown of the Purple Line. Construction was completed by the Monday morning rush hour.^[17] The Church Street viaduct will be replaced next; preliminary work at that location began in July 2006.^[18]

[edit] Future

The Purple Line's Howard terminal began a major renovation in 2006. The station will be completely replaced and made ADA-accessible by 2009.^[19]

One form of the CTA's "Circle Line" plan would call for a rerouting of the Purple Line Express service. Rather than continue to the Loop along with the Brown Line, trains would follow the Red Line after Belmont, making a stop at Fullerton and all current Red Line subway stops and terminate at a new station on Wentworth before heading north. However, this is merely a study and the final form of the Circle Line and its effects on current CTA rail service, if the project begins at all, remain to be seen.^[20]

The express service has often been targeted for elimination during service purges due to its "auxiliary" nature compared to other CTA rail lines--there are readily available, albeit slower, alternatives along its entire route. One of the first moves at halting express service came in 1973^[21] while the most recent was in 2005, when threatened service cuts included the Purple Line Express.^[22]

[edit] Station listing

Purple Line Shuttle (Evanston branch)
Station	Location	Points of interest
Linden	349 Linden Avenue, Wilmette	Bahá'í House of Worship
Central	1022 Central Street, Evanston	Northwestern University Ryan Field
Noyes	901 Noyes Avenue, Evanston	Northwestern University, north campus
Foster	900 Foster Street, Evanston	Northwestern University, south campus
Davis	1612 Benson Street, Evanston	Downtown Evanston
Dempster	1316 Sherman Avenue, Evanston
Main	836 Chicago Avenue, Evanston
South Blvd	601 South Boulevard, Evanston
Howard	1649 W. Howard Street, Chicago	Terminal during non-peak hours Transfer station for Red and Yellow Lines
Purple Line Express (weekday rush hours only)
Addison	940 W. Addison Street, Chicago	Wrigley Field; only served by southbound Purple Line Express trains before Chicago Cubs weekday night games
Belmont	945 W. Belmont Avenue, Chicago	Lakeview, Briar Street Theatre Transfer station for Red and Brown Lines
Wellington	945 W. Wellington Avenue, Chicago	Illinois Masonic Medical Center
Diversey	940 W. Diversey Avenue, Chicago	Lincoln Park
Fullerton	943 W. Fullerton Avenue, Chicago	Lincoln Park, DePaul University Transfer station for Red and Brown Lines
Armitage	944 W. Armitage Avenue, Chicago	Goose Island Brewery
Sedgwick	1536 N. Sedgwick Street, Chicago	The Second City
Chicago	300 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago	Moody Bible Institute
Merchandise Mart	350 N. Wells Street, Chicago	Chicago Merchandise Mart Transfer station for Brown Line
Clark/Lake	100 W. Lake Street, Chicago	James R. Thompson Center, Richard J. Daley Center Transfer station for Green, Blue, Orange, and Pink Lines
State/Lake	200 N. State Street, Chicago	Chicago Theatre, Gene Siskel Film Center Transfer station for Red Line via Lake
Randolph/Wabash	151 N. Wabash Avenue, Chicago	Marshall Field's, Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park Transfer station for Metra (Metra Electric Line) and South Shore Line trains
Madison/Wabash	2 N. Wabash Avenue, Chicago	Jewelers Row
Adams/Wabash	201 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago	Grant Park, Petrillo Music Shell, Buckingham Fountain, Art Institute of Chicago
Library-State/Van Buren	26 W. Van Buren Street, Chicago	Harold Washington Library and The Auditorium Building of Roosevelt University Transfer station for Red and Blue Lines via Jackson
LaSalle/Van Buren	121 W. Van Buren Street, Chicago	Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Board Options Exchange, LaSalle Street Station Transfer station for Metra trains (Rock Island District)
Quincy	220 S. Wells Street, Chicago	Sears Tower, Union Station Transfer station for Metra (BNSF Railway Line, Heritage Corridor, Milwaukee District/North Line, Milwaukee District/West Line, North Central Service, SouthWest Service) and Amtrak trains
Washington/Wells	100 N. Wells Street, Chicago	Chicago City Hall, Civic Opera House, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Ogilvie Transportation Center Transfer station for Metra trains (Union Pacific/North Line, Union Pacific/Northwest Line, Union Pacific/West Line)

At Washington/Wells, Purple Line trains head back to Merchandise Mart, then make all stops in reverse to Linden.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Chicago 'L'
• List of Chicago El stations

[edit] External links

• Purple Line at Chicago-'L'.org
• Train schedules at CTA official site