Service Notes:

Hours of Operation: 4am-1am, Mon-Fri; 5:15am-1am, Sat; 5:50am-1am, Sun
Length of Route: 1.5 miles
Number of Stations: 2 stations
Car Types Assigned: 5000-series (see Car Assignment sheet for latest car assignments)

 

Brief Description:

The public took to the new elevated line quickly and extensions toward Jackson Park were opened incrementally as new sections were completed. On August 14, 1892, only two months after the railroad began operations, the first extension southward was opened between 39th Street and 47th Street. This was quickly followed by further expansion to 51st, then 55th streets. By the end of 1892, the structure was complete to 63rd Street, allowing 61st station to come into use on January 22, 1893. The next day, the Rapid Transit and Bridge Construction Company officially turned the title for the line it had built over to the South Side Rapid Transit Railroad Company, even though construction was still not quite complete. But in short order, by late spring, erection of the line to Jackson Park was largely finished. Service to Madison Avenue (later Dorchester Avenue), just a couple blocks from Jackson Park, was inaugurated on April 23rd. Service into the park did not begin until May 12th, almost two weeks after the exposition's May 1st opening. (The fair itself wasn't particularly on-time either: it opened a year late, making the Columbian Exposition 401 years after Columbus' "discovery"...) In the interim, passengers bound for the fair could use a specially-designed walkway on the elevated structure to get the additional couple blocks to the fair. When the final segment opened in mid-May, the Jackson Park terminal was above an annex to the Transportation Building in the fair. Here, passengers could either walk out of the station to the fair, enter Louis Sullivan's famous Transportation Building, or transfer to the fair's own elevated, electric Intramural Railway. During late night and early morning hours, the fair grounds were closed and trains terminated at the Stony Island station a mere several hundred feet west.

The Columbian Exposition proved to be both a blessing and a problem for the South Side Rapid Transit. The "L" proved to be a popular way to get to the exposition and ridership was strong. The company even added some express trains from downtown (even though there were no express tracks at the time) and built a second platform at the Congress Street terminal to separate boarding and alighting passengers. But just as the fair boosted ridership, the closure of the fair in October 1893 caused it to crash quickly. Average daily ridership fell from 116,000 in June 1893 to 40,000 in February 1894. After the fair closed, the Jackson Park terminal was abandoned and service was cut back to Stony Island.

Important Dates:

• January 22, 1893 - South Side Elevated structure is completed to 63rd Street, allowing service as far south as 61st Street station.
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• April 23, 1893 - Service is extended to Madison (Dorchester) Avenue. Since the line was not completed to Jackson Park when the fair opened on May 1st, passengers use a temporary walkway on the elevated structure from Madison station to reach the fair grounds until completion of the line.
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• May 12, 1893 - The line completed to Jackson Park, location of the Columbian Exposition of 1893. The station is located above an annex to the famous Louis Sullivan-designed Transportation Building. A direct platform transfer is built to the exposition's own Columbian Intramural Railway. At night, when the fair is closed, trains terminate one station west at Stony Island Avenue.
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• October 31, 1893 - Concurrent with the closure of the Columbian Exposition, the Jackson Park station is closed and service is cut back to Stony Island. The Stony Island station is later renamed "Jackson Park".
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• November 3, 1913 - Crosstown "L" service is first initiated, with trains running from Linden Avenue in Wilmette to the Stony Island Avenue terminal in Chicago's Jackson Park. The South Side and Northwestern trains operate on the outer track in a counterclockwise direction (actually only running over two sides of the Loop on each crosstown trip). Crosstown pairings include Evanston-Jackson Park, Wilson-Englewood, and Wilson-South Park runs (the last being believed to be very short-lived).
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• November 4, 1913 - Additional crosstown runs are instituted between Ravenswood and Kenwood. Some Ravenswood trips continue to terminate in the Loop, while a few others find their way down to 61st Street.
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• February 15, 1922 - North Shore Line interurban service extended south from Roosevelt to Dorchester.
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• March 6, 1938 - North Shore Line interurban service withdrawn from Dorchester back to Roosevelt.
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• July 31, 1949 - The CTA institutes its massive North-South service revision. Service is streamlined into the following routes: Howard-Englewood, Howard-Jackson Park, Ravenswood (Kimball-Loop), and Evanston (Linden-Howard during non-rush hours, Linden-Loop during rush). A/B skip stop service is instituted on the Howard, Englewood, Jackson Park and Ravenswood routes.
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• January 13, 1973 - Dorchester station closed.
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• March 4, 1982 - Due to structural defects in bridge over Illinois Central Railroad, service on the Jackson Park branch is suspended south of 61st Street.
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• December 12, 1982 - Service is restored on the Jackson Park branch as far as the University Avenue stop after a $2 million renovation. The defective bridge was later demolished.
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• January 9, 1994 - The Lake-Englewood-Jackson Park Green Line closes for an extensive renovation project lasting more than 2 years. A great deal of controversy raged during the two year rehab, including debates over station closings, retention of nighttime "owl" service and the date of reopening.
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• May 12, 1996 - The Green Line reopens after a renovation project lasting more than 2 years. Owl service is retained, but Racine/63 is closed. Jackson Park branch is officially renamed the East 63rd branch.
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• September 27, 1997 - The CTA reaches a decision on the fate of the Cottage Grove-Dorchster segment of the Green Line: with less then 24 hours of public notice, city workers move in and dismantle the 105-year old "L" line.
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• April 27, 1998 - The CTA institutes some of the largest service cuts in its history. Under the Booz-Allen Hamilton Service Plan. Owl Service is cut on the Green Line.