Published by: Committee on Local Transportation of the Chicago City Council Publishing date: 1923 Plan Summary: Soon after the First World War, additional problems prompted further study of Chicago's transit system and the preparation of a new mass transit plan. In 1923, R. F. Kelker, Jr., a full time engineer for the Committee on Local Transportation of the Chicago City Council, prepared a report plan. As with the earlier report of the Traction and Subway Commission, his attention was directed towards unification of the several companies. The Chicago Area Transportation Study's first regional Chicago transportation plan, published in 1962, described the 1923 plan this way: Kelker was more explicit than the others with respect to the suburban rail service. While he did not incorporate these facilities in his plan, his last comment (p. 175) was that growing suburban areas and traffic would choke the downtown terminals, and that an eventual "solution lies in decentralizing the collection and delivery of suburban traffic... by making the steam railroad service a part of the city service." Rapid transit lines would be connected with steam lines about "five miles from the center of the city and the necessary tracks electrified from those connections to points about fifteen to twenty miles further out or to the edge of the commutation zone." Kelker's report reflected the pressures from Chicago's substantial growth in the preceding seven years, with but little accomplished in the way of enlargement of public transit facilities. Accordingly, the Kelker plan proposed a larger system than that of the Traction and Subway Commission report. Yet, in most respects, it was quite similar to the earlier plan. One unique feature in the Kelker plan was the in corporation of bus routes in some parts of the city. This was the first mention of the motor bus as an important part of transit systems.   Expansion and Addition Projects: The Kelker Plan included the following projects: State-Clark-Broadway-Wilson: Subway line from State/18th to a connection with the Ravenswood branch at Wilson and Ravenswood North-Michigan-Cottage Grove: Subway line from connection with the North Side Main Line at North/Sedgwick along the lakefront to the Jackson Park branch at Cottage Grove/63rd Blue Island-Harrison-Wells-Chicago: Subway line from connection with the Douglas branch and proposed Ashland elevated route at approximately Ashland/Cermak to Chicago/Milwaukee via Blue Island, Harrison, Wells, and Chicago Halsted: Subway-elevated line from connection with the North Side Main Line at North/Halsted to approximately 87th Street Ashland: Elevated line from connection with the Ravenswood branch at Roscoe/Ashland to approximately 63rd Street Kedzie: Elevated line from connection with the Ravenswood branch at Kedzie/Leland to approximately 87th Street South Side Extension: Elevated line from connection with the Jackson Park branch at 63rd/Calumet south to approximately 127th Street Jackson Park Extension: Elevated line from connection with the Jackson Park branch at Stony Island/63rd to approximately 87th Street via Stony Island and South Chicago avenues 63rd Street Extension: Elevated line from connection with the Englewood branch at Loomis/63rd to approximately Austin Avenue Archer Avenue Extension: Elevated line from connection with the proposed Ashland route at approximately 31st Street to approximately Harlem Avenue Milwaukee Avenue Extension South: Elevated line from connection with the Metropolitan Division Northwest branch and the proposed Ashland route at approximately Milwaukee/Paulina to connection with the Lake Street elevated at Milwaukee/Lake Milwaukee Avenue Extension North: Elevated line from connection with the Metropolitan Division Northwest branch and proposed Kedzie route at Kedzie/Logan Blvd. north to approximately Devon/Northwest Highway California Avenue Extension: Elevated line from connection with the Ravenswood branch at California/Leland to north city limits at Howard Street Humboldt Branch Extension: Elevated line from connection with the Humboldt Park branch at Lawndale/North to North/Harlem Belmont Avenue Extension: Elevated line from connection with the proposed Milwaukee Avenue north extension at to approximately Cumberland Avenue     This Chicago-L.org article is a stub. It will be expanded in the future as resources allow. .

. . Map of the 1923 Kelker Plan. Click image for larger view. (Map by Graham Garfield/Chicago-L.org)