Why does Chicago's CTA Yellow Line train exist?

@Minelaughter hace 5 días

I think you missed a detail because the yellow line actually used to part of a bigger rail line to Milwaukee but over the decades it became shorter and shorter until it got pushed to Skokie. You can see the old right of way by looking a couple miles north of the Dempster Station and see a grass alleyway that would perfectly fit a train

@christopherdeangelis6383 hace 2 días

Insane that you made a video on the yellow line without mentioning the North Shore Line.

@janoswimpffen7305 hace 4 días

As per the comment below you missed a big chunk of the history. Being an old fart and a big Chicago transit history buff I remember it all (too) well. First, kudos to a few points that you got quite correct. About 1/2 of what is today's Yellow Line had overhead trolley wire (later catenary lines) which only some of the Evanston (Purple) line cars had, but the bulk of the North-South (Red) did not have and yes, Dempster (for long the only station on the Yellow) does not have the (correct again.) 8 car capacity of the Red. Now for what you missed. The Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad (commonly called the North Shore) was an interurban with roots going back to the 1890s. Starting from Waukegan it gradually extended both south and north, eventually connecting downtown Milwaukee with the Linden station on today's Purple. Northward it ran on streets through Wilmette and Kenilworth, then to a dedicated right of way parallel to today's Metra North (then called the North Western). It was the North Shore line that built Ravinia Park as a traffic generator. An agreement was reached with what was then called the Chicago Rapid Transit Co. to run through to the Loop. Most trains circled the Loop and terminated at Roosevelt Road. The slow running through the North Shore town streets was a hassle so they bullt the "Skokie Valley Route". It inculded the current cut below grade west of Howard and then the flat stretch to Dempster. From there the route continued straight north to about Lake Bluff. It paralleled today's Eden's Expressway and Highway 41. North of Lake Bluff it cut back east to meet with the existing North Shore Line to Milwaukee. This was done long before the multi-lane highways. It was made easy that there were electric power lines along the right of way owned by the Insull conglemerate that at one time owned most of Chicago's L and surface electric lines and the power company. [BTW, Samuel Insull eventually went broke and was found dead, homeless, at a London tube station]. The North Shore now provided premium fast service between the two cities, as fast 90 minutes downtown to downtown--try that today with any mode! It culiminated with the introduction of two sets of "Electroliners", streamlined, high speed, comfortable with a restaurant--rode it many times with my dad. Being under 12 I think that my ticket was about $1.25. The town of Skokie was actually called Niles Center originally (not sure when it changed). The North Shore only stopped at Howard and Dempster and then select stops north of there--it was pretty sparsely populated until after WWII. The Rapid Transit Co also offered a service from Howard to Dempster--just like today's Yellow but it also served several intermediate stops that no longer exist. Note that as you go west from Howard the tracks pass underneath a bunch of streets. Several of those had station platforms with step going up to station house at street level. Because of the sparse population the Niles Center branch of the L never had much traffic. When the CTA was created in 1947 they took an ax to a bunch of low volume routes and stations and Niles Center was one of the first to go. However, the North Shore continued to use it. In the early 1950s the North Shore abandoned the "Shore Route", i.e., the street run through Wilmette and the part past Ravinia and Highland Park, placing all their traffic onto the faster Skokie route. In January, 1963 the entire North Shore line was abandoned. It's a long story essentially involving corporate greed with a holding company buying it, running it into the ground and selling the assets for scrap and real estate. A lot of the right of way soon turned to housing and commercial during the suburban boom of the 1960s. A few sections have been preserved today as bike trails (like an east-west branch that ran between Lake Bluff and Mundelein). Somewhat fortuitously, the segment that is now the Yellow Line remained intact. The timing was perfect as in 1965 the Johnson Administration was spending a lot on urban renewal projects and established the Urban Mass Transit Administration and offered grants. The powerful Chicago Democratic machine of Richard Daley applied for this project and it was an instant success [so ,you are correct there]. The irony is that had the North Shore been kept going for two more years it may still exist today. You are also correct that until a few decades ago the power source was different. West from Howard to about Crawford (Pulaski) Avenue it used the same 3rd rail system as the rest of the L. Where it reached grade level Third Rail was considered too dangerous for passers-by and from there north it was overhead. In the old North Shore days the conversion was pretty rudimentary and done completely on the fly. There was a few hundred yards of transition where both were avilable. On the outbound run the conductor would open the back door of the last car and while the train was going 60 mph, in rain or snow, would unwind the cable holding down the trolley pole and then try to catch onto the wire. It was always a fireworks show of sparks in the night. When the CTA took over they civilized it with new cars that had automated pantagraph structures that were raised and lowered. When I rode the North Shore the former L stations at the underpasses were still there but not used. Some of the street level stion houses were converted into convenience store. The current intermediate stop, Oakton, was only added in the past 20-30 years.

@landonlandon2251 ayer

Welcome back my man 🤙 (Chicago man here)

@Quirin0 hace 3 días

Great video, but the Microphone quality isn’t the best 😅

@Dragblacker ayer

Imagine a Yellow Line extension that ran express from Howard through Fullerton, followed the Red Line to Roosevelt, joined the Green Line from there to Garfield, and ended at Ashland/63. Thus making the Green Line a single-branched line from Harlem/Lake to Cottage Grove.

@txquartz hace 2 días

Sending a full Red train up the route every 8 minutes also seems overkill when it barely fills a 2 car every 15

@tbcarleton hace 6 horas

Not to mention the huge Skokie rail shop, which handles major overhauls of cars and components, adding and removing cars from the fleet by truck, the legacy fleet of historical trains, and maintenance and most of the storage of the non-revenue fleet. So, since most of the yellow line has to be maintained just to connect the shop to the rest of the system, it only makes sense to use it for commuter service as well, since the tracks that used to go to milwaukee already existed.

@UnknownProductions0 hace 1 hora

i worked at the starbucks at the end of the yellow line for years, i can say the morning commuters all for sure knew each other. often would get coffee etc together in the morning.

@stevesummers2462 ayer

The Chicago Northshor & Milwaukee RR had a major maintenance shop on Oakton Street that the CTA still uses today, but in order to get the federal grant money to connect to the ships they needed to have at least one passenger stop. If it had actually been redone for passenger convenience it should have run north along the Norshore right a way at least to the Old Orchard Shopping Mall, or the Skokie Court @ Old Orchard Road.

@jrm78 ayer

The biggest appeal of the Skokie Swift to me is that it makes it much easier to get to Wrigley Field than driving into the city and finding parking for those of us beyond the reach of the CTA system. And if the CTA ever puts a Purple line stop at the Addison station, it would be even easier to get to Wrigley from the north suburbs via Metra and connecting to the Purple in Evanston.