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Skip-stop on the Chicago "L"

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119: 22: 517: 313: 503: 299: 267: 510: 483: 449: 415: 381: 347: 306: 227: 469: 435: 401: 367: 333: 247: 476: 442: 408: 374: 340: 176:'s opening on February 25, 1951, a Sunday, it received weekday A/B service. This was discontinued the following morning after only one rush-hour period. This was due to the difficulty of changing the signage on the rolling stock due to the high ridership of the subway. Skip-stop returned to the subway in 1958, and remained until the system's discontinuation. 589:
In spite of the CTA's efforts of the late 1940s and early 1950s, ridership on the "L" continued to decline as more people moved from the city to the suburbs. This declining ridership led to the gaps between trains becoming larger, leaving passengers who had missed one train being irate at seeing a
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were targeted next, adopting the skip-stop pattern on August 1, 1949, in concert with the closure of 23 lightly used stations. All stations were subject to the scheme. Stations on the Englewood branch were all "A" stations and those on the Jackson Park branch were all "B" stations. Service on the
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A station's skip-stop status was indicated by its signage. From the 1940s to the 1970s, A stations were indicated by red or yellow bars on their station signage. B stations were indicated by blue or green bars. AB stations had both bars. Starting in the 1970s, A stations had red signs on their
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Perhaps most indicting on the management of the "L", however, was the trains' sluggish speed. By the late 1940s, wooden cars from the 1890s were still in use throughout most of the system, and many stations were just a few blocks away from one another. The majority of "L" tracks were only
133:. The line was particularly plagued by competing streetcar lines, closely-spaced stations, and aging infrastructure. It was combined with the closure of ten stations that were used by only eight percent of the line's ridership. It applied to the surviving stations east of 169:
line ran from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays. Sunday skip-stop was tried on the route from 1950 to 1952 but created excessive wait times at the stations. No other routes attempted Sunday skip-stop.
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service, wherein certain trains would stop only at certain designated stations on a route, from 1948 to 1995. It was implemented as a way to speed up travel within a route, and was one of the
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platforms, B stations had green signs and AB stations had blue signs. This system was replaced by having all stations have blue signs regardless of skip-stop type in the early 1990s.
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opened later in 1993, it had all-stop service. By early 1995, skip-stop was only used during rush hour periods on the Howard portion of the Red Line, the O'Hare portion of the
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The main part of the Chicago "L" was built in stages between 1892 and 1900. Originally the purview of four private companies, those companies merged to form the
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This led to a diminution of the service over time. In 1993, the North-South route and West-South route swapped through routes south of the Loop, creating the
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The Lake Street experiment was considered a success, having cut its operating times by a third, and other routes soon followed. The "North-South route" (
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By the 1920s, the "L" was criticized for its mismanagement, in particular Chicago's lack of a subway system in contrast to other cities such as
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double-tracked and did not allow for physical segregation of local and express services, limiting the possible options for reform. When the
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had more miles of rapid transit than the entire city of Chicago, despite having a tenth of the land area and a lower population.
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Lines) had a full four tracks for bidirectional local and express services, but these were the exceptions rather than the rule.
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in 1924. There was very little spending on expanding rapid transit within the city from the 1910s to the 1930s. By 1936
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assumed control of the "L" in 1947, these factors were leading to a decline in ridership, and action was felt needed.
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wasn't finished until a decade later, and most of Chicago's rapid transit remains above-ground.
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train that did not stop at the station even if travel time was reduced once on the train.
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were unaffected. These changes were accompanied by the closure and demolition of the old
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during the skip-stop era, depicting it as an "AB" station, now in a private collection
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and the abandonment of the line's pre-existing third express track.
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Two trains of different skip-stop services (A and B) on the
909: 724: 703: 570:: A station that was serviced by both "A" and "B" trains. 926:. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press. 736: 671: 910: 878: 835: 970: 887:. Vol. 148, no. 10 Section 2. p. 2 564:: A station that was serviced by "B trains" only. 558:: A station that was serviced by "A trains" only. 1623: 194: 740:Metropolitan Railways: Rapid Transit in America 45:'s first reforms upon its assumption of the "L" 584: 551:The following station designations were used: 956: 870: 840:. March 24, 1948 – via Newspapers.com. 828: 804: 802: 1567:Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad 963: 949: 800: 798: 796: 794: 792: 790: 788: 786: 784: 782: 86:. Construction of a subway was a plank of 1536:Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad 913:Chicago's way out: The City Manager Plan 876: 837:"L on Lake St. Will Become Express Line" 743:. Indiana University Press. p. 96. 129:On April 5, 1948, skip-stop came to the 117: 20: 921: 917:. Chicago City Manager Committee. 1936. 844: 779: 1624: 944: 757: 850: 808: 677: 190: 877:Washburn, Gary (January 10, 1995). 516: 312: 183:) and the Skokie Swift (modern-day 13: 502: 298: 266: 179:The Evanston Line (the modern-day 98:was finished in 1943, another one 16:Former Chicago "L" service pattern 14: 1648: 1591:Chicago Central Area Transit Plan 1562:Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad 1237:Randolph Street and Cuyler Avenue 509: 482: 448: 414: 380: 346: 305: 226: 113: 515: 508: 501: 481: 474: 468: 467: 447: 440: 434: 433: 413: 406: 400: 399: 379: 372: 366: 365: 345: 338: 332: 331: 311: 304: 297: 265: 246: 245: 225: 90:'s unsuccessful campaign in the 811:"A/B Skip-Stop Express Service" 475: 441: 407: 373: 339: 187:) never had skip-stop service. 1541:Northwestern Elevated Railroad 903: 880:"CTA plans skip-stop phaseout" 730: 725:Chicago City Manager Committee 709: 704:Chicago City Manager Committee 623: 1: 1531:Lake Street Elevated Railroad 1526:Chicago Rapid Transit Company 1079:Howard–Englewood–Jackson Park 767:. Chicago Architecture Center 737:William D. Middleton (2003). 680:"History – Unification" 664: 637:(both part of the modern-day 69:Chicago Rapid Transit Company 52: 1611:Skip-stop on the Chicago "L" 1546:South Side Elevated Railroad 1472:1977 Chicago Loop derailment 7: 1487:2024 Chicago train shooting 585:Decline and discontinuation 10: 1653: 56: 1632:Rapid transit in Illinois 1583: 1554: 1518: 1510:Chicago Transit Authority 1502: 1495: 1482:2023 Howard station crash 1477:2014 O'Hare station crash 1464: 1414: 1378: 1367: 1285: 1264: 1199: 1108: 1101: 1071: 988: 981: 922:Schmidt, John R. (1989). 524: 495: 490: 461: 456: 427: 422: 393: 388: 359: 354: 325: 320: 291: 287: 279: 274: 259: 254: 239: 234: 219: 174:Milwaukee-Dearborn subway 108:Chicago Transit Authority 43:Chicago Transit Authority 1059:     1050:     1041:     1032:     1023:     1014:     1005:     996:     645:(part of the modern-day 616: 124:old Logan Square station 147:Market Terminal station 126: 30: 1637:Chicago "L" 121: 100:under Dearborn Street 92:1927 mayoral election 25:A platform sign from 24: 643:North Side main line 631:Lake Street Elevated 139:Lake Street Transfer 131:Lake Street Elevated 88:William Emmett Dever 1601:Mid-City Transitway 715:Schmidt 1989 p. 156 635:South Side Elevated 96:State Street Subway 1161:Milwaukee–Dearborn 853:"Platform Signage" 851:Garfield, Graham. 809:Garfield, Graham. 678:Garfield, Graham. 127: 31: 1619: 1618: 1596:CTA Holiday Train 1579: 1578: 1575: 1574: 1460: 1459: 1260: 1259: 1097: 1096: 549: 548: 545: 544: 191:Types of stations 166:Ravenswood branch 1644: 1552: 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Index

A blue metal sign, worn at the corners, with the following text in white Helvetica font: "State Lake Inner station ← Dan Ryan to 95/State Evanston to Linden/Wilmette AB Station"
State/Lake
Chicago "L"
skip-stop
Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago "L"
Skip-stop
Chicago Rapid Transit Company
Manhattan
New York
Boston
William Emmett Dever
1927 mayoral election
State Street Subway
under Dearborn Street
Chicago Transit Authority

old Logan Square station
Lake Street Elevated
Pulaski
Lake Street Transfer
the Loop
Market Terminal station
Howard
Englewood
Jackson Park
Ravenswood branch
Milwaukee-Dearborn subway
Purple Line
Yellow Line

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