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Great upload! Sadly, as soon as this endless advert started, I switched to another channel! It’s not in my zone, and I can’t fast forward it so a quick goodbye 👋
Until I was five in the 1950s I lived in Los Angeles. Overhead the streets, often fastened between buildings were an extensive array of wires. Asking my parents about this I was told that they were all what was left of the tram system. Years later I read that Los Angeles had the most extensive electric tram system in the nation with over 127 miles of track. Sad that was all ripped up for buses!
I would say it was ripped up for cars not busses. The rail system was literally purchased by car companies and dismantled in order to increase car sales.
The Chicago Surface Lines was the largest streetcar system in the world operated by one company. NYC had a larger network, but it was operated by several smaller companies. The same is true of those claiming LA had a larger system -- they are including both LARY and the Pacific Electric. The PE was technically an interurban railway, NOT a city streetcar.
@degrassifreek100 I love this conspiracy because in order for it to be true the GM buyout would have had to happen 15 years before it did for it to as sinister as it is made out to be by crazy urbanists. The GM buyout happened because of lack of demand for transit and most systems being far into debt. The demand for cars was skyrocketing even during the depression. GM buying out the systems and selling busses reduced plant costs which was a major reason why transit was in the red and enabled far more flexibility in transit. Urbanists can't on one hand complain about keeping services that consistently operate in the red, while complaining about people moving to the suburbs decreasing tax revenues costing thier precious cities money in excess plant. They also cannot complain about induced demand why trying to do that very thing for urban lifestyles.
Great video. Wish you would have talked about the Kenwood branch line that shared track with the Chicago junction railway. Maybe a part 2 in the future?
The pictures shown for the Skokie (then called Niles Center) Main Street Station are not of the station along what is today the Skokie Swift, but of the Purple Line Main Street Station in Evanston which is still in operation. You also don't not how in 2012, a new station was built on Oakton Street just a block south of the Main Street Station. This is also a very odd pick for as not only is it not a significant station, with many infill stations like it closing too, but not located within Chicago.
The CRT never made a dime. Operations never met costs, even before WWI when their only competition was electric streetcars and horses. However, there was a ton of money to be made in bond issues for construction and expansion. Every neighborhood and town wanted to be the place where the train stopped, so marginal lines to wealthy areas like Normal Park, the North Shore, and Forest Park were built even though they never had adequate ridership. As automobiles grew more affordable and popular starting in the 1920's, ridership fell even further, until finally after WWII they managed to sell the entire system to the rubes down in Springfield just before the 50+ year old infrastructure collapsed completely.
It's funny you say that, considering that the now 100-year-old infrastructure is now just as solid as they day it was built. Meanwhile, we've got crumbling street overpasses throughout the city, to the point of nets being put up to catch the falling concrete.
@@SynchroScoreMost of the overpasses are long gone already. The surface streets will still have to be rebuilt so that the proletariat can pedal their bicycles to work.
@@Mrhalligan39 "Most of the overpasses are long gone already." Have you actually been to Chicago? But yes, the surface streets need work too, to deal with all the potholes, and more bike lanes would be wonderful.
@@SynchroScore Pretty sure I’ve lived here longer than anybody who thinks we need more bike lanes. All the overpasses built by the WPA that Chicago was supposed to maintain are long gone, the ones over the expressways are someone else’s problem, and potholes will be a yearly occasion until global warming puts us in a subtropical zone. Which is one thing to look forward to, I guess.
Hopefully there will be a part 2. There are the removed stations from the east end of the Jackson Park line, the abandoned stations along I290 on the Forest Park line, and the removed stations on the Douglas Park line.
@@whitetailani I can tell you about it, mayor Daley Sr closed the 3 stations in 1973 due to ridership. 1973 was the ugliest of a lot of stations closed in '73.
I took the Ravenswood L from it's end point, or start point, to the loop week days in the middle 1960s (66-67) when I worked on IBM mainframe computers downtown. Then, we bought a home in the suburbs, and took the Northwestern RR downtown. One day, I was slopping through the melted snow wearing my galoshes, and decided that was it. I now had a few years of computer programming experience, and headed to the San Francisco area after conducting a few interviews. Love the historic photos.
I know, the 90's were 30 years ago! As a kid in the 70's getting a Super transfer on Sundays was a treat. We would ride all over Chicago. I grew up in Garfield Park.
Well some lines closed and other lines were expanded in a new one was opened up in 1993. And another line was separated away from the blue line and created the pink line.
The coverage of the L really isn’t much weaker than today, it’s just a lot of infill stations being removed and service being cut. Interesting to think about how transit affects development and how different neighborhood centers may be if demolished stations still existed
Very cool ,I could hear train horns in the distance on cool nights good memories,my dad rode trains to work for 33 years NJ shore transit to Penn station Newark NJ,I rode trains from Atlantic City NJ to Philadelphia early 2000s,😢miss them,none here in FL west coast,
Great video but please use more accurate stills for some of the segments. Most of the stills for the Metropolitan El segment and the Stockyards were excellent. Here are some interesting stills (some) out of context to the CRT-CTA topic: 6:47 A view of the demolition in progress of the Halsted station of the Met line looking southwest. Approx 400 S. Halsted 8:07 A vintage look north on Clark st. probably from the Lasalle /Van Buren station during the 1950s 10:03 a sign announcing the closing of the Grand Central Station, possibly adjacent to the passenger concourse. B&O trains were moved to the C&NW terminal (now Ogilvie Trans Center) 13:06 A view of the old Grand Central station train yard looking north. This was run by B&O rail up through the 1960s
Thank you for the video. Being from the Nw area from O’Hare… YOU have taught me more about Chicago than anyone I have ever met in person. You are the best!!!!! 🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟
If you look up where the old stockyard line crossed the east side of the expressway, You will see that there are people living on the old elevated sections.
My childhood memories of growing up in Chicago in the 70s. It was decay. My dad would drive around and point out "That great Department Store, That was a beautiful Theater." To boarded up, collapsing buildings. Aw, those were the days.
Route maps would be helpful. You could do a section of the construction of the Eisenhower Expressway...and the extension of the Blue Line to Forest Park. Dozens of homes were demolished.
I've seen CTA maps from the late '40s 1950. A lot of those stations look like they were like two blocks apart so it's really no loss that they got rid of a lot of that stuff. You know it's going to be cool when the red line gets extended out to 130th Street and they can put up a big bus terminal and you can probably have a whole bunch of South suburban Pace buses pull into it. That'll be cool it's in modern system now. It's not pokey and slow. So you know what they should just keep modernizing it. It's a slick system it's got brand new cars. It's not junky and dirty anymore. They don't have the graffiti and the slop all over the place. So I'm glad they modernized it. I use it a lot.
At 7:00, he referred to the Chicago L as the 2nd largest and 2nd busiest rail system in the US. Pre-pandemic at least, the Washington DC Metro carried more riders. From what I see on web sites, that has become true again. New York is far ahead of course.
Only Washington D.C. and the New York City subway systems have more passengers than the Chicago L. My old hometown of NYC has the largest subway system in North America. 😊
Chicago's L dates back to the 1800's and of course early 20th century and so does NYC's. DC's was built in the 1970s and for Federal employees was a key to subsidize it. DC is our special city and treated differently... its museums subsidised as belonging to us all vs other cities and most are free vs other cities. DC's Metro construction required billions of federal dollars, originally provided by Congress under the authority of the National Capital Transportation Act of 1969. The cost was paid with 67% federal money and 33% local money. AGAIN SPECIAL. Even today ALL Federal employees are provided free moneys to pay their fare IF they ride.... it is a use it or lose it voucher. Chicago's nor NYC's has no such SUBSIDIZATION by our tax dollars. DC did pass a free transit ride for this year to all residents basically providing $100 of monthly travel free. I cannot seem to get updates but for all those links saying it passed. I ask google and yahoo if it is fully in effect and get crickets of just older links saying it passed. SO WHAT THE HECK IS TRUE? All the links saying it passed or just not implemented fully yet or only for low-income riders as Federal ones already are free?
Perhaps Chicago's 14 or so commuter rail lines have a lot to do with the Chicago L system not being as big and busy as Washington D.C. which has fewer commuter rail lines.
@@luislaplume8261 This is factually false, not only do most Chicagoans not even own a car unlike D.C, but Chicago has a MUCH MUCH MUCH higher ridership.
@@WAL_DC-6B don't listen to people without verifying things yourself. Even giving the D.C metro the most liberal ridership number, Chicago's lowest ridership cta numbers beat it by 4x. These people are quite literally just saying things. Most Chicago residents don't even have a car lmao, they use their metro or commuter rail.
“This will be an express train to State and Lake.” I heard that several times over the years with the beeping of the horn as it bypassed many stations but not the likely cursing from the people waiting at the bypassed stations.
Long bygone Station at Wrightwood & Sheffield was close to the demolished Car Barns, and Electric transformer bldg still on Lill street visible from Jonquil park.
Under CRT there were two branches at Indiana station on today's Green Line. The junctions are marked by the big S curve the Green Line makes on its way through the South Side.
Today you can take the cta yellow line on the formerly old NorthShore line skokie valley route. At the end of the line on demspster street you can have coffee in the old NorthShore line station. Starbucks is there in the station.
Several of the historical photos of the "Wells Street terminal" depict the Wells Street Chicago & Northwestern terminal rather than the elevated terminal which is the subject of this video.
Growing up in Chicago, I had to ride the CTA all through my childhood. Couldn't wait to get my first car and get out of that rat trap of a system. The L was overly noisy, uncomfortable, and the cars literally stunk. The busses were undependable, irregular and also uncomfortable to ride in, lol. If you were local to the transportation you needed, it probably worked. But if you were in an area that wasn't well served, it could take forever to get somewhere due to having to transfer busses and/or trains...
The fact that the L ran all the way to Niles is fucking crazy. It always drove me crazy that the yellow never ran to old orchard. Now I understand why it bothers me so damn much.
@@TheBrainSquared Actually a comment of irony. Had a boss who commuted to work for a period, but as the bus stop was next to a cemetery he “he walked through the cemetery for three years” and got the question “did you get lost?”. Never intended to be rude, just remembered our boss. PS Which is the Main Station by the way. Had planned to travel on the L today but it’s too cold, else going north on brown/purple lines had been …. coold.
@@BobG127 Like you, I have lived in Chicago for all my 67 years. I was brought up with it being called the "L". In fact, in this very video, there are pictures where the signage clearly reads "Ride the L". Maybe it was a neighborhood thing?
I'm mixed with Italian, AL Capone might be my daddy, blood. ❤ 😊 😂 it's there business not mine. I also be like the n.b.a. sport player. Dress up in a jersey, just to have some one to jock me, in the gear.
just a quick question. Why do you say the dates like this: May the 4th or april the 19th instead of just saying may 4th or april 19th. Dont know why but it bothers me lol
🌅🌅🫱🏽🫲🏿Thank you for updating/adding on the Redline extension to 130th and the orange line extension to Ford City, (I'm assuming the Ford City Mall), was a surprise too. Mannn your channel is amazing. I grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Jersey and Newyork Metro Areas as a youth and always thought that it was the pinnacle of American railroading until my folks moved us boys to Chicagoland following 9/11. When I finally saw how expansive the Rapid Transit and commuter rail lines were out here, I knew I wanted to live up here for many more years.😂😂
I worked on the Orange Line on opening day.The mis-led promo was the station at Ford City.It’s terminal is across from Midway Airport.I think there was a difference of opinion between the CTA and Belt Line Railroad for the use of property.
Here in Nashville there's absolutely no trains or anything significant like this or the subways in New York. I think it would be fun to ride one of these trains from Downtown into Bronzeville. 🚉
Get 50% off your first order of CookUnity meals - go to cookunity.com/history50 and use my code HISTORY50 at checkout to try them out for yourself! Thanks to CookUnity for sponsoring this video!
Never buys food from Woke vendors using names with "unity" . . . Sounds New Age/ Vegan.
Great upload! Sadly, as soon as this endless advert started, I switched to another channel! It’s not in my zone, and I can’t fast forward it so a quick goodbye 👋
Until I was five in the 1950s I lived in Los Angeles. Overhead the streets, often fastened between buildings were an extensive array of wires. Asking my parents about this I was told that they were all what was left of the tram system. Years later I read that Los Angeles had the most extensive electric tram system in the nation with over 127 miles of track. Sad that was all ripped up for buses!
Was that just the Los Angeles Street Railway or was the Pacific Electric interurban system included?
I would say it was ripped up for cars not busses. The rail system was literally purchased by car companies and dismantled in order to increase car sales.
Vancouver was the same. Huge interurban electric tram system from Vancouver to Chilliwack. All ripped up for diesel buses. :(. So sad.
The Chicago Surface Lines was the largest streetcar system in the world operated by one company. NYC had a larger network, but it was operated by several smaller companies. The same is true of those claiming LA had a larger system -- they are including both LARY and the Pacific Electric. The PE was technically an interurban railway, NOT a city streetcar.
@degrassifreek100 I love this conspiracy because in order for it to be true the GM buyout would have had to happen 15 years before it did for it to as sinister as it is made out to be by crazy urbanists.
The GM buyout happened because of lack of demand for transit and most systems being far into debt. The demand for cars was skyrocketing even during the depression.
GM buying out the systems and selling busses reduced plant costs which was a major reason why transit was in the red and enabled far more flexibility in transit. Urbanists can't on one hand complain about keeping services that consistently operate in the red, while complaining about people moving to the suburbs decreasing tax revenues costing thier precious cities money in excess plant. They also cannot complain about induced demand why trying to do that very thing for urban lifestyles.
I'm a Chicago native and I love seeing old pictures and videos on Chicago's history. Great work with this one Ryan.
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@ITSHISTORYsame here, theres always something funky about this city
You missed three on the Jackson Park branch of the Green Line. University, Dorchester and Jackson Park.
8:03 It was the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin RR (CA&E)
It was founded as the Aurora, Elgin, & Chicago, declared bankruptcy in 1918, and was reorganized into the CA&E in 1922.
@@SynchroScore Before my time - LOL. Thanks
Great video. Wish you would have talked about the Kenwood branch line that shared track with the Chicago junction railway. Maybe a part 2 in the future?
@YeOldeGeezer i have seen the doors closed off for the old stations.
The only reason I watched this video was to learn more about the Kenwood branch. I was disappointed that it was not included.
The pictures shown for the Skokie (then called Niles Center) Main Street Station are not of the station along what is today the Skokie Swift, but of the Purple Line Main Street Station in Evanston which is still in operation. You also don't not how in 2012, a new station was built on Oakton Street just a block south of the Main Street Station.
This is also a very odd pick for as not only is it not a significant station, with many infill stations like it closing too, but not located within Chicago.
Keep it up socash, I need my daily Chicago fix. Have you done one on the tunnels used during prohibition? North side they stretched
The CRT never made a dime. Operations never met costs, even before WWI when their only competition was electric streetcars and horses. However, there was a ton of money to be made in bond issues for construction and expansion. Every neighborhood and town wanted to be the place where the train stopped, so marginal lines to wealthy areas like Normal Park, the North Shore, and Forest Park were built even though they never had adequate ridership. As automobiles grew more affordable and popular starting in the 1920's, ridership fell even further, until finally after WWII they managed to sell the entire system to the rubes down in Springfield just before the 50+ year old infrastructure collapsed completely.
It's funny you say that, considering that the now 100-year-old infrastructure is now just as solid as they day it was built. Meanwhile, we've got crumbling street overpasses throughout the city, to the point of nets being put up to catch the falling concrete.
@@SynchroScoreMost of the overpasses are long gone already. The surface streets will still have to be rebuilt so that the proletariat can pedal their bicycles to work.
@@Mrhalligan39 "Most of the overpasses are long gone already." Have you actually been to Chicago? But yes, the surface streets need work too, to deal with all the potholes, and more bike lanes would be wonderful.
@@SynchroScore Pretty sure I’ve lived here longer than anybody who thinks we need more bike lanes. All the overpasses built by the WPA that Chicago was supposed to maintain are long gone, the ones over the expressways are someone else’s problem, and potholes will be a yearly occasion until global warming puts us in a subtropical zone. Which is one thing to look forward to, I guess.
So much history so much detail ! Excellent ! We too often take note only of what is , never considering how much more there was before today.
Hopefully there will be a part 2. There are the removed stations from the east end of the Jackson Park line, the abandoned stations along I290 on the Forest Park line, and the removed stations on the Douglas Park line.
Yup. Jackson park was destroyed in the 90's
I've always wondered about the abandoned blue line stations on 290
@@whitetailani I can tell you about it, mayor Daley Sr closed the 3 stations in 1973 due to ridership. 1973 was the ugliest of a lot of stations closed in '73.
Thanks for the content, all your videos are interesting! I work in the loop and it’s fun to tell my coworkers what I learned watching your videos.
I took the Ravenswood L from it's end point, or start point, to the loop week days in the middle 1960s (66-67) when I worked on IBM mainframe computers downtown. Then, we bought a home in the suburbs, and took the Northwestern RR downtown. One day, I was slopping through the melted snow wearing my galoshes, and decided that was it. I now had a few years of computer programming experience, and headed to the San Francisco area after conducting a few interviews. Love the historic photos.
8:33
The Fugitive: "that sounds like an L" - classic! 🎬
As late as the early 1990s they had conductors with belt slung change counters collecting fares on some lines. Seems like a hundred years ago.
I know, the 90's were 30 years ago! As a kid in the 70's getting a Super transfer on Sundays was a treat. We would ride all over Chicago. I grew up in Garfield Park.
I definitely remember the $.50 surcharge on the Evanston Express.
I’ve been waiting for a video like this on UA-cam for a while
Well some lines closed and other lines were expanded in a new one was opened up in 1993. And another line was separated away from the blue line and created the pink line.
The coverage of the L really isn’t much weaker than today, it’s just a lot of infill stations being removed and service being cut. Interesting to think about how transit affects development and how different neighborhood centers may be if demolished stations still existed
Thanks again John in Chicago
Very cool, Ryan - great job and something I didn't know about. Keep up the awesome work!
I really appreciate your narrative on this iconic subject.
Long live Chicago! Born/raised here.
Very cool ,I could hear train horns in the distance on cool nights good memories,my dad rode trains to work for 33 years NJ shore transit to Penn station Newark NJ,I rode trains from Atlantic City NJ to Philadelphia early 2000s,😢miss them,none here in FL west coast,
Great video but please use more accurate stills for some of the segments. Most of the stills for the Metropolitan El segment and the Stockyards were excellent. Here are some interesting stills (some) out of context to the CRT-CTA topic:
6:47 A view of the demolition in progress of the Halsted station of the Met line looking southwest. Approx 400 S. Halsted
8:07 A vintage look north on Clark st. probably from the Lasalle /Van Buren station during the 1950s
10:03 a sign announcing the closing of the Grand Central Station, possibly adjacent to the passenger concourse. B&O trains were moved to the C&NW terminal (now Ogilvie Trans Center)
13:06 A view of the old Grand Central station train yard looking north. This was run by B&O rail up through the 1960s
Thank you for the video. Being from the Nw area from O’Hare… YOU have taught me more about Chicago than anyone I have ever met in person.
You are the best!!!!! 🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟
An Excellent Well researched video!! Thank you!
If you look up where the old stockyard line crossed the east side of the expressway, You will see that there are people living on the old elevated sections.
Cool. What streets could I see the old line? I stay by 47th and Western amd find Chicago history fascinating
My childhood memories of growing up in Chicago in the 70s. It was decay. My dad would drive around and point out "That great Department Store, That was a beautiful Theater." To boarded up, collapsing buildings. Aw, those were the days.
Route maps would be helpful.
You could do a section of the construction of the Eisenhower Expressway...and the extension of the Blue Line to Forest Park.
Dozens of homes were demolished.
I've seen CTA maps from the late '40s 1950. A lot of those stations look like they were like two blocks apart so it's really no loss that they got rid of a lot of that stuff. You know it's going to be cool when the red line gets extended out to 130th Street and they can put up a big bus terminal and you can probably have a whole bunch of South suburban Pace buses pull into it. That'll be cool it's in modern system now. It's not pokey and slow. So you know what they should just keep modernizing it. It's a slick system it's got brand new cars. It's not junky and dirty anymore. They don't have the graffiti and the slop all over the place. So I'm glad they modernized it. I use it a lot.
Dude, have you been to the 95th RedLine Terminal lately?? There's already a bunch of Pace buses going in there. My fave is the 352 Halsted.😎😎
Chicago, North Shore And Milwaukee was the name of the electric interurban
At 7:00, he referred to the Chicago L as the 2nd largest and 2nd busiest rail system in the US. Pre-pandemic at least, the Washington DC Metro carried more riders. From what I see on web sites, that has become true again. New York is far ahead of course.
Only Washington D.C. and the New York City subway systems have more passengers than the Chicago L. My old hometown of NYC has the largest subway system in North America. 😊
Chicago's L dates back to the 1800's and of course early 20th century and so does NYC's. DC's was built in the 1970s and for Federal employees was a key to subsidize it.
DC is our special city and treated differently... its museums subsidised as belonging to us all vs other cities and most are free vs other cities.
DC's Metro construction required billions of federal dollars, originally provided by Congress under the authority of the National Capital Transportation Act of 1969. The cost was paid with 67% federal money and 33% local money. AGAIN SPECIAL.
Even today ALL Federal employees are provided free moneys to pay their fare IF they ride.... it is a use it or lose it voucher. Chicago's nor NYC's has no such SUBSIDIZATION by our tax dollars.
DC did pass a free transit ride for this year to all residents basically providing $100 of monthly travel free. I cannot seem to get updates but for all those links saying it passed. I ask google and yahoo if it is fully in effect and get crickets of just older links saying it passed. SO WHAT THE HECK IS TRUE? All the links saying it passed or just not implemented fully yet or only for low-income riders as Federal ones already are free?
Perhaps Chicago's 14 or so commuter rail lines have a lot to do with the Chicago L system not being as big and busy as Washington D.C. which has fewer commuter rail lines.
@@luislaplume8261 This is factually false, not only do most Chicagoans not even own a car unlike D.C, but Chicago has a MUCH MUCH MUCH higher ridership.
@@WAL_DC-6B don't listen to people without verifying things yourself. Even giving the D.C metro the most liberal ridership number, Chicago's lowest ridership cta numbers beat it by 4x. These people are quite literally just saying things. Most Chicago residents don't even have a car lmao, they use their metro or commuter rail.
The Evanston Main Street Station still exists, it is on the now called the Purple Line
Chicago rail road museum in union IL have a few old city railcars. Including the CNW few others
Gerneral motors (GM Detroit diesel Buses) ! had a hand in killing off trolly lines and elavted trains across the country
A shame we lost so much L infrastructure. I wish we had all the lost stations and lines
Hope you will be doing a part two to include the branches on the south side and west suburbs.
18:50 so Thaaaats whats behind the clock tower and its buildings! Always wondered that as a kid
i love the chicago oriented videos
Really enjoy this. Especially the Chicago history
“Next stop, Merchandise Mart.”
This is a Blue Line train to Midway
“This will be an express train to State and Lake.” I heard that several times over the years with the beeping of the horn as it bypassed many stations but not the likely cursing from the people waiting at the bypassed stations.
@@Minelaughterblue line goes to o’hare. Orange line goes to midway
Long bygone Station at Wrightwood & Sheffield was close to the demolished Car Barns, and Electric transformer bldg still on Lill street visible from Jonquil park.
That's not the Main St station that was on the NSL. You're showing the one that was on the Evanston (Purple) line.
Thank you for your videos.
Glad you like them!
Chicago is far more relative than New yourk city. Today!
Under CRT there were two branches at Indiana station on today's Green Line. The junctions are marked by the big S curve the Green Line makes on its way through the South Side.
Today you can take the cta yellow line on the formerly old NorthShore line skokie valley route. At the end of the line on demspster street you can have coffee in the old NorthShore line station. Starbucks is there in the station.
A fascinating lesson in Chicago public transportation history.
Now if only there was a follow up with the brief existence of Chicago's street cars.
Such a smooth transition into todays sponsor 😅
Can you do a video of Brooklyn BRT/BMT Els And Park Row
You should check out the Illinois Railway Museum in Union Illinois. A lot of railway history and historic stations
Can you cover Allis chalmers and or AMC?
I would ride the L to Wriggle Field from the Illinois Central station on 3 day weekends from Ft Dodge ,Iowa on the Land of Corn .
Several of the historical photos of the "Wells Street terminal" depict the Wells Street Chicago & Northwestern terminal rather than the elevated terminal which is the subject of this video.
Growing up in Chicago, I had to ride the CTA all through my childhood. Couldn't wait to get my first car and get out of that rat trap of a system.
The L was overly noisy, uncomfortable, and the cars literally stunk. The busses were undependable, irregular and also uncomfortable to ride in, lol.
If you were local to the transportation you needed, it probably worked. But if you were in an area that wasn't well served, it could take forever to get somewhere due to having to transfer busses and/or trains...
@@davidkepley4396you rode the cta you didn't even have a car let alone a home. You couldn't afford to live in Chicago
The fact that the L ran all the way to Niles is fucking crazy. It always drove me crazy that the yellow never ran to old orchard. Now I understand why it bothers me so damn much.
I used to love to just ride the L when I visited. Can you still see into apartments and go by the old turkish baths?
Peeping Tom I see.
I lived i. Chicago all my life and i never knew Normal had a.L branch now i knew Kenwood and Stockyard had a L branch
I go through the Main St. Station several times a day..
Lost your way?! (Irony)
@@Soundbrigade ?
@@TheBrainSquared Actually a comment of irony. Had a boss who commuted to work for a period, but as the bus stop was next to a cemetery he “he walked through the cemetery for three years” and got the question “did you get lost?”.
Never intended to be rude, just remembered our boss.
PS Which is the Main Station by the way. Had planned to travel on the L today but it’s too cold, else going north on brown/purple lines had been …. coold.
how tragic .. a great train system .. and forcing people to buy cars
It's not "L" -- it's "El" (for Elevated).
It's "L". The "El" was in New York.
@@SynchroScore I was born in Chicago and have lived in or near it for over 65 years. It's "El."
@@BobG127 Like you, I have lived in Chicago for all my 67 years. I was brought up with it being called the "L". In fact, in this very video, there are pictures where the signage clearly reads "Ride the L". Maybe it was a neighborhood thing?
Rebuild with modern infrastructure
It seems weird to hear that CTA made the right financial move...ever.
I'm mixed with Italian, AL Capone might be my daddy, blood. ❤ 😊 😂 it's there business not mine. I also be like the n.b.a. sport player. Dress up in a jersey, just to have some one to jock me, in the gear.
UTAHS INTERURBANS!!!! PLEASE!!!! (Bamberger, salt lake & utah, utah idaho central, saltair route)
The Main stop was not demolished, it's still standing.
I am like number 157
Oh, Dear God. Where’s the exit door?
4th
Yeah? Well I'm #1960. My number is much bigger than yours is and is therefore better!
3rd loser
South side always gets misrepresented 👎
SOUTH SIDE STAND UP.......sorry, channeling the terrible White Sox tv announcer
@@joeycool44 no prob 👍
Sorry Cincinnati, Chicago is flat
just a quick question. Why do you say the dates like this: May the 4th or april the 19th instead of just saying may 4th or april 19th. Dont know why but it bothers me lol
🌅🌅🫱🏽🫲🏿Thank you for updating/adding on the Redline extension to 130th and the orange line extension to Ford City, (I'm assuming the Ford City Mall), was a surprise too. Mannn your channel is amazing. I grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Jersey and Newyork Metro Areas as a youth and always thought that it was the pinnacle of American railroading until my folks moved us boys to Chicagoland following 9/11. When I finally saw how expansive the Rapid Transit and commuter rail lines were out here, I knew I wanted to live up here for many more years.😂😂
I worked on the Orange Line on opening day.The mis-led promo was the station at Ford City.It’s terminal is across from Midway Airport.I think there was a difference of opinion between the CTA and Belt Line Railroad for the use of property.
Here in Nashville there's absolutely no trains or anything significant like this or the subways in New York. I think it would be fun to ride one of these trains from Downtown into Bronzeville. 🚉