Detoured CTA Red Line, Madison to Chicago Ave. (Pt. 2)

What you can't hear is the unintentinally hilarious reactions of horrified passengers. "What's the Red Line doing up here?" "It's not running in the subway?" "You mean I have to walk two blocks!?" "I have to transfer to a BUS!?" Come on, people! Adapt or perish! This detour was announced beforehand in the media. None of the stations on the detour are more than eight blocks from those on the normal route. Most were one or two. Roosevelt and Clark/Lake are free transfers! Get a route map; they're free at every station! And be happy the CTA is maintaining its infrastructure! One advantage of this temporary route, that usually only Purple and Brown Line passengers get to enjoy: A beautiful vista of the skyscrapers on either side of the Chicago River, and the bascule bridges across it.

Detoured CTA Red Line, Cermak to Madison (Pt. 1)

Over the weekend of April 28-29, because of construction, the CTA Dan Ryan Red Line was detoured from its normal route through the State Street subway up onto the south side and Loop elevated tracks used by the Orange, Brown, Pink and Green Lines. The Dan Ryan "L" had used these elevated tracks from its opening in 1969 to 1993, during which time it was through-routed with the Lake Street elevated. If you remember when the area around the elevated tracks used to be auto-parts stores (one sold nothing but used taillights!), salvage yards and warehouses, you'll either be shocked or pleasantly surprised. Even though the switch had been announced in the newspapers and on televion for several days before this, trains had to sit in main stations for several minutes at a time while train operators answered questions from confused passengers. At these times, it might not be a bad idea to bring back temporary conductors;-)