2024 12 22
Yesterday it was announced that the CTA was awarded federal funds to expand the red line further south to reach the edge of the city. The project will be wildly expensive and is not without its critics as to how the money could be better spent. Personally, I love to see the addition of new rail despite the high price tag and hope this trend, slow as it is, will continue.
That steel beam in the above image used to support an entire damn elevated train line that ran through Chicago’s Humboldt Park some five decades ago or so. Adjacent to North Avenue, down the street from where I live, was a CTA rail line that connected my neighborhood into the rest of the city’s network. Of course, that line is long dead and gone, with no remnants of its existence beyond some internet images and this one steel column that survived the purge to profitability and consolidation the system undertook during the years of urban decay and suburbanization. We lost many train lines (and an entire amusement park!) as cars became the prioritized method of transportation.
I’ve been dreaming of an automated light rail “Boulevard Line” running between and connecting the Logan Square Blue Line with the Garfield Park Conservatory Green Line. It’s fun to think about but I doubt this will ever happen. If I find myself bored one day, perhaps I will write up a more formal plan and put it out there for people to look at, along with my much hyped and mysterious Plan For a New Illinois.
-Clayton
A steel column embedded into a brick wall. That’s it! Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Yesterday it was announced that the CTA was awarded federal funds to expand the red line further south to reach the edge of the city. The project will be wildly expensive and is not without its critics as to how the money could be better spent. Personally, I love to see the addition of new rail despite the high price tag and hope this trend, slow as it is, will continue.
That steel beam in the above image used to support an entire damn elevated train line that ran through Chicago’s Humboldt Park some five decades ago or so. Adjacent to North Avenue, down the street from where I live, was a CTA rail line that connected my neighborhood into the rest of the city’s network. Of course, that line is long dead and gone, with no remnants of its existence beyond some internet images and this one steel column that survived the purge to profitability and consolidation the system undertook during the years of urban decay and suburbanization. We lost many train lines (and an entire amusement park!) as cars became the prioritized method of transportation.
I’ve been dreaming of an automated light rail “Boulevard Line” running between and connecting the Logan Square Blue Line with the Garfield Park Conservatory Green Line. It’s fun to think about but I doubt this will ever happen. If I find myself bored one day, perhaps I will write up a more formal plan and put it out there for people to look at, along with my much hyped and mysterious Plan For a New Illinois.
-Clayton