Chicago's North Side ‘L’: The First Hundred Years

Chicago's North Side 'L' is the city's most intensively used rail transit corridor. Consisting of the Red Line (Howard), Brown Line (Ravenswood), Purple Line (Evanston), and Yellow Line (Skokie Swift), this complex, interrelated operation shares a set of alignments opened for service between 1900 and 1943. After years of stable ridership, the North Side 'L' is now attracting increasing numbers of customers. There are plans for extending platform lengths on the Brown Line to handle passengers more effectively, and other efforts are under way that could further enhance the performance of the North Side 'L'.