Editing Blue Line (CTA) (section)

== Expansion ==

=== Line extensions ===
For years, there has been discussions of extending the [[O'Hare, Chicago|O'Hare]] terminus of the Blue Line westward to [[Schaumburg, Illinois|Schaumburg]], but that has been changed, due to recent developments involving the planning of the [[Suburban Transit Access Route (Metra)|Metra STAR Line]] and various other transportation projects<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nitkin |first1=Alex |title=The CTA Has Interesting Ideas For a Blue Line Extension Sitting on the Shelf |url=https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/march-2018/the-cta-has-interesting-ideas-for-a-blue-line-extension-sitting-on-the-shelf/ |access-date=1 April 2025 |publisher=Chicago Magazine |date=March 23, 2018}}</ref>.

However, in 2008, the [[Regional Transportation Authority (Illinois)|Regional Transit Authority]] revealed a plan to the RTA board to expand commuter rail and bus service, which included a {{convert|13.3|mi|km|adj=on}} extension of the Blue Line, from its current western terminus at Forest Park to [[Yorktown Center]] in [[Lombard, Illinois]]. Several feeder bus services would also be implemented in this plan. The prospect of this extension was also listed in the Chicago region's 2030 master plan.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-corridor_22feb22,0,3797698.story | title=Cook-DuPage corridor project would extend Blue Line |newspaper=Chicago Tribune| access-date=2008-03-04 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226021531/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-corridor_22feb22,0,3797698.story | archive-date=2008-02-26 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2013, the idea of an infill station at Nagle and Bryn Mawr Avenues was postponed. Such a station remains only idea but may come to fruition in the future because that particular stretch of the line, between Jefferson Park and Harlem, is the second longest on the 'L' system without a station, behind the gap on the [[Yellow Line (CTA)|Yellow Line]] between {{cta|Oakton-Skokie}} and {{cta|Howard}}, although the Yellow Line was designed this way to quickly shuttle passengers to/from the Howard station (the Howard station serves the Red and Purple Lines).<ref>[http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130205/norwood-park/cta-blue-line-stop-at-nagle-avenue-would-have-big-impact-on-community Coalition Pushes for CTA Blue Line Stop at Nagle, Bryn Mawr Avenues – Norwood Park – DNAinfo.com Chicago<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209121122/http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130205/norwood-park/cta-blue-line-stop-at-nagle-avenue-would-have-big-impact-on-community |date=2013-02-09 }}</ref>

In December 2016, Pace introduced the on-highway BRT [[Pace I-90 Express|I-90 Express]] service. The successor to the Blue Line Extension and the STAR Line, this service serves as an extension of the Blue Line and provides rapid service along I-90 all the way to Elgin.

=== Extra tracks ===
{{Main|Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad}}

The surface right-of-way for the Congress Branch, including overcrossings, undergrade bridges and two short tunnels under the expressway, contains space for one extra track between Forest Park and Kenton Avenue and two extra tracks from Kenton to the tunnel portals at UIC-Halsted. It was intended that the interurban Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad, which had utilized the Garfield Park Elevated until 1953 to reach its Loop terminal at Wells Street, would use these extra tracks. However, the CA&E ceased passenger service on July 3, 1957, before track construction had started.<ref name=krambles>{{cite book|last=Krambles|first=George and Art Peterson|title=CTA at 45|year=1993|publisher=George Krambles Transit Scholarship Fund|location=Oak Park, Illinois, USA|isbn=0-9637965-4-2|pages=118–119}}</ref> The CTA also considered plans of its own to add these as express tracks (and service) over the years, as well as a rerouting of the [[Green Line (CTA)|Lake Elevated]] onto the Paulina Elevated (today's [[Pink Line (Chicago Transit Authority)|Pink Line]]) into a new quadrant of the junction with the Douglas Line at Racine, but these plans were discarded for alternative plans and today the system has an entirely separate line in the system, the Pink Line.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|last=Garfield|first=Graham|title=FAQ: Tracks and Connectiona|url=http://www.chicago-l.org/FAQ.html#3.9|work=Chicago-L.org|access-date=16 May 2011}}</ref>

=== Stub tunnels ===
{{Further|Chicago Central Area Transit Plan}}

[[File:Distributor Subway.jpg|thumb|250x250px|An artist's rendition of the proposed Monroe Street Subway, at Dearborn Street, with various underground levels]]
The dual portals of the Congress Branch at UIC-Halsted are actually quadruple. Two extra portals exist to the north of the Blue Line portals, which extend only a few dozen feet beyond the portals. These were intended to accommodate future expansion, including a new CA&E line to a new terminal.<ref name=":1" /> Among those plans were a loop subway system via Congress, Dearborn, Lake, and Clinton when the Milwaukee-Dearborn-Congress Subway was completed between 1951 and 1958, and a shuttle subway route under Jackson Street to Grant Park (1958, "New Horizons for Chicago Metropolitan Area", ''CTA'').

Between 1968 and 1978, a plan in the form of [[Chicago Central Area Transit Plan|another subway corridor]] in the Downtown area was proposed, which was to be routed from UIC-Halsted Station through the north portals, then north under Des Plaines Street to Monroe Street and east under Monroe Street to [[Grant Park (Chicago)|Grant Park]] and [[Millennium Park]], where it was to split into two branches: one north to Walton Street serving the North Michigan Avenue area and the other southeast to McCormick Place utilizing [[Metra Electric]] right-of-way. Though these portals are still not used, the subway corridor plan under Monroe Street was never officially canceled when the Crosstown and [[Chicago Central Area Transit Plan|Loop Subway]] projects were deferred in 1979. It remains to this day an active program.

Between Grand/Milwaukee and Clark/Lake in the Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway, two more stub tunnels exist, continuing west under Lake Street while the in-service tracks turn northwest under Milwaukee Avenue. This junction (actually a stacked junction), built in the 1940s along with the subway, was intended for a never-built connection to, or subway replacement of the Lake Street Elevated.<ref name=chgo-l>{{cite web|last=Garfield|first=Graham|title=FAQ: Abandoned, Disused & Demolished Facilities/Lines|url=http://www.chicago-l.org/FAQ.html#6.2|work=Chicago-L.org|access-date=16 May 2011}}</ref> In the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, they were also proposed to be a service link between the Dearborn Subway and a high-speed subway route in Randolph Street to replace a portion of the Lake Street 'L' east of Damen Avenue (''Transit Planning Study Chicago Central Area'', April 1968).