The Reader’s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds. Today marks a quarter-century of color-coded el lines. Yes, back in the day, you didn’t ride the blue or brown line. You rode the Douglas or the Congress or the Ravenswood, and if you wanted to get from the far south side to Evanston, you had to take the Dan Ryan and then transfer to the Howard at Lake Street.
The most obvious solution—add more trains—is unsustainable.
Extending the line to 130th Street will make matters worse. The trip from Howard to 130th and back will take more than two and a half hours. Most trains will have time to make just one run before the busiest part of rush hour is over. Upshot: too many trains on the south end of town, too many waiting passengers up north.
The trick, therefore, is to add service on the north side without throwing the rest of the system out of whack. The obvious way to do that is to carry more passengers on Brown Line and Purple Line trains, which circle the Loop and head back north.
If only Ed Zotti and Cecil Adams were running the city!
