"This Is a Silver Line Train to 54th & Cermak"

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Feb 16, 2006 3:55PM

Ready for a Silver Line? The CTA is chopping off the Cermak Branch from the Blue Line and will be calling it something else, tentatively the "Silver Line," starting this summer. It's hard to describe what they're doing with words, we've gotten all confused trying to figure it out, but we think we finally have this graphic right. So just look at it to see the changes.

A key component of the change is the Paulina Connector, that section of elevated tracks that runs just west of Ashland Ave., parallel to it. The CTA has used this connector to move equipment between the Blue & Green Lines but it hasn't been used for regularly scheduled trains since the 1950's. Don't worry about that shit being rickety after not having been used for 50-odd years, the CTA has recently renovated and upgraded it so it can handle daily service.

This Cermak Branch change was approved by the CTA board for a 180-day trial. There are also 8 bus routes that are being realigned and 5 that are being added, including a Cicero express from the Jefferson Park Blue Line to the Midway Airport Orange Line. At the end of the trial the CTA will decide if they want to make the changes permanent.