Post by barbie geePost by Adam H. KermanPost by Cydrome LeaderPost by M.L.Post by s***@gmail.comThe CTA coddles bus people like Adam and Mark. In my day I had to walk
a mile just to reach the CTA.
Improbable. CTA had a lot more buses, routes and stops a few decades
ago.
this is true.
nobody believes me when I talk about the elston bus.
I used to live on Kimball just south of Belmont. Belmont station bus loop
was the midday terminal of the Clybourn segment of 41 Elston-Clybourn bus.
At the time, the route ran infrequently weekdays only, and the Elston segment
was operated rush hours only. Without looking it up, I think shortly after
I moved there, CTA cut the Clybourn segment entirely and kept the Elston
segment, rush hours only, for a couple of years, then cut that out.
In streetcar era, there were two routes, Elston-Clybourn (replaced by the
41 bus), and Elston between Belmont and downtown. The Elston-downtown
route died when I was a kid, so I never saw it.
circa around what years, then?
of course, when I was a kid, I actually RODE on some of those old electric
buses... Now that was a "streetcar", or at least that's what grandma
called it.
I'll have to look it up. In much of the city, the progression was
streetcar > trolley coach > diesel bus, although CTA also operated
propane and gas buses. Major car lines that served downtown, like
Madison Street, were replaced with buses and not trolley coaches to
appease downtown property owners that wanted to eliminate overheard wires.
I have a vague memory of riding trolley coaches as a kid.
Here's a 1946 map. CTA exists but would not take over Chicago Rapid Transit
(the "L") and Chicago Surface Lines (street cars and extension buses) until
1947, and Chicago Motor Coach until 1952. Note bus service in Evanston
that CTA wouldn't take over until 1973 on a less extensive route network,
much of that is now gone, and CTA never took over the Chicago & West Towns
streets cars, all replaced by buses in 1948. Chicago Aurora & Elgin is noted
west of Bellwood, although CA&E owned the tracks until Laramie Avenue;
Garfield Park "L" to the east. No Dearborn Subway; State Street Subway
had opened in 1943. Westchester, Skokie, Stockyard, Kenwood, Normal Park
branches all exist, Northwest Side "L" branch off Garfield Park "L" serves
Logan Square and Humboldt Park "L" branches.
Every one of those solid green lines in the city and broken blue lines in
the western suburbs was a streetcar route.
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