Forest Park (CTA station)

Forest Park
Location	711 South Des Plaines Avenue Forest Park, Illinois 60130
Coordinates	41°52′27″N 87°49′02″W / 41.874257°N 87.817318°W
Owned by	Chicago Transit Authority, City of Forest Park
Line(s)	Blue Line
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Construction
Structure type	Elevated
Parking	1051 Spaces
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	March 11, 1905
Rebuilt	1953, 1959, 1981–82
Previous names	Des Plaines
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	1,135,352[1]  1.9% (CTA)
Rank	66 out of 143[lower-alpha 1]
Services
Preceding station   Chicago "L"   Following station Harlem toward O'Hare Blue Line Congress Branch Terminus
Route map Legend Blue Line east to O'Hare Des Plaines Ave. To yard

Forest Park is a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system, located in the city of Forest Park, Illinois and serving the Blue Line. Before the Congress Line was built, it served as terminal for the Garfield Line. It is the western terminus of the Forest Park branch. The station was known as Des Plaines until 1994. It is also referred to as the Forest Park Transit Center by Pace because it is a major terminal for Pace buses.^[2] The station contains a 1051-space Park and Ride lot which uses the "Pay and Display" system, in which fees are paid at the lot entrance. It is located next to the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad tracks but that railroad line curves away from the station towards the Madison Street level crossing where its ownership ends.

History

Forest Park opened in 1902, as a local interurban station on the Aurora Elgin and Chicago Railway. On March 11, 1905, the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad extended its Garfield Park rapid transit service west over the tracks of the Aurora Elgin and Chicago. At this time Forest Park became the western terminal for the 'L' while continuing to serve as an interurban station. In 1958, the Congress Branch opened in the median of the Eisenhower Expressway, the blue line was rerouted and connected to the Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway Station LaSalle making Forest Park, the southern terminus of the blue line. Forest Park, however, is one of the few stations in the Congress Branch line that is not in the median of the Eisenhower Expressway, and is 350 meters (1,148 ft 4 in) north of it. In 1966, the park-and-ride schedule of 1051 seats was opened and a new station was built and completed in December 1982 along with the Transit Center that provides connection to many bus lines.

On December 17, 2012, the CTA discontinued the #17 route, leaving only Pace buses to serve Forest Park.

The station is open 24 hours / 7 days a week and 1,175,588 passengers used it in 2011.

Bus connections

Pace

• #301 Roosevelt Road
• #303 Forest Park-Rosemont
• #305 Cicero-River Forest
• #308 Medical Center
• #310 Madison Street-Hillside
• #317 Westchester
• #318 West North Avenue
• #320 Madison Street
• #327 Industrial Drive
• #757 Northwest Connection
• #770 Brookfield Zoo Express-Blue Line

Notes and references

Notes

1. Due to possible double-counting of physically-connected stations, the CTA's official 2015 tally of stations was 146, but for ridership purposes reported having only 143 stations.

References

1. "Monthly Ridership Report – December 2015" (PDF). Chicago Transit Authority Ridership Analysis and Reporting. January 11, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
2. Pace Bus Website

External links

• Forest Park Station Page