Loyola station

Loyola
Location	1200 West Loyola Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60626
Coordinates	42°00′04″N 87°39′40″W / 42.001076°N 87.660974°W
Owned by	Chicago Transit Authority
Line(s)	Red Line
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	4
Construction
Structure type	Embankment
Bicycle facilities	Yes
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	May 16, 1908
Rebuilt	1921, 1980–82, 2012–13
Previous names	Hayes Street
Traffic
Passengers (2014)	1,827,686[1]  0.7%
Rank	36 out of 143[lower-alpha 1]
Services
Preceding station   Chicago "L"   Following station Morse toward Howard Red Line Granville toward 95th/Dan Ryan
Route map Legend Purple Line Express north to Linden Red Line north to Howard Sheridan Road Purple Line Express south to Loop Red Line south to 95th/Dan Ryan

Loyola is a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system, served by the Red Line. It is located at 1200 West Loyola Avenue in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The station has high ridership by students from the nearby Lakeshore Campus of Loyola University Chicago. The Red Line right-of-way runs directly through the southwest corner of the campus.

History

This is the third station at this location; the original opened in 1908 and was rebuilt in 1921, the current station was built from 1980 to 1982. The entrance to the original station was on Loyola Avenue, but the new station's entrance is technically on the west side of Sheridan Road, ideally situated across the street from a heavily used Loyola campus entrance. On Loyola Avenue, there is still a passageway leading to the turnstiles as well as an exit/entrance rotorgate operated by Ventra farecards. The station is accessible to those with disabilities.

The current platform is elevated on a fill embankment and an island between the southbound Red Line tracks to the west and the northbound Red Line tracks to the east. There is no platform access to the outside express tracks used by Purple Line Express trains during weekday rush hours. The platform is exceptionally long and narrow, over 1,000 feet (300 m) in length. It is also somewhat curved to the northwest. The platform is split in half by an elevator shaft. Southbound trains stop at the north portion of the platform while northbound trains stop at the south portion, although these locations were reversed prior to August 1998. Both halves of the platform can handle eight-car trains, the typical car length in use on the Red Line. A viaduct carries a portion of the southern platform over Sheridan Road.

The station house itself is also fairly large and boasts a great deal of concession space. As of 2012, the Loyola station is home to a Dunkin' Donuts franchise and a privately owned newsstand, open twenty-four hours a day. A McDonald's restaurant formerly housed adjacent to the station closed in early 2012, in preparations for a renovation of the station house scheduled to begin in late-spring 2012. The planned renovations call for the construction of a pedestrian plaza adjacent to the station house. (see Loyola station renovation)

Between 1949 and 1976, Evanston Express trains (the service which would eventually be known as the Purple Line Express) also stopped at Loyola.^[2][3]

Loyola station renovation

The station is currently being renovated due to a new plaza that will be built adjacent to the station, so the CTA decided to build a front entrance facing the plaza.^[4] The station will remain open during construction and construction will be staged in phases to maintain access and minimize impact on regular use of the station. The front entrance was renovated in 2013.

Bus connections

CTA

• #147 Outer Drive Express
• #151 Sheridan (Sunday/holiday evenings only)
• #155 Devon

Notes and references

Notes

1. Due to possible double-counting of physically-connected stations, the CTA's official 2014 tally of stations was 145, but for ridership purposes reported having only 143 stations.

References

1. "Monthly Ridership Report – December 2014" (PDF). Chicago Transit Authority Ridership Analysis and Reporting. March 5, 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
2. "CTA will start new skip-stop service on 'L'; north and south routes affected in plan." Chicago Daily Tribune. June 30, 1949.
3. "Express 'L' ends stops at 2 stations." Chicago Tribune. December 9, 1976.
4. "Red Ahead - Loyola Renovation". Chicago Transit Authority. Retrieved October 7, 2012.

External links

• Loyola Station Page at Chicago-'L'.org
• Train schedule (PDF) at CTA official site
• Loyola Station Page CTA official site
• Sheridan Road entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Loyola Avenue Entrance from Google Maps Street View