Forest Park (CTA station)

Forest Park
Station statistics
Address	711 South Des Plaines Avenue Forest Park, Illinois 60130
Coordinates	41°52′27″N 87°49′02″W / 41.874257°N 87.817318°W / 41.874257; -87.817318Coordinates: 41°52′27″N 87°49′02″W / 41.874257°N 87.817318°W / 41.874257; -87.817318
Lines	Blue Line
Structure	Elevated
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Parking	1051 Spaces
Other information
Opened	March 11, 1905
Rebuilt	1953, 1959, 1981-82
Accessible
Owned by	Chicago Transit Authority
Formerly	Desplaines
Traffic
Passengers (2008)	1,249,061  7% (CTA)
Services
Preceding station   Chicago 'L'   Following station Harlem toward O'Hare Blue Line Congress Branch Terminus

Forest Park is a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system, located in the city of Forest Park and serving the Blue Line. Before the Congress Line was built it served as terminal for the Garfield Line, and is possibly the only station on that line to survive today. It is the western terminus of the Forest Park branch. The station was known as Desplaines until 1994. It is also referred to as the Forest Park Transit Center by Pace because it is a major terminal for buses.^[1] 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. This system is unique among CTA Park and Ride lots; at all other lots, fees are paid in numbered boxes in the station house.

History

NOTE: Information retrieved from French Wikipedia

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 subway station was built and completed in December 1982 along with the Transit Center that provides connection to many bus lines.

The station is open 24 hours / 7 days a week and 1,249,061 passengers used it in 2008.

Image gallery

• 

  Station Platform

• 

  Bus shelter

Bus connections

CTA

• #17 Westchester

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
• #747 DuPage Connection
• #757 Northwest Connection

References

1. ^ Pace Bus Website

External links

• Forest Park Station Page