Tearing down the Loop would be like tearing down Wrigley Field. Never Gonna Happen. It's apart of the city, for better or worse.

Nice work on this Chicago transit explainer! And congrats on hitting the $100K mark for QueensLink! 👏

The Chicago Loop still exists so that the 7 and N/W trains can have something to be compared to at Court Square and Queensboro Plaza... ;-)

I mean, I don't think it makes any sense to "replace" something like the loop. If something like the loop can't keep up with capacity, it doesn't need replacement, it needs supplementation. I think you would regret disassembling the loop. But sure, an additional Subway line, below ground, might take ridership off the overcrowded loop and increase overall capacity. Or maybe there are other ways to do it. But I think it would be a really bad idea dismantling the loop entirely

No way! I was just thinking earlier today “I wish JTA had more videos about the CTA.”

@CharlesTysonYerkesOfficial strikes again!

Worked at the UICC (then known as the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle) College of Urban Sciences in the mid-1970s, probable forerunner of the UIC Urban Transportation Center.  Left Chicago 35 years ago, don't miss the winters, but sure miss the Loop.

Great video! I was aware of some of the subway proposals in the loop, but I had no idea about the loop subway proposal and how many other proposals were shelved over the years. It's amazing how the loop has been able to survive as the rest of the city grows despite being such a quirky piece of overly-interlined 1800s infrastructure

The pink and purple lines should takeover parts of the METRA network

What a long history! Nice!

I worked for CATS and IDOT-ORD in the 1960s and 1970s and helped kill the Loop, or at least its replacement by a Loop subway. My analysis at CATS showed that ridership of all Ls could be handled by the existing State and Milwaukee/Dearborn subways. Tom Lisco brought me over to ORD to work on a South Loop CTA superstation and O'Hare terminal alternatives. (I graduated from UIC in 1974 while working at CATS on TDY to ORD.)

The only useable subway was the Dearborn Distributor from the West Loop along Monroe St. to a loop at Columbus/Michigan; but the branch to McCormick Place from Randolph Street was a costly duplication of the existing Illinois Central Electric. It made more sense to me then to connect McCormick Place to North Western and Union Stations along Madison Street to avoid tunneling under the Art Institute, and to extend the IC Electric north from Randolph St (now Milllenneum Park) up Michigan Ave and through Lincoln Park to Lawrence Ave and west to Jefferson Park.

Some IC trains would go underground north of Roosevelt (now Museum Campus) first to the West Loop stations at Madison, then turn back to North Michigan, and reverse back to McCormick Place before storage for the reverse peak. Other trains would simply continue north underground up the Lakefront and west to Jefferson Park, connecting with the Red and Brown Lines and UP-N and UP-NW Lines. The North Central now would go directly to O'Hare Transfer and Antioch connecting with the MD-W and  soon Rockford services at River Grove. The MD-N or Amtrak Hiawatha could stop at Mayfair for transfers with the Blue Line to O'Hare or continue to Western Av or to Union Station and change to a NCS to O'Hare.

If JTA makes a video about Boston's T, I hope to JTA the video could be:
The birth, fall, rise, Big dig, fall(again), and rise(again) of America's oldest subway network: the MBTA, and Philip Eng

Yerkes mentioned?! Somebody contact Jago!

This is amazing. What's next in this field for you? An evolution video about NYC's Express Bus routes?

Sixth!

I was amazed at the number of subway proposals for Chicago's Loop area. I thought there was only one, which got built.

I'm wondering if the Chicago CTA will get around to "de-interlining" the loop, or changing all of the in-and-out lines into through lines: South to West, North to West, and South to North, and vice versa. You might be able to run twice as many trains on the feeder branches with no additional congestion on The Loop.

Green Line: Green Line
Pink and Purple Lines: Pink Line
Orange and Brown Lines: Orange Line

Babe wake up, JTA just dropped

I think this is your best video yet!

It amazes me how integral the loop is that the part of downtown that it’s in is called “The Loop”

THE MOST EPIC PRO LOOP INTRO EVER

I'm the late '60s I calculated that the State and Milwaukee-Deerborn  subways had adequate capacity for combining all L-subway lines and removing the Loop.