Looking for information on mystery tracks

[msalisbu]

Was riding the orange line yesterday taking photos, and I passed over some old L tracks that I can't identify at all. Possibly unused/decommissioned for whatever reason, just looking for some history.

Here is an image where the tracks seem to go underground into a tunnel at E13th & State:

The tracks continue southbound and connect with the Orange/Green lines similar to how the red line merges with the purple/brown just south of fullerton:

The green line will eventually hop over to these mystery rails and split from the orange line continuing south to bronzeville/IIT:

My best guess is that the rails shown at 13th & state connected with the red line at some point but are no longer used. Anyone have more info or an explanation? Thanks!

[Busjack]

Was riding the orange line yesterday taking photos, and I passed over some old L tracks that I can't identify at all. Possibly unused/decommissioned for whatever reason, just looking for some history.

.............

My best guess is that the rails shown at 13th & state connected with the red line at some point but are no longer used. Anyone have more info or an explanation? Thanks!

No mystery, that's the old connector between the South Side Main and the subway, used when the North-South route was Howard-Englewood-Jackson Park.

And, if you go back to the discussion of the Red Line South project, CTA rehabilitated it when the Dan Ryan portion of the Red Line was closed and trains were rerouted to Ashland-63rd.

[Guest]

The tracks to the 13th st. subway portal was taken out of service in 1993 when the CTA did a major route reconfiguration. They basically folded two old lines and created two new ones. A new subway connector was built at State/18th st.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

...A new subway connector was built at State/18th st.

I thought the 18th subway connector was there (for the Lake-Dan Ryan), but the Orange Line part was built in 1993.

[ChicagoNova]

I thought the 18th subway connector was there (for the Lake-Dan Ryan), but the Orange Line part was built in 1993.

The 18th subway connector is for trains going to/from Howard on the Red Line.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

The 18th subway connector is for trains going to/from Howard on the Red Line.

You're right. I forgot about that part. My bad.

[Busjack]

I thought the 18th subway connector was there (for the Lake-Dan Ryan), but the Orange Line part was built in 1993.

The 18th Elevated connector (current ramp up from Chinatown to the Orange Line and the current Orange Line to short of Wabash-18th) was built around 1969 for the Lake-Dan Ryan, which obviously had to be on the Wabash-Lake Loop elevated structure to get to Lake.

The subway connector that goes from either side of that ramp to the open area in the subway under about 14th and State was built for the HoDar project, and opened in 1993, although the portal in the subway was there for an Archer subway. Of course, it being CTA, there was a collision the first day of operation. That article gives a good summary of the realignment.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

The 18th Elevated connector (current ramp up from Chinatown to the Orange Line and the current Orange Line to short of Wabash-18th) was built around 1969 for the Lake-Dan Ryan, which obviously had to be on the Wabash-Lake Loop elevated structure to get to Lake.

The subway connector that goes from either side of that ramp to the open area in the subway under about 14th and State was built for the HoDar project, and opened in 1993, although the portal in the subway was there for an Archer subway. Of course, it being CTA, there was a collision the first day of operation. That article gives a good summary of the realignment.

Thanks for clearing that up, and for the news article. They sure had a lot of info about the collision. Good read.