Orange Line

In January the Chicago Department of Buildings put a hold on the construction permit, halting plans for a single-story drive-trough Dunkin' Donuts.

It's a shame when land next to a CTA station isn't leveraged to take advantage of that valuable amenity, but is instead squandered on car-centric land uses.

Here's the skinny about the CTA's weird Orange Line runs that become Brown Line trains when they reach the Loop, and then turn back into Orange trains.

By providing rapid transit access to Midway Airport, the Orange Line helped juice up the Southwest Side economy.

Earlier this year, transit-oriented development made the jump from being proposed and built only next to Chicago Transit Authority stations to also being proposed next to a Metra station. Now, the trend that has brought hundreds of new market-rate and affordable designated housing units to vacant lots near Chicago 'L' stations has jumped to the South Side. A two and a half-year-old ordinance is the cause for these new housing development patterns in the city.

The Chicago Transit Authority expects that more people will ride the 'L' next year, especially in north side neighborhoods. To accommodate this increased demand, it added six new rush-hour trips on the Brown, Red, and Purple lines at the end of September, and will add even more frequency to the Brown Line and Orange Line this weekend. Additionally, its 2015 budget will add two more rush hour trains to both the Blue and Orange Lines.

Ever since it opened in 1993, the CTA's Orange Line has become the public transit backbone of the Southwest Side, with over 60,000 rides on an average weekday. But unlike the patrons of many other 'L' lines, who step out of their neighborhood stations onto commercial streets lined with restaurants, shops, and other businesses, Orange Line riders are more likely to see bus turnarounds, parking lots, and forbidding industrial corridors.

When I visited Los Angeles earlier this winter, I took a ride on the Orange Line, a bus rapid transit route that offers a preview of what fast, reliable bus service will be like for transit riders on Ashland Avenue.