Question about Red Line and Green Line? (Columbia, Ashland: transfer, train station)

[Flamedown]

I am curious to why the green line and the red line do not share a transfer point where the green line crosses the red line at 59th street? I tried looking it up online, and could not find any information to why. It makes perfect sense to me to have a transfer point there, so I am surprised there is not.

[ChiNaan]

The whole el train system is pretty much designed to get people to and from The Loop, and not much else. Adding a stop for both trains there would pretty much only help people trying to get from one part of the South Side to another part of the South Side, and they probably determined at one point that there wasn't enough demand for that.

Similarly, there's no transfer point where the Pink and Blue lines cross at the Medical Campus, or at the couple of places where the Brown and Red lines cross (though there are transfers between them further north, where they run parallel).

[marothisu]

There's no one station that they share or anything necessarily, but technically if you were riding on the Red Line, then you could get off at Lake, go outside and upstairs to the train station above ground and xfer to Green Line, or the other way around. It's not on the same station, but it's a matter of walking up a few flights of stairs really.

[Manigault]

There's really no reason to transfer at 59th street. The green line was built to take folks from downtown to the Columbian Exposition at 63rd and Stoney. Then it got a spur out to 63rd and Ashland. The red line was built much later. If folks intended to go on the el from 63rd and Stoney to 63rd and Ashland, then a transfer point would make sense. As it stands, there is not much call for subway riders to take such a route.

If you are coming from downtown, those going to 63rd and Ashland can just take the green line. If you want to go from Chinatown to 63rd and Ashland, transfer from the red line to the 63rd street bus.

[Chicago60614]

There really isn't a reason to cross over. Also the green line is very elevated at that point, and the red line is sunk down into the dan ryan - it's not physically set up for any transfer.

[jahk]

You can transfer from red to green or vice versa at Roosevelt too. And you don't have to go outside the station to do it.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by jahk

You can transfer from red to green or vice versa at Roosevelt too. And you don't have to go outside the station to do it.

He's asking why they don't transfer at the point where they cross over each other, which is several miles away from the Roosevelt stop.