Brown line to Midway (Chicago, Normal: transfer, construction, live)

[s, harry truman]

Hello,

There are times in my normal usage of the Brown Line that occasionally the train goes to Midway after making the wells st. brown line stops. I was browsing the CTA website to see if there was any schedule about knowing when a brown line goes to Midway but I couldn't find anything. With the irregularity of trains at 5am on weekends (saturday) it would be great to be able to plan ahead and not have to wait for a transfer. Am I not looking correctly/does this information exist?

Thanks!

[chet everett]

Has to do with train / terminal capacity -- When an Orange Line train turns Brown, and vice-versa | CTA Tattler

[nidex]

You need to get on the Orange Line.

[s, harry truman]

Thanks for the link chet everett. But there's no set schedule for this "Brownge" line or run 703? I know I need to be on an orange line, it'd just be great to be able to get on it from Paulina instead of transferring.

[chet everett]

According to the link the trains are "transformed" from brown to orange post rush hour, it happens when the dispatch center thinks it'll effect the least amount of folks, no set schedule -- the conductor is supposed to announce that so that any passengers that want to stick on the brown line can stay on the platform...

[emathias]

Originally Posted by s, harry truman

Hello,

There are times in my normal usage of the Brown Line that occasionally the train goes to Midway after making the wells st. brown line stops. I was browsing the CTA website to see if there was any schedule about knowing when a brown line goes to Midway but I couldn't find anything. With the irregularity of trains at 5am on weekends (saturday) it would be great to be able to plan ahead and not have to wait for a transfer. Am I not looking correctly/does this information exist?

Thanks!

This fall the CTA was doing work on the Loop tracks and a number of weekends they ran a unified Brown/Orange Line because the "Loop" wasn't functional as a loop while they worked on the tracks.

If you observed trips to Midway on weekends this past fall, that's probably why. I believe that project is now over, though, so you'll probably be seeing it a lot less often. I've lived in Chicago most of 17 years, near the Brown Line for 10 of those, and am a pretty regular rider and I've never been on a non-construction-related routing from Brown to Orange.

[ChiNaan]

I had no idea the Brown Line (or any line other than Orange) ever went to Midway. I just learned something new.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

I had no idea the Brown Line (or any line other than Orange) ever went to Midway. I just learned something new.

The CTA just changes the brown line sign on the cars to orange.

[Chicago60614]

There are set runs that go to Midway, they're planned in advance and happen at the same time every day, but I can't find a schedule either. I usually leave for work at 7:55am, and more often than not I get on the brown>orange at Belmont. Normally they'll just announce that they're turning orange when we get to Merch Mart.

With the advent of GPS and train trackers, I've noticed the CTA went from a straight minute by minute printed schedule to a more broad schedule "Every 3-5 minutes" "Every 8-11 minutes". It's easier to follow than looking at a sheet of 127 times during the day and trains, especially when they normally weren't running TO THE MINUTE with the schedule.

You're not going to find it on the weekends. Only during the week, I believe right at rush hour.

Earlier this week though I actually had an Orange Line show up at Belmont. Normally the Brown>Orange will keep on the brown schedule and say Brown Line until I hits Library, then head down to Midway as Orange instead of coming back up Wabash. On Monday the Orange Line that showed up at Belmont said "Orange Line" and went from Merch Mart and turned onto Lake Street and carried on the Orange Line schedule through the rest of the loop on Lake and Wabash before continuing to Midway. There were some very confused people from out of town at Belmont trying to get downtown.

Random.

[JacksonPanther]

I'm sure that eventually Brown and Orange will be combined into a single "through" routing, instead of each terminating in the loop.