Skokie Swift, Yellow Line, CTA Rapid Transit T-Shirt

The Skokie Swift high-speed (5 miles in 6-1/2 minutes) CTA's (Chicago Transit Authority) rapid transit service, between Howard Street in Chicago and Dempster Street, Skokie, was inaugurated on April 20, 1964. The Skokie Swift, (now called the Yellow Line) originally started as the Niles Centre Branch of the old Chicago Rapid Transit Company (CRT). The rapid transit service began as part of the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad's high-speed Skokie Valley interurban line on a five-mile section between Howard Terminal and Dempster Street, Niles Centre. It was placed in operation on March 28, 1925. The route included several intermediate stops through Evanston and Skokie (then called Niles Centre) at Ridge, Asbury, Dodge, Crawford/ East Prairie, Kostner, Oakton and Main. On March 27, 1948, the Chicago Transit Authority (who had just bought out the Chicago Rapid Transit Company in 1947) discontinued service over the Niles Centre Branch and replaced it with the #97 Skokie bus service. The stations were closed and remained abandoned for the next 15 years. The CRT had always owned the trackage between Howard Street and the Skokie heavy repair and inspection shops and thus their successors, the CTA, would inherit it as well. On January 21, 1963, the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad ceased all of its operations, and the remaining 2.4 miles section of trackage between the Skokie Shops and Dempster Street was purchased by the CTA. The intermediate stations were not reopened. Some of the vacant station houses were used by other businesses, including a convenience store and an electrical supplier, before finally being razed in the 1980s.