Brown Line (CTA)

Brown Line
A Brown Line train of 3200 series cars
Overview
Status	Operating
Locale	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Termini	Kimball The Loop, Belmont
Stations	27
Service
Type	Rapid transit
System	Chicago "L"
Operator(s)	Chicago Transit Authority
Depot(s)	Kimball Yard
Rolling stock	Mixed 2600-series and 3200-series 8 car trains (typical, maximum)
Daily ridership	33,302 (avg. weekday in 2023)[1]
History
Opened	August 1, 1949 (Current operation)
Technical
Number of tracks	2
Character	Elevated and At-Grade Level
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Minimum radius	90 feet (27 m)
Electrification	Third rail, 600 V DC
Operating speed	40 mph (64 km/h)
Route map Brown Line highlighted in brown Show interactive map Legend Kimball Kedzie Francisco Chicago River North Branch Rockwell Western UP-N to Kenosha Damen Ravenswood Montrose Irving Park Addison UP-N to Ogilvie Paulina Southport Purple Express to Linden Red to Howard ■ Belmont Wellington Diversey ■ Fullerton Armitage Sedgwick Chicago Grand demolished 1970 Merchandise Mart Chicago River Clark/Lake State/Lake Blue to O'Hare ■ Lake Randolph/Wells closed 1995 Randolph/Wabash demolished 2017 Washington/​Wells Washington/ Wabash Madison/Wells demolished 1994 Madison/Wabash demolished 2015 Quincy Adams/Wabash LaSalle/Van Buren Library Blue to Forest Park Red to 95th/Dan Ryan Bus connections at all open stations except Kedzie, Francisco, Rockwell, Southport, and Wellington. This diagram: view talk edit Show BSicon diagram map

The Brown Line of the Chicago "L" system, is an 11.4-mile (18.3 km) route with 27 stations between Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood and downtown Chicago. It runs completely above ground and is almost entirely grade-separated. It is the third-busiest 'L' route, with an average of 33,302 passengers boarding each weekday in 2023.^[2]

Before CTA lines were color-coded in 1993, the Brown Line was known as the Ravenswood Route; specifically, the series of stations from Belmont to Kimball were called the Ravenswood branch. Accordingly, the Kimball-Belmont shuttle service was called the Ravenswood Shuttle.