Forest Park station
| Company type | Chicago "L" rapid transit station |
|---|---|
| Industry | Public transportation |
| Founded | 1902 |
| Headquarters | Forest Park, Illinois , United States |
| Products | Rapid transit, bus transit center, park and ride |
Forest Park serves as a station on the Blue Line of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), situated in Forest Park, Illinois. It acts as the western endpoint of the Forest Park segment and was previously called Des Plaines until its renaming in 1994. Additionally, this station operates as the Forest Park Transit Center for Pace bus services, establishing itself as a significant regional transit interchange.
The station features a Park and Ride facility with 1,051 parking spaces, utilizing a "Pay and Display" method at its entrance. It lies to the south of the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad tracks, which curve northward toward Madison Street, where they intersect with the Canadian National Railway's Waukesha Subdivision.
History
Originally opened in 1902, Forest Park began as a local interurban stop on the Aurora Elgin and Chicago Railway. On March 11, 1905, the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad extended its Garfield Park rapid transit line westward over these tracks. Between 1908 and 1922, an amusement park operated at this location until a significant fire led to its closure. Following this, Forest Park became the western terminus for the 'L' system while maintaining its role as an interurban station.
With the inauguration of the Congress Branch in the Eisenhower Expressway median in 1958, the Blue Line was rerouted to connect to the Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway at LaSalle, designating Forest Park as the Blue Line's western terminus. Unlike most stations on the Congress Branch, Forest Park station is positioned approximately north of the expressway median. In 1966, a park-and-ride lot accommodating 1,051 vehicles was introduced. Later in December 1982, a new station building and a Transit Center linking various bus routes were completed.
On August 23, 2006, a pedestrian bridge spanning the Des Plaines River was constructed between Maywood and Forest Park, extending the Illinois Prairie Path to conclude at Forest Park station. This bridge became operational later that year following installation of lighting and emergency call stations.
The CTA discontinued its 17 Westchester bus route on December 16, 2012, leaving Pace as the exclusive bus operator serving Forest Park.
Operating around the clock, Forest Park station recorded a ridership of 1,175,588 passengers in 2011.
Service between Forest Park and Austin was temporarily halted on September 2, 2024, after a shooting occurred on a Blue Line train bound for Forest Park that resulted in four fatalities among sleeping passengers. The suspect was apprehended roughly ninety minutes later at a Pink Line station within Chicago.
Bus connections
- 301 Roosevelt Road
- 303 Forest Park-Rosemont
- 305 East Roosevelt Road
- 308 Medical Center
- 310 Madison Street-Hillside
- 317 Westchester
- 318 West North Avenue