History
When the CTA planned the Congress Line, they did not intend to put a station at Kostner. The Pulaski and Cicero stations were both close to Kostner, and the CTA felt that the lower population density of West Garfield Park did not need an additional station. It was also trying to cut down on stations in order to reduce travel times and increase efficiency. However, the Garfield Park line, which the Congress Line replaced, had a station at Kilbourn Avenue, and the Congress Line did not have a corresponding station. Neighborhood residents wanted the CTA to build a replacement station at Kostner Avenue.
In response to the neighborhood pressure, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance requiring the CTA and the Chicago Department of Public Works to build a station at Kostner. However, the CTA did not build the station, claiming that ridership at the station would never be high and travel times on the Congress Line would increase. Residents tried to respond, saying that they would be happy with an inexpensive wooden platform and a staircase. Eventually, the residents circulated a petition for the station's construction and threatened to sue the Department of Public Works.
The CTA responded to the residents and agreed to build a station in 1961. The city agreed to build the actual station, and the CTA did track, signaling, and electrical work. The construction was complicated by the Congress Line's operation; the city built the station between the Congress Line's tracks, but the line still had to run while Kostner was being built. The CTA solved this problem by creating two temporary bypass tracks around the construction site. Congress Line trains used these tracks from November 2, 1961 to July 8, 1962.
Kostner was dedicated on August 3, 1962, at an official ceremony attended by Mayor Richard J. Daley and opened to the public two days later, on August 5. As the CTA predicted, the station never had high ridership. Station entrances peaked at 258,000 in 1967 and fell steadily after that to 137,791 in 1972. Kostner closed on September 2, 1973, as part of a series of budget-related CTA station closings; it was one of the shortest-lived CTA stations. The CTA never demolished Kostner, and the boarded up station still sits on its original site.
Read more about this topic: Kostner (CTA Congress Line Station)
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