Perhaps class is finished. All you can think about is getting back to your place of residence. You step out onto State Street.
Then the dread of thinking about the massive physical gridlock that lies underground at the Jackson Red Line station slowly creeps in.
Or maybe class has yet to start. You’re in a rush and need to get downtown in 20 minutes. As you stand atop the Fullerton station, the thoughts go back and forth.
Red or Brown?
Students tend to have trouble deciding which line to take when going back and forth between the Lincoln Park and Loop campuses. Both lines have their advantages and disadvantages.
The Red Line is essentially a straight shot from Fullerton to Jackson. It also runs on a more frequent basis at crucial times for DePaul students. In late morning, early afternoon and late evening times, the Red Line usually runs every eight to nine minutes, whereas the wait between Brown Line trains is at least 10 minutes.
“The good things about the Red Line is that it’s the bridge between the North and South and the median between the East and West sides,” said Andrew Fleury, a graduate student who lives off campus on the South Side and frequently uses the CTA to get to DePaul. “It’s also good that the Red Line runs all night because other cities, particularly in the south and west, stop their public transit at about midnight.”
The 24-hour service also plays an advantage for the Red and Blue Lines because living close to one of them allows the flexibility to stay out late if necessary and not have to depend on cabs or late night buses.
“The positives for the Red Line is that it runs faster and there is phone service,” said Alexis Delgado, a senior.
But the Red Line has its drawbacks, too.
“The negatives are that it always has some kind of construction or delays,” Delgado continued. “It smells, and there is always a crowd, whether it is the business rush hour or baseball season crowd.”
What the Brown Line lacks in frequency and all-night service (2:25 a.m. is the latest it runs, and only to Belmont) it makes up in scenery and usually quieter, less-crowded train cars.
“It’s not bad,” said Diana Crisan, a senior at DePaul who takes the Brown Line from Rockwell to Harold Washington Library and said it takes about 40 minutes. “In the morning when I get on the train, it’s fairly early. It’s almost completely empty, only like five people on the train. So it’s really quiet on the way to school.”
On the way home, Crisan, who lives off campus, says it can be a different story depending on what time she gets out of class. If she gets out early, the train is similar to the morning time. But if class gets out on time or runs late? It turns into a miniature Red Line.
The scenery is also an advantage to taking the Brown Line. The Red Line turns into a subway after Fullerton, and all of the walls and tracks look the same until you get to Cermak/Chinatown. The Brown Line has beautiful views of the city going through Old Town, River North, the Loop and the Chicago River.
Delgado listed her positives of the Brown Line — a few similar to Crisan — but also added that the phone service is a big help in choosing it over the Red Line, as well as the Purple Line making the same stops and giving train riders more options from the Loop to Lincoln Park.
“It doesn’t smell,” Delgado said. “It hardly crowds, and there are more stops to get you closer to where you need to be.”
Delgado said her only complaint about the Brown Line is that it doesn’t run quite as often and there tends to be delays near Merchandise Mart.
What might surprise students is that the Brown Line from Fullerton to Harold Washington Library only takes a few minutes longer than the Red Line from Fullerton to Jackson, that is with less of a crowd on the train. Throw in the fact that the Red Line often experiences technical difficulties and the trains could end up being equal in arrival time.
So, Brown or Red? Which one will you choose?
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Graphic by Lisa Franklin