Pink line permanent?

I was wondering if there has been any update in the status of the Pink Line. Recall it went into operation in late June for a 180-day test. Well, 180 days will be coming up very soon. Will the Pink Line remain a permanent fixture or will it disappear and ops revert back to being the Cermak branch of the Blue Line?

The CTA recently approved extending the Pink Line trial to another six months. I can't see how they would axe it after how much they spent on things like updating signs and maps, but the CTA has blown money in ways that have been a lot more dumb.

I'd say the odds are pretty good that this will become permanent, especially since reverting back to the old format would mean the Paulina connector goes back to sleep, despite the money spent to revitalize it. But as Kablam insinuated, wasting local and/or federal funds is certainly not unprecedented at CTA.

Interesting article in Monday's Sun-Times about the effect the Pink line is having on other Loop routes. For more details...

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1764 ... 18.article