Orange line from Midway to Loop: Safe? (crime, hotel)

[Caldus]

I've never even been on the orange line. My family is flying in from Midway airport and they will be taking the orange line into the loop. I'm assuming this is safe but just wanted to make sure. So is the orange line in general safe (they would be coming in late afternoon/early evening)? If their plane is really late and they get on there later at night, is it still fine? Thanks!

[ERS-One]

Yep

[jahk]

It's fine. My only precaution would be to look up ahead of time to see what stations in the loop have elevators if they're carrying more luggage than they can easily carry through turnstiles and down stairs.

The orange line tends to be pretty full of people who work at Midway and travellers at all hours.

[Golden Camel]

If they get there *really* late at night, remember that the last trains leave at 1:00 am (7 days a week) and train service doesn't start up again until 4:00 am weekdays and 4:30 am weekends. Although the 62 Archer bus operates between the Loop and Midway when the trains aren't running, I think at that point they'd be better off taking a cab. If there are several of them, the cost per person for taking a cab gets less outrageous.

Is their hotel near an Orange Line stop or do they still have a long distance to go?

[geoking66]

Once you're inside the L (or really any rapid transit system for that matter), it's safe as long as you don't do anything stupid. I doubt anything particularly bad would happen, especially given there will be others on the train. Safety in numbers.

[Brssplr]

I've taken the Orange Line many times from Midway to the Loop, and have never seen a problem. Just use common sense, and you should be fine.

[DrunkSam]

Any lines are safe, as long as you don't spend your whole night inside a train like some of the homeless bums are doing. There's a small chance you'll see a violent drunk person inside a train though. If you see one and get encountered with it, consider it your unlucky day.
Red line southbound seems to have the most crime of all train lines and the crimes happen usually in daylight. Funny huh.

[DaPerpKazoo]

Originally Posted by geoking66

Once you're inside the L (or really any rapid transit system for that matter), it's safe as long as you don't do anything stupid. I doubt anything particularly bad would happen, especially given there will be others on the train. Safety in numbers.

I don't know what you're smoking, but to say that the CTA somehow offers a bubble of safety as long as you don't doing anything stupid is a load of crap. By no means am I telling anyone to avoid the L, but to say it's some sort of safe bubble-- come on.


That said-- they should be fine on the orange line, any time of day.

[Plzeň]

The Orange line is one of the safest in the CTA according to a recent study. (I don't have a link, but you should be able to find it easily.) It passes entirely through mostly-boring, quiet, family-oriented neighborhoods. I wouldn't worry about it at all, beyond the normal precautions ones takes when traveling through a city.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by DaPerpKazoo

I don't know what you're smoking, but to say that the CTA somehow offers a bubble of safety as long as you don't doing anything stupid is a load of crap. By no means am I telling anyone to avoid the L, but to say it's some sort of safe bubble-- come on.


That said-- they should be fine on the orange line, any time of day.

There's around 1 crime on the CTA for every 92,000 rides. Theft is by far the most common crime with 1 crime for every 330,000 riders. Homicide rates are something like 1 in every 500,000,000 and robbery rates are 1 for every 1,000,000.

It's not a "bubble" per-say, but the CTA is obviously incredibly safe for any average rider. Far far safer than just overall rates for the city or country.