by TomNelligan
During my most recent trip to Chicago last week I had occasion to make several rush hour L trips between the Loop and the North Side and found myself pondering the following mystery: why does the Brown Line traverse the Loop counterclockwise and the Purple Line clockwise when they both enter it at the same point? I suspect there is a reason, but it seems non-optimum that under the current arrangement inbound Purple Line trains have to wait for clearance to cross the whole plant at Lake & Wells at the busiest times of day rather than just continuing straight ahead like their Brown trackmates. Looping the Purple Line counterclockwise would also help unclog the inner Loop track at rush hour by moving more trains to the less-used outer track. But I'm an out-of-towner, so I'm probably missing something.