CTA – Forest Park

This is a horrible and dangerous station as riders coming from the north are forced to cross the 290 entrance ramp without any sort of crossing signal and then navigate an extremely narrow sidewalk. It’s even worse with luggage. I can’t imagine being elderly or pushing a stroller and trying to navigate this. I wonder how many people have been hit by cars turning onto the exit ramp from Harlem.
I now walk a greater distance to the Harlem green line stop. It takes longer, but at least I don’t feel I’m putting my life at risk.
It’s pathetic that Forest Park cannot solve this problem. It’s not an impoverished suburb, but you’d think otherwise looking at the area around the station.

A necessary evil. Place is a little run down, and you should keep an eye on your belongings, but it’s an easy and quick way to get into the city on the cheap!
They’ve done some upgrades to make it a little nicer, like updated signs, electronic updates on train times, and the new Ventra card, where you tap your card against a reader to go through, but I suggest bringing hand sanitzer with you as well to treat your hand after going up the escalator.
Transfer at Jackson to many other lines to get around the loop!

I have to visit this testament to humanity 5 days a week on my commute and oh how I wish I didn’t have to. I have literally seen 3 fights here, one being a full on brawl between roughly 15 people who I can only assume we’re gang bangers. The Forest Park police are here on a regular basis but that doesn’t stop the people illegally peddling «loose squares»
There is also a convenient store attached where the employees act like they are doing you a favor by taking your money.

The depot does not make you feel stranded. Especially at the worst time imaginable… cold and snow. Buses are prompt, drivers very considerate and helpful. To try and compare them to city buses would be an insult. There’s no question as to what direction to head when getting off, and if there are, you’ve got issues cuz it’s the LAST stop on that line. Traveling publicly from city to suburbs… highly recommended.

End of the CTA Blue Line. There is a Park and Ride parking lot available if you are driving here and the rate is $ 5 for 12 hours. Locals say the parking situation can be sketchy, so lock up. I experienced no problems with this.
Do make sure you park your car in the correct parking lot. If you are on the side with the one way street, with city buses coming in and out, this is *not* the CTA Park and Ride parking lot. It’s a third party lot that closes at midnight and they threaten to tow. I donated $ 3 to their company before realizing my mistake.
Pay *before* you park and know the last three digits/​letters of your license plate. This becomes your parking space number.
If there’s a train available to sit in, go for it. All outgoing trains from this station will be headed towards O’Hare. (It even has a little picture of an airplane on it, so you can’t miss it.) There’s a good chance it will take 10 minutes or so to leave, but the roof is really leaky here, so it’s worth enduring the smell a little longer.
If I had to plan my trip to Chicago over again, I would have planned on driving to the second stop on the CTA Blue Line, heading east, which is the Harlem stop. I can’t speak for Harlem’s safety, versus Forest Park’s, but you are guaranteed that your train will leave immediately after boarding, eliminating the inevitable end-​of-​the-​line turnover waiting time.

Worst Station Ever.
What is going on here with any reviews over 1 star?
If you ride this line regularly, you know whats up. Don’t let the one day riders /​tourists reviews fool you. This place is a mess! I’ve been riding here since the 90’s. And it’s only gotten worst.
From the leaking roof up top at the waiting area, to the smell of piss around every corner, the the bums waiting downstairs looking for hand outs, to the buses outside that somehow can’t seem to line up when to leave (e.i. a train just arrives from downtown, the passengers off board, the bus sees the people coming out from the train and leaves anyway.)
When one train gets in, the bums stumble out and fall right into yours before properly airing out. The conductor will walk down the line looking in each cab for them, but only raps at the window and yells at them to get up. No one stops them from train hopping, which according to the wall signs states is illegal.
The smells. Ok, I get it, it’s public transportation, but please, someone get in there and hose those cabs out more than once in a while!
The service guards or CTA staffers or whatever they are called are just plain rude and careless. If you see a elderly person walking in, and they can’t get the door by themselves, you would help right? Not here. I’ve seen this happen on more than one occasion.
Safety, that’s a whole other topic, but lets say in the couple decades that I’ve been riding, I’ve been apart of, witnessed or heard about someone being violated in someway. This includes muggings, stabbings, shootings, gropings and mass car robberies. CTA claims they spent a boat load of money on upgrades to security with cameras and staff, but nothing has changed. BE WARE of you surroundings at all times, or bette yet, don’t bring anything of value with you!
The parking lot. If you park here, be prepared to get your window bashed in, tire slashed, car broken into or ticket. It always amazes me that all these crimes happen here, but the Forest Park, won’t do anything about it besides charge you for it. They give tickets religiously here, but in all the supposed police patrol going on with all the tickets being given, you’d think vehicle vandalism would be almost none. Just the opposite. How is this even possible? Where are the security cameras? Why won’t they stand behind things that happen on their private property? If you have a problem, they won’t support you in anyway. Hell, they won’t even turn it in to the local papers half the time. My guess is fear that the public will not come back if they read about all the mischievous activities that take place there.
The ride back is a joke. If you work downtown and you come back this way each night, you will see 4, seriously 4 O’Hare bound trains pass in the time 1 Forest Park train arrives. And when you do, it’s over full. People are pissed and pushy to get on and the conductor always lets you know, «Move in people, if you can’t get on this train there is one right behind us». REALLY?! How about you guys just get on a timed schedule and follow it?! Is it really that hard to start and stop at a station?
There is a delay in getting into the station almost all the time. At least 90% of the time, you’ll hear another call, «We are waiting for waiting for blah blah blah before we can go.» As you sit over the Ike within feet of exiting this final nightmare train.
The rates keep going up and the service keeps going down. Why can’t someone step in a make this right?
If there were another semi economical commuting option besides driving, I would gladly take it. You should too.

If you live in the burbs, gotta appreciate this Blue Line station!

I like this train stop because the depot is in an enclosed location, where in case of inclimate weather, you can stand inside while waitng for your bus.
There’s also a Chase ATM here and a convenience store. The parking lot is a park and ride location for the semi commuters.

I usually jump on one of the Oak Park stops but recently I had to park and go to get to work. With that said, I parked at the CTA Blue Line — Forest Park stop and was impressed. I checked the CTA website to see what the standard parking fee is to park and go — $ 5. I was plesantly suprised when I parked and paid only $ 3! This is always way better than paying for downtown parking.

First thing i did when i got to the «windy city» was grab a 3-​day transit pass for $ 14. It gives me unlimited trips on the «El» and buses to numerous locations throughout Chicago
This not only saves money… but also time since the traffic in chicago is krazy
Both trains and buses are clean and timely… the buses are a little more airconditioned than the trains and the buses are hybrid clean air vehicles
The transit pass was easy to purchase and use
and the train system was easy to use/​travel
the only drawback was there are no maps you can carry of the train schedule/​routes at the station or at the hotel and that would have been very helpful
good thing I have a Droid and there is an app for Chicago metro stops