Greetings! I am not a regular to Chicago but am very much looking forward to an August trip with my son to see a Cubs game. Questions for you:

1. I generally take public transportation when it's convenient and safe. We are flying home out of Midway on a Sat. in the early afternoon. Does the CTA train make sense? Any safety concerns on that line at that hour?

2. Am I correct that my best bet from downtown to Wrigley would be the Red line train?

Thank you

Does the train make sense - yes. No concerns. It's a 35 min ride from the loop to Midway.

Yes

No problem.

The Orange Line to Midway probably is the safest el line in the city.

Note that the Orange Line goes around the loop in a clockwise direction. If you get on at Library you'll go all the way around before heading toward Midway. The last stop in the loop is Adams/Wabash and the train heads straight toward Midway from there.

Yeah, but the total time difference is only about 10 minutes.

Obviously, if they are leaving from a hotel in the Loop, they should get on the train at the stop closest to their hotel. @:-)

Agreed- be conscious of the way the El goes. it may be "10 minutes" but thats if everything is running smoothly. It could be in your best interest to walk a few blocks to save you the hassle of looping.

Middle of the afternoon the Orange line isnt a problem. If you were going at 2am, I'd suggest a cab....

Well, a cab at 2 a.m. would be a great suggestion considering the Orange Line doesn't even run at that hour.

I'm thinking there may not be many flights from Midway at that hour either.

Tough crowd You get what I'm saying though.....

Bumping this up. I have a 6:30pm flight out of MDW.

Won't be able to leave a meeting at W City Center (W Adams & LaSalle) until 5pm. Plan to take the train. Have PreCheck, no checked bags, and will OLCI.

I'm thinking 10 min walk to the Orange line, 10 min wait (worst case) for the train, 30 min ride, still puts me at MDW 40 mins before the flight.

I know it's cutting it close, but is this doable? I'm not sure how far the MDW station is from the actual gates (Delta).

The station is attached to the terminal gate area by a series of long passageways. It is kind of a hike. Around 7 minutes to get to security I would guess, if you walk at a fairly brisk pace and can do stairs with your carry ons.

Thanks! Any idea what the PreCheck lines look like around 6pm on a Wednesday?

I'm beginning to think I ought to try sneaking out of my last meeting 10 or 15 minutes early...

Wildly variable. They've started cutting back on the random selection of people for PreCheck, which at one point was about 50/50, but I've never had it take more than 10 minutes to get through.

I also don't think it's going to take you 10 minutes to get to the Orange line, unless you're planning to walk across the Loop, as you can get on a block away at Quincy, but either way walk + L shouldn't take more than 35 minutes, accounting for congestion around the loop. I think 7 minutes is a fair estimate station -> security if you walk at a brisk pace and carry bags up/down stairs.

Bottom line, if I knew my feet were hitting the sidewalk at 5 on the dot, I would do it myself, but keep in mind there is little room for error.

Awesome. I'll only have a small backpack and will wear my comfy shoes. Wish me luck!