Red Line (CTA)

The Red Line, sometimes known as the Howard-Dan Ryan Line and the North-South Line, is a rapid transit line in Chicago, run by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) as part of the Chicago 'L' system. It is the busiest line on the "L" system, with an average of 251,813 passengers boarding each weekday in 2012. The route is 23.4 miles (37.7 km) long with a total of 33 stations, from Howard station in Rogers Park on the north side, through the State Street subway and to 95th/Dan Ryan in Roseland on the south side. Like the Blue Line, the Red Line runs 24 hours a day/365 days a year, it is only one of six mass-transit rail systems in the United States to do so (the others being the PATCO Speedline, Staten Island Railway, the PATH lines, 1 line of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro and the New York City Subway). A proposed extension would extend the Red Line south from 95th to 130th Street.

Route

North Side Main Line

The northern terminus of the Red Line is Howard Street in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, on the north side. The Red Line extends southeasterly on an elevated embankment structure about a half-mile (1 kilometer) west of the lakefront to Touhy Avenue then turns south along Glenwood Avenue to Morse station. From there the route swings on a sweeping reverse curve to the east to Sheridan Road, adjacent to Loyola University Chicago and continues southerly parallel to Broadway to the east (in Edgewater) and follows Broadway to Leland Avenue. From here, the route transitions from concrete embankment to steel elevated structure. The 'L' continues southward running adjacent the Graceland Cemetery, Irving Park Road and Sheffield Avenue from Uptown to Lincoln Park. The Brown Line (Ravenswood) joins the Red Line tracks just north of Belmont Avenue.

Red line (phrase)

The Red line, or "to cross the red line", is a phrase used worldwide to mean a figurative point of no return or line in the sand, or "a limit past which safety can no longer be guaranteed."

Origins

The origin of the phrase in English traces back to the "Red Line Agreement" agreement in 1928 between largest oil companies of Britain, the USA and France at the time of the end of the Ottoman Empire. At the time of signature, the borders of the empire were not clear and to remedy the problem an Armenian businessman named Calouste Gulbenkian, took a red pencil to draw in an arbitrary manner the borders of the divided empire.

The expression remained significant to global diplomacy and was reused during the UN's founding after the WWII, especially in the Anglophone world. France, is unique to refer to it as the "yellow line" (franchir la ligne jaune).

History of usage

In Israel, the phrase was notably used as a political metaphor by Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, in 1975, when said that Washington "has managed to draw a red line which all the Arab countries know they must not cross - that America is not going to sacrifice Israel for the sake of Arab support."Yitzhak Rabin later used the phrase to refer to the line past which the Syrian army should not be allowed to cross after the 1976 occupation of Lebanon. And, in 2013, speaking of Iran's nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "They're edging up to the red line."

Ice hockey rink

An ice hockey rink is an ice rink that is specifically designed for ice hockey, a team sport. Alternatively it is used for other sports such as broomball, ringette and rink bandy. It is rectangular with rounded corners and surrounded by a wall approximately 1 meter (40-48 inches) high called the boards.

Name origins

Rink, a Scots word meaning 'course', was used as the name of a place where another game, curling, was played. Early in its history, ice hockey was played mostly on rinks constructed for curling. The name was retained after hockey-specific facilities were built.

Dimensions

There are two standard sizes for hockey rinks: one used primarily in North America, the other used in the rest of the world.

International

Hockey rinks in most of the world follow the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) specifications, which is 61 metres (200 ft) × 30.5 metres (100 ft) with a corner radius of 8.5 metres (28 ft). The distance from the end boards to the nearest goal line is 4 metres (13 ft). The distance from each goal line to the nearest blue line is 17.3 metres (57 ft). The distance between the two blue lines is also 17.3 metres (57 ft).

Central Link

Central Link is a light rail line running between downtown Seattle and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. It is the initial phase of Sound Transit's Link Light Rail system. Service operates seven days a week, from 5 am to 1 am Monday through Saturday and from 6 am to midnight on Sundays. Trains are composed of two cars, each with a capacity of 200 passengers—74 seated and 126 standing. Opened on July 18, 2009, Central Link initially operated between downtown Seattle and Tukwila, on a 13.9-mile (22.4 km) route. Service was extended by 1.7 miles (2.7 km) from Tukwila to SeaTac Airport on December 19, 2009.

Routing

The northern terminus is at Westlake Station near the intersection of Pine Street and 4th Avenue. Central Link trains operate inside the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, sharing the right-of-way with diesel-electric hybrid buses. The route serves four of the tunnel's five stations (Convention Place Station being the exception). After exiting the southern end of the tunnel at International District/Chinatown Station, the route joins the SoDo Busway (formerly 5th Avenue S.) as a traffic-separated surface route, where it has priority for all intersections. The route serves two stations on the busway and then rises to an elevated section through the SoDo neighborhood.