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Chicagoland Independence Day Celebrations

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CHICAGO (WBBM) - With more than one million people expected to jam Chicago's lakefront, the city of Chicago is urging those hoping to take in Thursday night's fireworks to leave their cars home and take mass transit.

WBBM's Bob Roberts has details.

The CTA and Metra will provide extra service after the fireworks to try to move the crowds as quickly as possible.

 Additional information can be found at the CTA Web site, www.transitchicago.com, the Metra Web site, www.metrarail.com, and the South Shore Line's Web site, www.nictd.com.

CTA will operate longer and more frequent 'L' trains on the Red, Blue, Brown, Green, Orange and Pink Lines. Brown Line trains will continue to leave the Loop until 1:38 a.m. Friday. On the northern end of the system, the last Skokie Swift/Yellow Line train will leave Howard Street at 2 a.m., and the last Purple Line train will leave Howard at 2:05 a.m.

Complicating the CTA's bus service plans are closures being enforced by the city of Chicago. Beginning at 6 p.m., State Street will close between Congress and Kinzie, Michigan Avenue will close between Roosevelt and Wacker and northbound Lake Shore Drive will close between Roosevelt and Randolph.

The CTA will reroute 30 bus lines as a result.

- Bus lines that normally operate on State or Michigan to the South Side will be rerouted southbound on Clark.

- Bus lines that normally operate on State or Michigan to the North Side will be rerouted onto Dearborn.

After the fireworks, extra service will be provided on the 3/King Drive, 4/Cottage Grove, 6/Jackson Park Express, 7/Harrison, 14/Jeffery Express, 20/Madison, 22/Clark, 24/Wentworth, 29/State, 36/Broadway, 56/Milwaukee, 60/Blue Island, 62/Archer, 65/Grand, 66/Chicago, 124/Navy Pier, 126/Jackson, 146/Inner Drive-Michigan Express, 147/Outer Drive Express, 151/Sheridan.

Extra buses will operate on all lines serving Navy Pier, with service operating until midnight on the 124/Navy Pier route to Union and North Western Stations, and until 1 a.m. on the 65/Grand and 66/Chicago lines.

Metra will offer extra service on all but one of its lines. The last trains will leave downtown:

- 10:45 p.m. on the North Central Line;

- 10:40 p.m. to Manhattan and 11:40 p.m. to Orland Park on the SouthWest Service;

- 12:25 a.m. on the Milwaukee District North Line;

- 12:30 a.m. on the Union Pacific Northwest line and the Rock Island District;

- 12:35 a.m. on the Union Pacific North line

- 12:40 a.m. on the Union Pacific West and Milwaukee District West lines;

- 12:45 a.m. on the BNSF line;

- 11:15 p.m. on the Metra Electric District to Blue Island; 12:20 a.m. to South Chicago and 12:30 a.m. to University Park. Metra Electric trains will operate on a "load and go" basis until then.

There will be no extra service on the Metra Heritage Corridor.

The South Shore Line will operate a series of extra trains after the fireworks, but will not board passengers at Van Buren Street, only from Millennium terminal, at Randolph Street. The only train going to South Bend after the fireworks is scheduled to leave at 10:45 p.m., while the last train for Michigan City will leave at 12:45 a.m.

The CTA, Metra and South Shore are all barring alcohol Thursday as well as bicycles, because of the expected crowds.