City Circular Line

The KMAT City Circular Line is a heavy metro line serving the central areas of Kanton City. It runs in a loop around Kanton Harbor.

## Route

The modern City Circular Line has 13 stations. With the introduction of the station code system in 2010, CC-01 has been Central Station.

## History

### Harborside Line and Northern Line

The first segment of the City Circular Line opened on July 30, 1907 as the Harborside Line. It ran from 17 St to Randolph St, stopping at 11 St and Pastures St. The Line was further expanded in 1910 to Buford Landing. In 1916, the section between Pastures St and Randolph St was moved underground, as well as a permanent depot opening near Buford Landing to replace the 15 St Depot. In 1917, a separate subway known as the Northern Line opened between Kanton International and Ovington.

The subway was expanded south to Chester in 1920. In 1925, The Mercer Tunnel opened, with the Harborside line expanding through it into East Chester. The line was expanded to Newmont, a station already on the Northern Line, in 1927, finally giving a direct link between the two competing lines.

### Merging

Proposals for merging the Harborside and Northern lines started in 1928. Construction to build the final segment between Ovington and 17 St started going underway in 1931, but was halted due to the Great Depression. Construction continued in 1937, with 22 St and Oak Crescent stations opening in 1939. The segment was originally only served by Harborside trains, but in 1940 the two lines merged together to form the City Circular Line. Chester station was still served, but a train came once every 15 minutes, and passengers were encouraged to use East Chester instead.

### Later Years

In 1952, there were talks of making an infill station at Mercer Island to serve the island community. However due to the limitations at the time, this never came to be. In 1953, a new station serving the new Dyker Park business district opened to the public. In 1954, Monument Street closed after the adjacent railway terminal was flooded due to the Greystone Park Earthquake of 1954. The metro station also received some water damage, but due to its close proximity to the brand-new Dyker Park station, the decision was made to close Monument Street for good instead of repairing it fully. Because of the flooding of the station and nearby tracks, trains terminated at Dyker and Spawn Beach until 1957 while repairs were made. In 1955, the line serving Chester became a shuttle between Newmont and Chester. In 1956, Oak Crescent Station closed due to lowering passenger numbers.

In 1965, Dyker Park, Spawn Beach, Ovington, 17 St, Pastures St, and Newmont received platform expansions to 25 blocks. All other stations had this length already. In 1969, Pastures Street was renamed to Foxwood. More talks of Mercer Island becoming an infill station happened again in 1972, but were again turned down. In 1985, 11 St station closed due to it's close proximity to 17 St. In 1987, Chester was renamed to Bridge Street, and East Chester was renamed to East Bridge Street.

### Modern Route

In 1987, with the opening of the Mercer Island Bridge, a right of way was left aside for an expansion of the Red Line. However, there were talks of having the City Circular Line run on the tracks too to finally serve Mercer Island. In 1990, construction started, and in 1991, Mercer-Harbor station opened along with the bridge segment. The new tunnel connected to Bridge Street station, ending the service of the Chester Shuttle. East Bridge Street was still served by the Mycelium Line. In 1992, Buford Landing station closed due to the close proximity to Randolph St. In 1994, Arena Station opened to service the PVP arena.

In 1995 through 1998, various stations were renamed or had subtitles added to them. 17 St became 17 St - Perrito Plaza, 22 St became 22 St - Greenmead (However on announcements and most signage it's only said as "22 St"), Kanton International became Central Station, and Randolph St became Metro Center. For 16 months in 2003 and 2004, the Foxington Tunnels were closed as part of a restoration project. Because of this service change, City Circular Line trains used Red Line tracks to Terminate at Tinmead Caverns while in the other direction it was expanded over the Brenton Line to Sulky Terrace, suspending the latter line.

In 2006, Ovington Station was renamed to Ovington Dock as part of the rebuilding of the dock. Between 2005 and 2008, Easton Island was closed for a major renovation, which improved replacing the tiling and walls, replacing the elevators, lighting, and refurbishing the entrance and mezzanine. The station was also made fully accessible with the addition of a second elevator. Since the track had to be relocated to include the elevator, City Circular Line trains single-tracked between Dyker Park and Central Station. In 2017, Arena station was renovated to improve the walls and lighting. In March 2020, the line was reduced to half service due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In August 2020, full service resumed.

### The Future

As of 2022, there are proposals to open two infill stations on the City Circular Line. The first is a plan to reopen Monument Street, which has been suggested as far back is 1997, but was turned down due to the proximity to the then-new Arena station. In 2006, when Crossharbor 2 was in the planning stages, it was suggested to merge Centerpoint station with a re-opened Monument station. This plan was much more popular.

In 2007, it was announced that, though monument street wouldn't open, there would be an unopened passageway that would go underneath the City Circular Line, and that the planned station at Centerpoint would be renamed to Monument. In 2020, Monument Street's platforms were cleaned up and expanded to 25 blocks in length. In 2021, it was announced that Crossharbor 2 would open in Fall of 2022, and that the City Circular Line station would be "pending for an opening".

There have been talks to open a station at Podzol Shore since 2011, when the Red Line Project was announced. The plan was to compliment the new Red Line station with a city circular line, along with the fact that there is a section of track at a more level elevation at the station site. Though it was considered, a study that concluded in 2015 declared that it would be too close to Metro Center, and turn little profit due to the red line already stopping there. However, in 2019, there was another boom of interest to include the station after the Foxwood Senior Center opened. However no plans to open the station have been made yet.