O’Hare and Midway to the Loop: What Each Option Costs
The Blue Line from O'Hare costs 5 dollars and so does a full day pass. Midway has no surcharge. Verified 2026 CTA fares, the new taxi surcharges and where rideshare picks up.
Sammie O
The Blue Line from O’Hare to the Loop costs 5 dollars. A one day pass also costs 5 dollars. Most arrivals pay the first and walk past the second. From Midway the Orange Line is 2.50 and there is no airport surcharge at all. This page sets out what every option costs, checked against the CTA, the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection and the Chicago Department of Aviation in September 2026.
What each option costs
| From | Train | Taxi, metered | Rail time to the Loop |
|---|---|---|---|
| O’Hare | 5 dollars, Blue Line | About 40 to 55 dollars | 40 to 45 minutes |
| Midway | 2.50 dollars, Orange Line | About 25 to 40 dollars | 20 to 25 minutes |
Taxi totals are before the 4 dollar state departure tax, the new time of day surcharges and a tip. More on those below.
Two corrections before anything else
The CTA fare rise did not happen. Increases were announced in October 2025, taking rail to 2.75 dollars and scrapping the three day pass from February 2026. After Illinois passed a transit funding package the mandate was dropped in November 2025. The CTA fare chart still reads effective February 2023 and the three day pass still exists. Any guide quoting 2.75 is wrong.
The taxi rise did happen. Meters went up about 20 percent on 1 July 2026, the first change since 2016, and two new surcharges were added. Most taxi company websites still show the old rates.
The O’Hare surcharge, and how to avoid paying it twice
The 5 dollars is the total fare, not 2.50 plus 5. It is a 2.50 premium over the standard rail fare and it is charged only on entry at O’Hare station. Your return trip to the airport is the ordinary 2.50.
It does not apply at Midway.
It applies to a contactless bank card tap exactly as it applies to Ventra value. What it does not apply to is an unlimited pass. The CTA states plainly that you can board at O’Hare on a pass at no additional charge.
So the arithmetic at O’Hare is simple. A single ride costs 5 dollars. A one day pass costs 5 dollars and covers unlimited rides for 24 hours. If you plan to make one more journey, the pass is free money.
| Ventra | Price |
|---|---|
| Ventra Card | 5 dollars, refunded as transit value if registered within 90 days |
| 1 day pass | 5 dollars |
| 3 day pass | 15 dollars |
| 7 day pass | 20 dollars |
| 30 day pass | 75 dollars |
Contactless bank cards and phone wallets work at the turnstile with no Ventra card needed, but they cover single fares only. You cannot hold a pass on a bank card. One and three day Ventra Tickets are sold from the machines, and the three day ticket is sold at O’Hare and Midway only.
Finding the train
At O’Hare the station sits on a lower level concourse beneath the main parking garage, connected to Terminals 1, 2 and 3 by an underground pedestrian tunnel. Follow the signs for Trains to City. The CTA puts the walk at under ten minutes from any of the three, which is fair, but it is a long moving walkway with luggage.
From Terminal 5, the international terminal, there is no walking connection. Take the free Airport Transit System to Terminal 2, then follow the same signs. Budget 15 to 20 minutes from Terminal 5 to the platform.
At Midway the station is just east of the terminal with a direct enclosed walkway and an orange line painted on the floor to follow. Five to ten minutes, no shuttle, no surcharge.
Two live disruptions worth checking before you travel. The Blue Line O’Hare branch is on a modified schedule outside rush hours and at weekends from 10 August to 9 October 2026 for construction. And State and Lake station in the Loop is closed for reconstruction into 2029, so use Clark and Lake or Washington and Wabash.
Frequency and hours
The Blue Line runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On weekdays trains come every 3 to 10 minutes in the morning rush, every 6 midday, every 3 to 8 in the afternoon rush, every 7 to 10 in the evening and every 15 to 20 overnight.
The Orange Line does not run all night. The first train is 3:30am on weekdays, 4:00am Saturday and 4:30am Sunday, and the last is 1:05am daily. The overnight gap is covered by the N62 Archer owl bus, not by the train.
Taxis, and the new surcharges
Rates effective 1 July 2026, from the city’s own schedule.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Flag pull, first ninth of a mile | 3.25 dollars |
| Each additional ninth of a mile | 31 cents, which is 2.79 a mile |
| Elapsed time | 31 cents per 45 seconds |
| Rush hour surcharge, 3:30pm to 7:00pm | 2.50 dollars, new |
| Overnight surcharge, 8:00pm to 6:00am | 1.00 dollar, new |
| Illinois airport departure tax | 4.00 dollars, leaving either airport |
| Card payment fee | 50 cents |
The departure tax is charged on trips leaving the airport, not on trips to it.
There is no flat metered fare to downtown. The only flat fares are shared ride prices, per person, minimum two passengers, also revised on 1 July 2026. O’Hare to downtown or McCormick Place is 30 dollars a head, Midway is 22, and O’Hare to Midway is 45. A solo trip is metered.
Official estimates of the usual total disagree. The airport says the O’Hare to downtown average is 50 dollars. The CTA says around 40. For Midway the airport says 35 to 40 and the CTA says around 25. None of those is a tariff. The meter rates above are the only official figures.
Uber and Lyft
At O’Hare, pickup is on the upper Departures level, not at baggage claim. You have to go up.
- Terminal 2, zones 2A to 2G on the upper level.
- Terminal 3, zones 3G, 3H, 3J and 3K on the upper level.
- Terminal 1, walk or take the Airport Transit System to Terminal 2.
- Terminal 5, take the Airport Transit System to Terminal 2. Rideshare pickup was removed from Terminal 5 on 27 February 2023 and has not returned.
Black car and limousine is different, on the lower level centre lane at all terminals. At Midway, pickup is the Lower Level centre lane in the blue, orange or green zones at doors 2 to 4.
The city tax on these trips is larger than most people expect. A single ride carries a 1.13 dollar ground transportation tax plus 5 dollars for any trip touching O’Hare, Midway, Navy Pier or McCormick Place. A separate congestion surcharge of 1.50 applies to rides touching the downtown zones between 6am and 10pm, and those zones were expanded on 7 January 2026. An airport to Loop trip is hit by both, so roughly 6.50 to 7.60 in city tax alone before the fare.
The CTA’s own comparison puts O’Hare to downtown at 35 to 50 dollars, surging past 140. Midway is 25 to 40, surging past 100. Note that puts rideshare above the taxi meter for O’Hare.
The people mover
The Airport Transit System at O’Hare is fully operational, free, and runs 24 hours a day. It reopened in November 2021 after a long reconstruction and reached full service in April 2022, so any advice describing it as closed is out of date.
It runs every 3 to 5 minutes at peak and connects Terminals 1, 2, 3 and 5 with the Multi-Modal Facility. End to end is about 10 minutes and Terminal 5 to Terminal 2 is about 5.
It is the load bearing piece of O’Hare ground transport. Terminal 5 arrivals need it for the train, for rideshare and for rental cars. There is no Terminal 4.
Metra, and why it usually is not the answer
Midway has no Metra service. O’Hare has one, the North Central Service, stopping at O’Hare Transfer.
The fare to Union Station is 3.75 dollars, cheaper than the Blue Line, and the run takes about 42 to 48 minutes, which is no faster. The problems are frequency and access. It runs weekdays only, with about six trains each way a day clustered at commuter peaks and nothing between mid morning and late afternoon. There is no weekend service. And O’Hare Transfer is not at the terminals. You ride the Airport Transit System to the Multi-Modal Facility and walk, which adds 15 to 20 minutes.
It also lands at Union Station rather than the Loop. Use it only if your flight happens to match one of the six departures on a weekday and Union Station suits you.
Rental cars
At O’Hare every on airport company is in the Multi-Modal Facility at 10255 West Zemke Boulevard, reached only by the Airport Transit System. Allow about ten minutes riding from Terminal 1 plus waits. Two brands, ACE and Routes, are off airport and run their own shuttles, which is worth knowing because their airport quotes hide an extra transfer.
At Midway the facility is at 5150 West 55th Street, with a free shuttle from Lower Level Door 2 running 24 hours a day every 15 minutes.
Shared shuttle
GO Airport Express still exists but its shared ride service is now, in its own words, available on a very limited basis to select locations. The main site leads with private sedans and vans. No shared ride price list is published and the company quotes only at booking, so we will not print a figure. The cheap shared van market that existed before 2020 has effectively been replaced by rideshare.
Journey times
| Route | Rail | Road |
|---|---|---|
| O’Hare to the Loop | 40 to 45 minutes | 25 to 90 minutes |
| Midway to the Loop | 20 to 25 minutes | 15 to 40 minutes |
That road spread is the CTA’s own figure and it is the rush hour effect. The Kennedy Expressway from O’Hare is the chokepoint. Rail times are flat across the day because the trains are grade separated. At the afternoon peak the Blue Line beats a taxi’s worst case by half an hour, and the taxi now also carries the 2.50 rush hour surcharge.
What we could not confirm
GO Airport Express shared ride fares. None are published.
Rental car facility charges and concession fees at either airport. Neither the aviation department nor the rental companies publish the dollar amounts, so we will not print a per day figure.
Snow journey times. No official source publishes them. What can be said is structural. Both lines are grade separated and largely immune to traffic, but both run substantially outdoors, the Blue Line in the Kennedy median and the Orange Line elevated, so heavy snow produces delays through switch and equipment problems rather than congestion. Check live CTA alerts rather than trusting a multiplier.
How Uber and Lyft split the city tax from their own charge on the receipt.
Sources
- CTA, airport transit
- CTA, fares and passes
- City of Chicago, ground transportation tax
- O’Hare, public transit
- O’Hare, Airport Transit System
- Midway, rental cars
- Metra, O’Hare Transfer station
- Uber, O’Hare pickup
Sammie O publishes Germ Trips, a travel guide covering hotels, restaurants, airport transfers and chauffeur services. The guides aim for practical detail and a clear recommendation rather than an undifferentiated list. Where a town has no good option, the guides say so and point to the nearest one that does. Guides are AI drafted. A small number have been checked against official listings, and those say so on the page.
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