This proposal introduces a school prototype: a rail-integrated kindergarten model designed to expand access to early childhood education for approximately 15,000 children aged 3–6 across a 25-square-mile area in the Chicago region. Learning on the Line establishes a networked system of educational facilities that operate in tandem with underutilized train infrastructure, incorporating movable components such as rail-based teaching units, self-learning carrel units, and faculty support cars. Rather than treating the school as a standalone building, the proposal embeds education within the city’s mobility infrastructure—responding to a landscape marked by widespread school closures and disinvestment. Located in South Side Chicago, the project repositions the kindergarten as a civic and infrastructural intervention embedded within the broader urban landscape.

The project repurposes an existing, underused train line to establish a mobile network of educational access points across the city and beyond. This kindergarten is anchored by a fixed facility on a site adjacent to an abandoned school lot, with train tracks running directly alongside the building. Specially outfitted learning cars allow students to continue classroom activities while traveling between schools, cultural institutions, libraries, and community centers. This system supports sustained peer cohort learning, maintains continuity in the educational experience, and enables students to access a wide range of resources beyond their immediate neighborhood.