The 2600-series is a series of Chicago "L" car built between 1981 and 1987 by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 600 cars were built, and 507 of them remain in service. History The 2600-series cars (numbered 2601–3200) were manufactured by the Budd Company, the same company that made the 2200-series. The fourth of five series of Chicago "L" cars known as the High Performance Family, they are quite similar in design to the earlier 2400-series cars. The cars were first delivered to the CTA in 1981, in time for the upcoming O'Hare Airport extension of the Kennedy Line (now known as the northwestern end of the Blue Line). Originally, an order was made for 300 cars, but this order was later increased to 600 cars, all of which were delivered from 1981 until 1987. They were the last railcars to be built by the Budd Company, later renamed to Transit America. The cars were rebuilt by Alstom of Hornell, New York, from 1999 until 2002. Currently, these cars make up most of the Blue Line fleet and the entire Orange Line fleet, with some cars also assigned to the Brown Line. Car 3458 can be found on the Brown Line. Additionally, Car 3458 is also retrofitted with LED signs to synchronized gracefully with its mate 3457(3200 series). In June 2014, as more 5000-series cars were being delivered, CTA began to transfer the Red Line's 2600-series cars to the Blue Line due to them being newer than the existing 2600-series Blue Line cars, transferring the Blue Line's older 2600-series cars to the Orange Line as an interim replacement for its 2400-series cars until the Red and Purple Lines are fully equipped with the 5000-series cars. Beginning in October 2014, CTA has also started to transfer some of the Red Line's 2600-series cars to the Orange Line to replace the rest of its 2400-series cars until the Red and Purple Lines are fully equipped with the 5000-series cars. However, since the delivery of all 5000-series cars is complete, the assignment of 2600-series cars on the Orange Line is now a permanent assignment until the delivery of the new 7000-series cars. From 1993 until 2015, these cars were used on the Red Line. These cars were removed from service from the Red Line in 2015 and replaced by the 5000-series cars, with its 2600-series cars being reassigned to the Blue and Orange