Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
I don't think it makes sense to send heavy capacity regional lines into parkland where no one lives or works. Museum Campus, McCormick Place, Mag Mile, and NMH are best served by a last-mile connector I call the C-Line:
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I think this is one of the most intelligent ideas for dramatically improving downtown access and circulation I've ever seen proposed. There are possibilities for tweaks (for example, I think the NE loopback for the circulator might better be routed up Fairbanks crossing Lake Shore Park looping around Dewitt, Chestnut, and Pearson) but even without tweaks it would be a tremendous improvement and solve virtually every major transit issue for downtown. A Clinton Subway had been discussed for decades and only really needs funding to get done. Other than funding in general, the hardest part would probably be the S-Bahn part, since the best way to do that would be to electric the UP lines, which might be a tall order. It might be possible to only electrify the parts in Chicago and Evanston and do shorter, non-suburban (plus Evanston) runs for the S-Bahn parts if some sidings could be identified for staging on the UP segments. That would be great for the City and for downtown. The Circulator portion appears to be proposed as either BRT or streetcar segments, but with a few judicious segments as subways (making Clinton more like the proposed West Loop Transportation Center, for example, and making good use of Carroll) it would be faster than most streetcars and more like Boston's Green Line which is mostly streetcar but has subway segments.
If successful, additional lines could be added at some point, such as a line up the West Bank of the River, crossing Goose Island on Cherry/Hickory crossing on the barely used pedestrian/rail bridge to Lincoln Yards to the Clybourn station. That would tie West Bucktown to Lincoln Yards, to Goose Island to the former Tribune site to Fulton River/River West to the West Loop, which would be useful for a lot of things. A pipe dream extension would use Cortland all the way to the Western Blue Line station, though, as I say, that would be a pipe dream but if it happened there would finally be a tie from WP to LP and as long as long as we're dreaming it would become an independent line using Armitage to the Park with a jog North to Diversey or even Belmont. And potentially Roosevelt segments could be turned into subways, too, if ridership was high enough. Finally, if the Reese/Prairie Shore and Mercy areas get built out, extending the circulator to serve them would be a no-brainer which might eventually torn into extending it down Cottage Grove or Drexel all the way to Hyde Park, helping revive the South Lakefront in conjunction with the Metra Electric turning into the S-Bahn. Looking the Streeterville branch to the McCormick branch through the current ME busway with streetcars might become politically possible if the circulator worked well, too.
So, yeah, it's brilliant because each stage you propose is very strong on its own, and together it's exactly what's needed, and it has a structure that lends itself to useful expansion, too. I admit I still wish a Monroe subway circulator with north/south branches to Streeterville and McCormick was possible, but your solution solves most of the same problems while having broader impact and probably a lower price tag.