Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
(Post 6928916)
I find it amusing to see how people compare ideal en route speeds without noting headways at all.
The Blue Line has a train every 8 minutes and a 41 minute trip to O'Hare. So 45 minutes on average end to end pretty much whenever you leave.
NCS currently takes 40 minutes; suppose we invested $60 million and got that down to 30 minutes, and somehow forced CP and Amtrak to let us schedule a train leaving every half-hour. Average time CUS to Rosemont now becomes the exact same 45 minutes. But wait: you're still 10 minutes from the terminal at the airport end, and 10 minutes from Monroe & Dearborn on the downtown end.
So what's the point of "services that could be started tomorrow" when they're 20 minutes slower even under the most ideal suppositions?
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The NCS is actually 37 minutes from O'Hare Transfer to CUS. That is including 5 stops in between. I'm not sure why the NCS takes upwards of a half hour to go less then 20 miles from O'Hare to Union. It shouldn't. Maybe some signaling upgrades or grade separation could help get that down. I don't see how if one gets some DMU's to go 60-70mph why that trip couldn't be had in a little over 20 minutes to 25 minutes tops.
Why is it presumed that we can't attain 20 minutes headways and 15 minute headways during peak times on an CUS express? Or at least as often as a Block37 express would provide.......
At the airport end I don't think having to transfer to the ATS is much the deal you make it out to be. All international travelers will have to get on the ATS either way regardless if their downtown train arrives at O'Hare at Terminal 2 like present or at the newly planned O'Hare ATS/Parking facility. So for international travelers its a wash. And for those that leave from T1 and T2 (over 65% of the travelers right now?) it is a healthy walk to those terminal T1/T3 right now as it is. An ATS train that waits to meet up with an O'hare express train to drop them in front of their terminal in a matter of 10 minutes from end to end is only going to add a few minutes at most that those who have to walk to T1/T3 right now have to endure. The only clear advantage of one end point over the other is those who have flights from Terminal 2.
At the downtown end I'm not really sure why you are getting hung up on Dearborn/Monroe as the end all be all for end points as far as servicing downtown is concerned. It sounds rather antiquated to suggest that Dearborn/Monroe is
Tthe ONLY epicenter of downtown Chicago that could service as a worthwhile endpoint. Not to mention your depiction of the Loop Center as if we are stuck in the early 90's where there is a feeling of needing some special protection and preferences in order to make it thrive or that there is some risk of the West Loop/RN/S'ville will somehow benefit too much at its expense. Logistics and money be dam**ed. Are you trying to reverse that trend hoping that developers will insist on building millions of sq. feet primarly in the Loop over the next few decades? I don't see that happening.
The whole benefit to all of downtown would easily outweigh any negatives/positives any one segment of downtown would feel from such a service. We aren't talking about decentralizing or losing out to Rosemont, Glenview, or even one of the outer neighborhoods. Downtown is simply much bigger and more dynamic then the true Loop these days. More people come into this city everyday via the commuter stations than via the L. There is millions of square feet of office space and residential space each at Illinois Center, River North, S'ville, MM, McCormick Place, West Loop etc and more office space is likely to be built outside the Loop rather then inside the Loop for the foreseeable decades. Office and residential units outside the Loop that will serve as end points for travelers. And we aren't going to try to cater to that fact out of spite or stubborn insistence that the central Loop is the
only place where such an asset makes sense? An end point that will likely involve a cab/bus/van/train etc. transfer for people with luggage in tow regardless of anywhere one would place an express train terminal into downtown.
Is CUS as good as B37 in terms of connectivity in terms of residents/workers within say a 3 block radius? Probably not technically if one looks at A and B in terms of square footage or transit connectivity. However if a future express line depends on those in a 3 block radius its largely doomed to fail anyway. CUS is still really close to the heart of downtown and has good connections that are only likely to get better with new express buses/rail (hopefully) in the future. CUS also has the added benefit of possibly connecting some suburban/Metra riders that may utilize such O'Hare express service.
In many cases the objective will be to get travelers
near their endpoint and for them to finish the ride by other means. Again, the majority of riders that will be going to MM/RN/S'Ville/McCormick will have to transfer via other means regardless if it is at CUS or Block 37. CUS serves as an endpoint that is still very close to the loop and other points downtown and best of all we would not likely have to wait until 2050 (if even then) for some federal funding to rain billions from the sky to make it all happen. And then we have to prey by then that slow zones will not yet be an issue that makes O'Hare runs almost 55 minutes and that there will not be battles between Blue Line riders/Express train riders of who gets track priority that will likely make the whole line more unpredictable and cumbersome for both. Don't get me wrong, if Block 37 express can be done sometime in my lifetime with reasonable amount of funding and without logistical hiccups then I'm all for it. It seems as if that had been the case that it would have been done by now and we wouldn't be having this discussion.