In the 90s they ripped out over a mile of the green line in Woodlawn with the bizarre idea that it would help the area's development. It actually killed a lot of the ridership on the line as a whole because it made transfers much more difficult. As anyone who's been around there can see, it's been less than a success.
Something that also makes a big difference in ridership is that the southern portion of the red line and both outer parts of the blue line were rebuilt in highway medians in the 50s and 60s, putting them in a kind of dead zone when it comes to transit oriented development. I've been thinking recently of ways these stations could be retrofitted a bit to make them more appealing to pedestrians. Platform screen doors could block out a lot of the wind and noise that make them so uncomfortable, as well as allow them to be heated in the winter. If some kind of enclosed hallways could be built that would allow people to walk to the stations without feeling that they're on top of a busy highways overpass that might help too. These seem like reasonably cost effective solutions that could bring in more riders and propel some nearby development. On the blue line at least, many of those stations are more than due for an overhaul. |
^^^Wholeheartedly agree about the highway median L stops......not a solution to spur local transit use it seems....more a foreboding excercise in how not to make a system usable
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mid 1970's video ride on the CTA Redline from North/Clybourn to Howard. I am wondering why after Belmont the Redline train goes to the outside track where the Purple Line Express of today is.
Brown Line Loop to Paulina Purple Line Evanston to Wilson and what! A CTA train faster than Metra! Polk to Jefferson Park Blue Line. Trains were only two cars long, wow. But on all the videos those trains sure seemed to move along well Part 1: From Sox/35th Redline towards the Loop and to Ashland. it doesn't go underground?? It stays elevated much like I think the Orange Line does when approaching the Loop today. the train loops through the Loop and after Clark/Lake goes directly west where the Green Line does today. Part 2: Ashland to Harlem/Lake and back to downtown. 95th st to downtown. Again different route than today it appears Jackson Park/63rd st to the Loop. This line no linger exists I assume |
Before 1993, the Green Line ran Oak Park-95th and the Red Line ran Howard-63rd/Jackson Park. They switched in 1993 after a short subway connector was built between Cermak/Chinatown and Roosevelt.
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An Open Letter to Gabe Klein (soon-to-be former director of the DC Department of Transportation)
Elevating Chicago Ted Rosenbaum on 12.08.10 at 9:59 PM Quote:
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Addison used to be a side-platform station before being rebuilt as an island platform int he 1990s --- so North-South B trains would switch the outside tracks to serve Addison, then switch back to the inner tracks. This was the result of how the Northwestern Elevated was first built and operated (inner express tracks, outer local tracks), and Addison was a "local" stop. Looks like there was also some track or station work farther up the North Main when the video was shot, too. |
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Great idea courting Gabe Klein for the CDOT or CTA - he's worked wonders in DC. He's a real visionary in trasnport and thoroughly understands urbanism - something that I'm not sure can be said about any local transport agency. He's really on par with leadership you'd find in progressive European cities and is exactly who I'd like to see at the helm in Chicago.
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If I were king of the world (or Chicago transit anyway), what I'd propose is creating a McCormick Place-Streeterville subway that then followed Clark to Armitage, then west and jogging back south to meet the Bloomingdale embankment. If built in conjunction with the proposed Circle Line subway near Ashland, it would greatly enhance transportation between Humbolt Park and Lincoln Park and everything in between. Below is a map where the new yellowish markings are how I'd use the Bloomingdale ROW. The Orange Markings are other officially proposed (or at least mentioned in official documents) extensions or lines. Map by CTA. Edits by myself. http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5248/...7421e0c93e.jpg |
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It you don't have a place to park your car, you're effectively forced to take public transportation, whether it suits your particular needs at the time or not. |
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Nonetheless, another way to use that would be to electrify that Metra Line and run the Metra Electric lines north through a subway to Streeterville and along the same alignment. Could be a northern extension of Mike Payne's Gray Line proposal. |
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My one criticism is I just have a fantasy of essentially a city long subway at Western running from asbury all the way south to at least 63rd where it would tie in with a green line extension or perhaps even have that tie in and continue it south to loop into the the redline extension to 130th |
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I have never been able to find an estimate of how much a Western subway would cost? |
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Alternately, you could build a glass partition down the middle of the platform (glass for security reasons). Passengers would just stand on the leeward side of the wall from the wind until the train comes, at which point they could go through one of several portals in the wall. Next-train signs would eliminate the need to peer down the tracks. I'm used to Cumberland, where most people wait in the stationhouse (but inside the faregates) during poor weather, and when they see the train approaching, they head down the stairs/escalator to the platform. The transparency of those stationhouses leaves that open as a possibility, unlike more closed-off stations on the elevated lines or in the subways. |
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Clinton Street Subway: from Division to 18th Street Approximately 3.5 miles of subway: $1.4 billion Maybe 5 individual stations: $500 million One long platform between Ogilvie and Union stations: $200 million 1 1/2 complex integrations with Blue Line: $300 million TOTAL: $2.4 billion Circle Line: Elevated connection to Orange, Subway to Red Approximately 1.5 miles elevated (to Orange): $150 million 1 new elevated station constructed with structure: $25 million Approximate 3 miles subway (to Red): $1.2 billion Maybe 4 individual subway stations: $400 million 1 complex integration with Red Line: $200 million TOTAL: $1.975 billion Brown Line to Blue Line Approximately 1.8 (Montrose) - 2.2 (Lawrence) miles subway: $720 million to $880 million OR 2 miles elevated (alley just south of Lawrence): $200 million Maybe 2 individual subway stations: $200 million OR 2 elevated stations: $50 million 1 complex integration with Blue Line: $200 million OR complex elevated integration: $100 million TOTAL: $350 million to $1.28 billion Mid-City Transitway (along Cicero) Approximately 11.5 miles elevated/existing embankment mix: $1.1 billion Maybe 18 elevated stations: $450 million 1 complex integration with Blue Line: $200 million TOTAL: $1.75 billion Bloomingdale/Streeterville/McCormick Approximately 3.8 miles rehab embankment (Bloomingdale) + extension: $380 million Maybe 8 embankment/elevated stations: $200 million Approximately 5.5 miles subway: $2.2 billion Maybe 12 subway stations: $1.2 billion Highrise proximity/nimby extra cost: $500 million 2.5 miles at-grade: $125 million Metra conflicts engineering fixes: $150 million Maybe 4 at-grade/below-grade stations: $160 million TOTAL: $4.915 billion ALL PROJECTS HIGHEST TOTAL: $12.32 billion Putting this into perspective, this is less than the cost of New York's Second Ave Subway, and less than Boston's Big Dig, and about three times what LA will spend on one single extension of the Wilshire subway from downtown to UCLA. It's also less than the cost of expanding O'Hare. Quote:
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Additionally, if you really really want a line further west a second new N/S line could be built along the already existent North Branch of the river. This would be a simple ROW for a brand new line and would require very little emminant domain. In fact one could feasibly run the tracks low enough near the river that all the existing bridges would be overpasses and the noise/unsightliness of an elevated structure would be eliminated in favor of an all "ground level" set of tracks. Such a line could potentially begin at purple line terminus in Wilmette and share a transfer with the Yellow Line at McCormick and Howard and the Brown Line at Francisco. This would serve parts of the city that are currently transit deserts. Might get some pushback from park advocates, but the river itself is fenced of from the parks along it for the vast majority of its length because its a hazardous, polluted, channel that no one really wants to get near. |
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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2764/...6628af19_z.jpg Wuppertal Schwebebahn, photo mine |
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