:fireworks:

I never thought I'd see the day.

Rock Island is the obvious place to start electrification since Metra owns it and it's isolated from the rest of the system (although that will change once the SWS connection opens).

I wonder why the attitude change from Metra, though? This can't be related to Related's proposed tunnel at The 78? That could be mechanically ventilated, and would pose issues for future diesel SWS trains if it wasn't. Maybe the logic of electrification is finally sinking in via Toronto's Metrolinx program...

Also the electrification is useful on its own, but really Metra should look into high platforms as well. Because RI is isolated, it can run a different fleet of high-level cars...

Yeah it is exciting and sort of restores just slightly my confidence in the agencies leadership. Though I would stop short of saying "the obvious place to start electrification" as I would think if they are casually considering even the possibility of electrifying the RI district, the most glaringly obvious candidate for conversion potential w/ all the right ingredients, that means there must be negative chance of electrification happening anywhere else. That's just the sad reality we're dealing with. The combination that none of Metra's lines outside of the IC had a previous or current RR owner that implimented electrification in the early days (like the LIRR, NYC, NH, EL, PRR, Reading, etc. out east and not to mention the rest of the world) and the limited operational budget that just prevents capital investment in systemwide conversion means Metra will be operating diesel trains when my kids kids have kids (if I ever have kids that is). Correct points about other RI improvements like high platforms. Would love to see an S-Bahn running on the RI.

Metra held a depressing conference about electrification a few years ago as they were evaluating what to do with ME, and basically dismissed the idea of further electrification entirely while acknowledging it made sense to keep it on ME. This is a huge change to see that some of Metra’s leadership is open to the idea of further electrification, as well as a frequent service to O’Hare that starts to resemble CrossRail in some ways - a good backup plan if/when Musk’s tunnel fails. Electrifying the rest of the lines will be a huge uphill battle with freight railroads, even the Milwaukee District is heavily used by CP. It makes sense to start with the low-hanging fruit of RI and build expertise, especially if the new system will be 25kV AC instead of the DC system on Metra Electric.


They’re not wrong when they point out that fleet replacement is the most pressing capital need, along with bridge work. But it’s good to see they are finally acknowledging they can’t just go to the taxpayer year after year crying poverty while they continue to operate 1950s style rail service. They’ve gotta get more relevant to more people, because right now not enough people are convinced.

They batted this idea of electrifying the RI around a good while back but as they're perpetually short of cash it didn't really go anywhere. I am pleased to see it resurface.

RI with high level platforms and electric euro rolling stock would be a sight to see.

I wonder what the barriers would be to expanding electrification on other lines? Many have very limited freight operations as it is. Also, makes sense to study now given that the majority of the fleet needs to be replaced.

Besides the lack of capital funding, the biggest barriers to implementing electrification on other lines is it being a priority of Metra. The benefits of electrification are additional schedule capacity due to acceleration performance, lower long term maintenance costs to motive power rolling stock, energy savings over volatile diesel fuel, and related of course, the elimination of carbon emissions from the trains themselves. The reason it seems to not be a priority is that Metra does not see the aforementioned benefits to be enough to justify the capital expense (which would also include new rolling stock and a list of other required modifications), funds they don't even come close to having by the way, outside of a corridor where it makes the absolute most sense with all the right characteristics - and that is the RI District. Another theory, of mine at least, is that in the United States, as we all know, transport op's and transport infra is grotesquely under-invested in and when you add in our geographic and cultural isolation, there is a real lack of peer pressure to modernize our systems, out of shame or out of pride, and on the administrative level a real lack of vision and ambition, still today, which stems from decades of becoming accustomed and satisfied with bare-bones operation and, well, decay due to the starvation of funding and prioritizing and subsidization of auto movement over railways.

I am NOT a fan of electrification. Not with power delivered externally. (If they could do batteries and fast charging at stations, that's fine).
Can't do a 3rd rail where pedestrians walk over the tracks. Metra tracks are ground level and not access controlled.

And overhead wires? Ice storms, wind storms and falling trees, no thanks.

Maybe power delivery could be inductive and buried cable. But efficiency of that is poor. Is it a net C02 reduction? Maybe not.

Electric rail (overhead or 3rd rail) works perfectly fine lots of cold/windy places.

Ald. Dowell comes out against the 15th & Clark Red Line station:

"While I fully support 'The 78' development as unique and necessary opportunity for growth in the City of Chicago, I can not support Related Midwest's proposal to add a new CTA Red Line Station on 15th St. and Clark St., right in the middle of an established, entirely residential area. This location would be too disruptive for my residents and completely out of character with the area."

'The 78' is a 62-acre mixed-use development along Chicago's riverfront extending from Roosevelt Rd. to 16th St., from Clark St. to the Chicago River. 'The 78' development is located in the 25th Ward, while the proposed CTA Red Line Station would be located in the 3rd Ward. Currently, the closest CTA train stations to 'The 78' are located at Roosevlet Rd./State St. and Cermak/Chinatown. The proposed CTA Red Line Station for 15th St. and Clark St. would be within in the Dearborn Park II community, which consists exclusively of townhomes and several larger condominium buildings. Staging and construction for the new station would also impact Cotton Tail Park, a popular and widely used Chicago Park District neighborhood park. The construction of the proposed CTA Red Line Station would eliminate already limited community green space for years.

"I appreciate the hard work Curt Bailey and his team at Related Midwest have put in to 'The 78.' He has been more than willing to explain the CTA Red Line Station proposal to residents and open to meeting with the community to hear their thoughts. I recognize that is very difficult and I truly commend Related Midwest for their commitment. But throughout this process it has been clear that my constituents, who I am elected to represent, are against the new station. So as their Alderman, I respect my constituents' voice and join them in opposing the CTA Red Line Station for 15th St. and Clark St."

Previous approvals of 'The 78' project by City Council, which Alderman Dowell supported, did not contain any information regarding the proposed CTA Red Line Station at 15th St. and Clark St. Related Midwest crafted the proposal for a new CTA Red Line Station without community input from 3rd Ward residents. When Related Midwest asked for Alderman Dowell's support for the project, Alderman Dowell held a Town Hall meeting on Monday, December 17, 2018 on the issue to introduce the proposal to the community prior to taking a position. At the Town Hall meeting, Curt Bailey and the Related Midwest team presented the proposed CTA Red Line Station and took comments from the over 200 residents in attendance. Since that meeting, Alderman Dowell has continued to solicit resident's opinions on the project, receiving countless emails, a petition signed by over 500 residents in opposition to the station, social media messages and phone calls on the subject. The vast majority of these comments are firmly against the project.

^ It almost reads like lip service to her constituents. Sounds like she knows it's a dumb decision, but she unfortuntately won't stand up to the NIMBYs.

Ever heard of Scandinavia? As for batteries, the tech isn't there yet and I'm not sure even if it did would make much sense considering the space needed for battery storage eats into carriage layout, as well as power to slog big heavy batteries along with the train sort of negates the benefit versus OCS after the one time capital investment and relatively limited ongoing maintenance cost is figured in. When I hear talk of battery trains I can't help but think of someone jogging with a Walkman powered by 4 size D batteries.


Would it be a local/regional net reduction with noticeably improved particulate levels that leads to better air quality for the people of Chicagoland? Yes, I believe it would be. Would it be a net CO2 reduction writ large considering the power production is just offset to a generating station? Well that depends obviously on what type of power is used. If it's from coal fired or nuclear, then yes I'd imagine there would be a difference. Conversations like this would, and hopefully will change significantly when the country gets serious about alternative energy production.

is there any way to induce a magnitude 10.0 earthquake wholly confined within clark, polk, state, and the SCAL?

There's a fat joke in there somewhere

Perhaps she can telling aldermen behind the scenes that she has to vote against, but won't vigorously oppose it if they want to vote for it.

How is major work for City-wide infrastructure something aldermen can block anyway?

It's rare for an alderman to oppose a transportation improvement, but the train station use will require a rezoning of private land because of the layout of the tunnel. Dowell has leverage over the zoning change.

The stated reason of most Dearborn Parkers for opposing is that they didn't want Cottontail Park torn up... now that Related is offering a different plan that avoids disruption to the park, watch for their real reasoning to come out - they are scared of Red Line riders and don't want low-income people to have a conduit to their neighborhood. They've worked hard to maintain that fortress atmosphere around the Roosevelt stop, after all.

Seems like somebody like Walter Burnett, who grew up in public housing, identifies far more with transit riders than someone like Dowell who likely grew up in a middle-class family that shunned the CTA and looked down upon transit riders. Burnett's not a squeaky clean alderman, but he is definitely willing to call out his constituents when they show racist attitudes, and he has consistently supported new train stations on the Green Line.

Opposing a subway station because it's in a residential area? Haha, that's a new one. Well yea, all subway stations are built in residential area's with lots of people around. That's the whole point of a subway station! No one builds subway stations in underpopulated rural areas.

Except of course China -- planing that they'll get "grown into":)

OK, yea maybe in China, or Chicago in 1890 but not in Chicago or the US in 2019.

Developers paid for the 'rural' Ravenswood rail extension in 1900 expecting large population growth, and now developers want another rail stop near their big development. It's a pretty similar idea, but the open space is in a different place.

Honolulu, 2019

I know it's an outlier, but still:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4807/4...1a2b656d_c.jpg
_

Is there any 3d representation of the transit center under block 37?

^
https://www.structuremag.org/wp-cont...ht-Dec-071.pdf

http://www.thorntontomasetti.com/wp-...7_Overview.pdf

Also there is this fun image... yes, that is the outside face of the CTA tunnel. Basically an interstitial space between the foundation wall of Block 37 and the Blue Line tunnel. CTA would have needed to bust through both sets of walls to connect tracks into Block 37.

Snapped a quick pic of the upgraded Garfield station while waiting for the train today.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NC...=w1312-h984-no

Has the CTA ever done any serious consideration of a new Green Line station in the South Loop? Maybe between Balbo and 8th? Given the office boom in the West Loop around Morgan, and the desire to increase South Loop residential, that's a station that could prove very popular, while filling in a large Green Line gap.
I know that would be very close to Harrison's Red Line stop, but transfers are time consuming and reduce ridership.

They built the Cermak one a couple years ago so it's probably not out of the question. Something near the Harrison Red line stop would probably be useful for the Riverline/Southbank residents. Actually a 15th st green line stop would probably also be useful, but considering the opposition to the new red line stop around there, it might be an hard sell.

I'd rather see the money put into a proper transfer at Jackson/Library from subways to the L. The city even has a big plot of land in Pritzker Park to build escalators/elevators.

I can't point you to the resource, but I have a clear memory of seeing something like that in a large Tribune article about the project written some time during the Daley administration, if you want to focus your Googling down a bit.

Vallas says expand Metra Electric
 

And pump the brakes on Red line ext.
This makes the most sense to me--Extension is wasteful and adds very little new accessibility when compared to beefed up Metra Electric service.

Greg Hinz ON POLITICS
January 16, 2019 01:44 PM
Expand Metra before extending Red Line to 130th Street?
Mayoral candidate Paul Vallas is calling for the city to back-burner plans to extend the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line and instead focus on upgrading Metra Electric service.
Crains

I agree, especially because the built form of the neighborhoods is already oriented around the ME. A stop could easily be added at Altgeld Gardens.

The current northside red/brown/purple capacity is about 36,000 riders per hour in each direction. Completion of the Clark St flyover will increase this by 20% to about 43,000 riders per hour.

Additional improvements on the north side will give the CTA the ability to run 10-car trains on the Red line and 8-car trains on the Brown and Purple lines. This will increase capacity by another 25% to about 54,000 riders per hour.

Total capacity increase is 50% or 18,000 riders per hour.

This will mean a similar increase in the number of cars running during morning and evening rush hours which will require another large train yard, which the CTA plans to build at 130th St. (The yards at Howard, Kimball and 98th Streets are currently at capacity.)

The total cost of this has been estimated at $7 billion; $4.7 billion for northside work plus $2.3 billion for the southside extension and a new yard at 130th St.

In terms of major capital projects, this is the CTA's #1 priority and rightfully so. The only thing holding up work is the need to find money to pay for it.

See pages A-19, 20 and B-1 in attached CCAC report.

Or the CTA can keep sending red line trains down to Englewood. I'd actually be a fan of unbranching the Green line, sending Green line trains to Cottage and red line trains to Englewood.

The new canopy for the Belmont Blue Line station is taking shape. I have no idea how they will get this to the site, it appears to be all welded already.

http://i68.tinypic.com/df8s9s.jpg
insta/Ross Barney Architects

I don't care how they get it there, that's going to look sick. It should also be pretty visible from the Kennedy which will be a nice counterpart to the El Centro splash of futurism on the other side of the freeway.

It's just too bad they aren't adding a second entrance to this station. The best thing they could do is pop an entrance in at Barry and Kimball offering pedestrians coming from the South and shorter and more humane route.

Yep, will be really convenient for those people at the Subway strip mall, the big box parking lot, and the gas station across the street... :rolleyes:

We shouldn't reward areas with SHITTY urban planning brand new subway entrances...

^ yeah, there is all kinds of garbage development around belmont blue.

but the best buy/aldi strip mall takes the cake as one of the worst garbage development offenders in the city.

they took the loading docks, dumpsters, and other back of house crap that should always be on an alley and put them DIRECTLY fronting kimball, a major city street:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9398...7i16384!8i8192

how in the fuck did the city ever allow that?

^ I find myself saying that all the time.

Our planning/zoning people are idiots. They should all be fired.

But I will say this: considering what is across the street from those loading docks, it's not that disappointing.

But once again, I am totally opposed to this new subway entrance. The city should not reward bad planning with flashy new stations.

People love the loading docks in the west loop lol. Loading docks from 1900 are industrial chic.

They could have oriented the building along the expressway side with the back to the expressway at least. Maybe they thought they were being more pedestrian oriented by having the store entrances closer to the subway station.

What are the chances that we start to see some TOD proposals for those large box stores/parking lots near this station? It seems like this area could be prime for development.

I'm not the biggest critic of strip malls, but that was just offensive. That parking lot is too big and the mall should be oriented so the the docks are along the expressway.

I don't think that would have worked from a site planning standpoint. The retail spaces would have been oddly-shaped, the whole point was to draw suburban retailers into the city at a time when the old pedestrian-oriented stores were closing. It's sad, there was an awesome Moderne factory/printing press there before it was demoed for the strip mall.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/29821940@N00/6955984721

But it does present a golden opportunity for TOD. It has expressway and Blue Line access, but not the shitty environment of a median station. And the site is large enough for probably three towers, ideally with a mall or retail component. Hopefully the intersection there can be re-engineered to calm the traffic and ease the crushing congestion. Ideally they eliminate the redundant ramps to/from SB I-90 at Kimball, and put a frontage road along each side of the expressway so entering/exiting traffic doesn't have to make turns at that intersection.

A TOD could also have an internal accessible entrance to the blue line station.

Who wants to live next to an expressway though? Breathing all that diesel exhaust everyday is terrible for your lungs and health! You couldn't pay me to live next to an expressway.

This hasn't seemed to slow the many new residential buildings along the Kennedy south of Chicago, or along the Eisenhower west of the Circle.

I think you misread - he was saying an additional entrance *South* of Belmont, not North. I don't think there's room for one without taking out a house, though.

Does the CTA seek out designs that are intended to look immediately dilapidated? Yuk!!

It's obviously not completely done yet, as you can tell from the plywood, which explains why there's still sand on the platform. There are water marks, and the photo's not great since it's through a window, but otherwise what are complaining about that isn't temporary?

i don't know, maybe the tens of thousands of people already living in highrises along LSD for miles and miles?

Well LSD doesn't allow trucks and 18 wheelers with heavy particulate diesel exhaust, and most of it has a green park buffer between the buildings so it's isn't quite as bad. But it's not healthy either, expressways are a big localized source of pollution in cities. I wouldn't live next to LSD either.

This is about the MTA rebuilding the Astoria Line (N and W) in New York. The finished parts of stations look much more sophisticated than Chicago stations, even recently rebuilt or completely new ones do.

What is the possibility that the RPM rebuilds result in something as quality as the new Astoria stations?
• Video Link

In general all of the program station renovations the MTA has underway or has recently completed look snazzy as hell. Whatever architecture firm they partnered with to create the new baseline material and application standards for the station reno's has done a very good job. The Bay Ridge line has seen several station modernizations during the same initiative as well as scattered stations in Manhattan and the Bronx. The combinations of the charcoal offset floor tile, gray and blasted concrete and canopy wood ceilings all look excellent and when paired with a plethora of electronic signage and information screens and new station entrances looks like a million bucks, or more like 15-20 million bucks;)

All that said, yes, I agree that some of the new Cta stations are far more cold and prison block feeling than what I would prefer. The Cta seems to be allergic to using warm materials. I don't know if this derives from the iconic 60s-70s design standardization that was unveiled on the expressway lines or what but IMO the Cta would benefit from not using as much stainless steel, galvanized and garish blue accents everywhere.