FIRST, PRAISE BE THAT THIS DAMN THING PASSED

Second,

Agreed, and I'm a hardcore Democrat.

It's still possible for a recall provision to placed on the 2008 ballot. If that's done, a special election could be called after the election, early 2009, provided that Blag isn't grandfathered.

That's the first tidbit I've seen on funding the seniors, and that's a lot more promissing. There's no reason the baby boomers buying million dollar condos need free rides. Target the funding to the poor where it's most needed.

But if Blago's true to form, he'll probably fight a sensible compromise like that too.

Do we have any idea of the potential upgrades to the transit if we win the olympic bid?

From Chicago's Olympic application:

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6...cture23my0.png

The short answer is that Olympic bid may, at most, accelerate the progress of the various transportation proposals that are already in the pipeline, that will possibly happen regardless of a successful Olympic bid. R/O/Y Line extensions, Circle Line, STAR line, and the downtown BRT system (apparently when Bush was in town, Daley specifically plugged the Circle Line as an important project, presumably joining in laying the groundwork to get some earmark funding in the next transportation bill).

I haven't heard anything new about the West Loop Transportation Center in a long time (over a year perhaps), which always struck me (in conjunction with the downtown BRT/LRT circulator) as the single most important mega-project in tying the region's transit systems together. Speculation, but it seems possible that with rising construction costs, the project got so absurdly expensive that it's on hold for now. Unless someone from CDOT or Transystems wants to chime in otherwise...

Any Olympic-specific transit service (express buses, typically) would probably be short-term contracted service; the extent of permanent improvements in this regard could be things like bus lanes or signal priority (e.g. down King Drive to connect the Village with the Stadium, something heading west like on Roosevelt to connect to the Aquatic Center, etc.), but at this point that's speculative.

I thought Daley was plugging the Mid-City Line, which is his baby like the Circle Line was Kruesi's.

I don't think any of the proposed projects would make a tremendous impact on Olympic visitors, except the Airport Express. Most Olympic visitors are gonna be flying into O'Hare or Midway, where they are served by the Blue/Orange Lines and America's 2nd-largest taxi fleet, which gets them to their downtown hotels.

The vast majority of the venues are clustered around downtown, so the R/O/Y extensions do little to serve them. The Mid-City line won't serve any concentrations of hotels or businesses and won't go downtown. The Circle Line may help people get from Douglas Park to Lincoln Park, but that's a limited benefit (unless it is extended from the Orange to the South Side Green Line).

The only proposal that would make a big impact on the Games is the Grey Line, and that's not even official. I bet Metra will do some sort of service increase and refurb on the Electric Line, though.

Basically, all of the official proposals are designed to ease commutes and trips for city residents, by allowing better, faster connections and fostering lifestyles that are more transit-oriented. Not many will help Olympic visitors.

.......it's so nice to see this forum finally going back to talking about real transit issues again !! ..........I was so sick of funding discussions ! :yes: :tup:

Here's a question, and this is specifically directed towards some of our more transit-savvy forumers (ahem, Viva :) )

With the newly passed Bill, the RTA has been given more power and oversight over Chicago area transit. What does this mean and how should we expect this to impact transit planning/services over the next few years?

Right. To the extent they are accelerated by the Olympic bid, it would only be because of the diversion of more federal and state capital dollars in the general direction of Chicago.

..

^ Great PR on the part of the CTA. Days after a tax hike to fund operations goes through, they are asking for billions of dollars for infrastructure repairs. They could have at leasted waited a few weeks.

^So when Hilkevitch called to ask about the problem of capital funding, what should the CTA have responded?

It hasn't exactly been a secret that the RTA and CTA have claimed that they need billions to be in a good state of infrastructure health and I warnings have been made even before the operational budget battles really geared up.
It was more a case of a reporter who knows that the transit crises isn't exactly over and just doing a follow up piece to tell an unaware public that there is more drama and debate on where to find revenue likely to come. It wasn't the CTA or RTA that came and held a press conference but the more the public understands what bad shape our systems are in the better.

....just like Metra's great PR of announcing they were going through with an immediate fare hike even if new funds were approved.

It came out over a year ago that the CTA needed $6 billion alone for updating the CTA infrastructure. The article is just reminding Chicagoland area that only part of the problem has been solved. Surprised anyone who every paid attention to Chicago happenings would have forgotten about this fact.

Once Chicago gets the Olymics ( which im sure it will ), youll get the funding neccessary to upgrade most of your trnasit services. Vanouver got the 2010 Winter Olymics and it just got 14 billion dollars for trnasit upgrades, including 1500 new busses which would more than double the amount of busses it has now. ( and thats only covering about 1.5 billion out of 14 billion ).

BTW... Good luck in getting the olympics. :)

I believe Vancouver is in Canada, which is not terribly relevant to predicting what will happen in US politics.

^Understatement of the century, especially if it's concerning transit priorities and funding.

Edit:

I'm a Chicago 2016 booster as much as the next guy, but even I'm not sure we have it in the bag, or are even close to having it in the bag. Our competition is nothing to laugh at.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/transpo...12308.article#

Plasma screens coming to 'L' car near you

January 23, 2008
BY MONIFA THOMAS

The CTA board agreed this morning to add a few features to 406 new L cars the transit agency has ordered — including plasma screens that will flash real-time travel information, seats that are supposed to be stain- and odor-proof and live video feeds that are sent to train operators during emergencies.

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/9...1231440sk8.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/8...0080123td7.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/2...0860282fu6.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6...0080123gf6.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1...0080123go4.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6...0080123ji7.jpg

^ uhm.............really?

really??? thats what they're gonna look like?!