I'm pretty sure the CTA put an easement on the parcel to make space for the station, so at least there was foresight on that front.

With the announcement yesterday of UI's Innovation Center plan at Related's site, along with the other developments planned for the site (not to mention the chance for Amazon to locate here), perhaps this potential infill station is becoming increasingly worthwhile? How difficult/disruptive would it be creating an infill subway station along an active line? Though I would assume it's a little easier than might typically be the case since the CTA has the option to reroute red line trains to the green line tracks if necessary.

^Were I the CM, I'd build the new flat tunnel with southbound platform immediately to the west of the existing line. It would be fairly simple cut-and-cover with plenty of room to work except right next to the existing tunnel wall.

Then cut the Red Line over to the new tracks (one weekend, by running "over the top") and build the northbound platform, mezzanines, exits, etc.

I was bored and thinking about transit to some of the north branch Amazon sites. Independent of Amzn, I feel this line warrants further study by CTA...and not just because I made this map :). I'm sure many of you have thought of something similar before.

The line could be two-phased to begin, with a hopeful expansion south to complete phase III at a later date. The line would utilize existing rail lines for portions of the route.

http://i.imgur.com/axQaZi9.jpg

Stops would be at:
Phase I
Roosevelt/Clinton
Harrison/Clinton
Jackson/Clinton
Madison/Clinton
Lake/Clinton
Chicago/Larrabee
Division/Larrabee
North/Clybourn
*joins red or brown line to Howard/Kimball

Phase II
Cortland/Clybourn
Fullerton/Ashland
Diversey/Ashland
Belmont/Lincoln/Ashland
Belmont/Western
*joins blue line to O'Hare

Wilson Station is officially open.

• Video Link

Cool video...but..the music...wtf? It's not Game of Thrones. Throw some EDM on it...just sayin.

^ Right, nor a station overlooking a chasm in rural China. I thought the same thing when I saw it yesterday. Some old-timey talkie music (or EDM) would be more fitting here.

The last 45 seconds of that video looked like some of the best CGI ever made. I had to do a double take.

Now somebody just needs to buy that horrible strip mall across the street and develop it into something proper

There's hope! The largest tenant, Payless, moved out this year.

Chicago/IL's Amazon bid includes up to $400M of state funding for infrastructure, regardless of which site is chosen. With some fiscal discipline, that might be enough for a new underground CTA station at 15th and a barebones Metra platform to serve Rock Island.

At any other site, $400M could fund a long wishlist of things. At Lincoln Yards, for example, it could fund a new transitway to downtown and a series of new river bridges.

$400M could also fund more than half of "Phase I" of the circulator project. I don't know how seriously the city is taking the white paper published for the circulator, but even having the stretch connection Navy Pier to Union Station would be beneficial.

Has it been discussed what a transitway to Lincoln Yards would include? BRT?

Post #13785 included a great solution to address access to the large redevelopment opportunities along the north branch of the Chicago River. I'm sure the planner would love some feedback. :cheers:

Transportation news that is worthy to post about: the section of the extended IL-390 roadway is set to open Wednesday between I-290 and Busse Rd., and was kicked off with a 5K and fest over this past weekend. I took a couple of shit-tastic photos (below) before the run that don't show you much, but I saw a couple of great shots on the Tollway's Twitter page.

Looks like 3 lanes in each direction from Lake St. on through to about Wood Dale Rd., then down to 2 lanes EB to 83. WB looks to have 3 lanes all the way down.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4462/...306cf90e_b.jpg
IMG_8050 2 by Brandon DaPrato, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4465/...5183059a_b.jpg
IMG_8051 2 by Brandon DaPrato, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4504/...9b21cf74_b.jpg
IMG_8052 2 by Brandon DaPrato, on Flickr

That's great but when do they actually complete it to York Rd ? I looked at the IDOT website and they practically seem to be avoiding any mention of a completion date, and barely mention the existence of that project phase at all. Did they put it on ice until the I-490 legs get a timetable? I imagine the interchange geometry at York could be completely different if I-490 never gets built.

On a related note, does anyone know of a website that has more current aerial photography than Bing or Google maps? Those can do a pretty lousy job at keeping up with urban developments that change much faster than a two or three year cycle, as is the case around O'Hare (not to mention downtown).

The cheapest thing would be a busway using existing street ROW as much as possible. Many of those side streets are lightly used and could certainly have space given to bus lanes. On the south end, it would tie into the Canal and Clinton bus lanes to do a circuit around the Metra stations.

The City's Framework Plan included an alignment, but it's super conceptual. It would require General Iron to leave, possibly two new river bridges, a new street to be constructed between Kinzie/Clinton and Chicago/Halsted, etc. Much of it depends on what gets developed and when. Not insurmountable challenges but big ones to be sure.

There are a lot of estimates, but the latest timeframe I'm aware of is to have the entire 390/490 project completed by 2022-2025, which corresponds to the theoretical completion of an O'Hare Western Access terminal/facility.

The stretch between York Rd and 83 is supposedly slated to be finished by the end of 2019.

If 490 never gets off the ground, I believe that they will at least build a partial interchange to connect York Rd to 390. There are a lot of contingencies around that last mile past 83 (the western terminal being one, and Canadian Pacific and their ongoing land-use feud/facebattle with the Tollway being the second). In addition, we're now starting to get some details regarding the Tollway's reconstruction of the central Tri-State, so I'm not sure how that'll factor into all of this.

BRT wouldn't work along the N. Branch. Clybourn is a nightmare north of north and there's only one lane each direction. Orleans is a parking lot during rush hour and one way south of Ontario. All SB buses would have to make their way to Halsted at Division. Wells is awful during the rush. Division is also heavily congested, as is Halsted, which is desolate compared to the surrounding areas, but still manages to have heavy traffic at pretty much all times of the day anyway.