I'm assuming they're using the opportunity to tackle needed utility work, while it's easy to get workers in and out. The work isn't strictly part of the Wacker rebuild.

Further south at Congress, they've also been doing work for the MWRD with a tunnel-boring machine. Cool stuff.

It's good to see a photo of the tunnel. I have drawings, but that doesn't really give a sense of what it feels like down there.

As we speak, Mayor Daley is on a 5 city tour of China for the sole purpose of finding funding for an O'Hare-downtown high speed rail link, as well as (of course) selling Chicago to Chinese people.

Thoughts and questions:

1. Does Daley know something that we don't know, or am I correct in thinking that this is a quixotic effort?

2. Why has Daley become so obsessed with China lately?

3. Why didn't Daley start doing this sooner?

^ ...and while I'm on this topic, here's a thought:

Is it possible that Daley might try to win some of Florida's lost HSR money as seed funding for an O'Hare-downtown HSR train (after all, it is still considered HSR money), thus leveraging funding from Chinese investors?

I wonder if I could put aic4ever on the spot, due to his expertise in construction costing. When I look at this photo of the new 35th St. Station on Metra's Rock Island District, I just don't see more than $500,000 worth of work: demolish Test Cell building, construct some retaining walls and ramps on earth fill, pour two flat level platforms, and erect two small shelters fabricated off-site. Instead, it cost $18 million. What am I missing here? Are the shelters made of unobtainium?

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5251/...ab17cfe8_z.jpg

I’m betting on number 1. Daley’s been emphatic about the private-sector nature of his HSR scheme, so I doubt he’d go for the money (and he doesn’t have any preliminary planning to show for it, anyway). Maybe he’s going to malls looking for secrets of downtown retail revitalization—Block 37 really reminds me of this mall from Wangfujing (picture copyright Super Stock):

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI..._1071-7313.jpg

^ I'm not sure I share the degree of skepticism. Do you really think he went to China just to look at malls? Again, I could be wrong, but he must at least think there is a chance he'll be successful.

He has already WASTED +$250 MILLION at Block 37 (correct me if I'm wrong) on "The Emperor's New Clothes" Show; how much does he get to WASTE now???

I think you might be surprised at the lineal foot cost of a retaining wall... the 18m figure doesn't surprise me.

Sorry—I should have included a wry smiley and complete sentences in my post. I think he’s on a quixotic quest for HSR money—what I meant to say was that I doubt he’d even bother applying for Florida’s, mainly because he’s been so intent that a Chicago-O’Hare express be entirely done by the private sector and also because he probably knows he’ll have to do more than say “It’s for a Chicago-O’Hare express” to get anything (as far as I can tell, that’s about how advanced the planning is at this point).

I only brought up that mall because I finally went in the non-pedway part of the Block 37 mall the other day and it reminded me of that mall at Wangfujing (a big Beijing shopping district) and was feeling a bit facetious. :dunce:

^ Well, I suspect you may be right, but I hope you're wrong.

Daley may not always get what he wants (Olympics), but he usually does not waste his time on wild goose chases, either.

Your needless hectoring via unnecessary use of capital letters is quite tiresome & does not do your cause any good. We get your drift. You are dissatisfied with the current transit schemes being offered by the city. Many of us are sympathetic.

Now can you please stop with the pointless stridency.

OK, sorry - No more all caps lawfin; but you are exactly right about my stridency - parts of this city are without CTA train service (for decades), while O'Hare already has 2 rail services (CTA Blue Line and Metra). How does O'hare deserve 3 rail services, while he apparently feels by his actions that some other parts of the city can do without it altogether; and guess what the demographic of that part of the city is??

^ Because O'Hare is a big, fat money machine. It's all about economics and $$$.

The south side is (largely) a bottomless, economic drain. O'Hare, on the other hand, is a cash cow.

Connecting O'Hare to downtown by HSR only helps cement the connection between downtown and the cash cow.

I'm not condoning it, but I'm just giving an explanation.

Wasn't sure I'd chime in here, but I thought the SE side has a bunch of white population (Hegewisch etc.) too? I don't think TUP was going the direction you were thinking. Anyway I'm optimistic the area is ripe for infrastructure investment. As far as ORD goes, it is a goose laying golden eggs for us. Just one recent example - Lollapalooza brings in how many $millions in tourist dollars, and one big reason is that all the out-of-town kids have easy access to cheap flights and no-brainer rail service into downtown. Lots of service jobs from strong lodging and food sectors. So let's make it as easy as possible for out-of-towners to leave their $ in Chicago. It's like doing a rain dance for money.

1. Wasn't Quinn's idea to use Amtrak for the O'Hare service? Assuming a quick and dirty service, an Amtrak train leaves Olgilvie or Union, and heads to O'Hare, and uses the existing Metra transfer stop. I would imagine that a canopy would be needed at the stop, as well as a shuttle bus to the terminals. Would Amtrak just pocket all that money? Some kind of sharing agreement? I would imagine a huge political fight as to who would get the money.

The service mentioned in the above paragraph would have to be coordinated with all the other trains, as frequent service would congest the railways. I'm not sure if any CREATE projects would impact this service (and eventually improve it). It appears that 2 projects could be in the path.

2. Seems odd to extend the red line south, when the Metra electric line is right there (aka Gray line). The only thing missing is frequency and an easy way to transfer fare to CTA.

Yeah, the metra already goes to o'hare. You would just need to extend the people mover train a mile or so over a parking lot and connect it to the metra stop.

Even if we were to improve frequencies on the ME Line and introduce fare integration, I don’t think that it would really function that well as a replacement for a Red Line extension.

First, let’s note that we’re probably beyond the point where buses feeding into existing transit can serve the south side’s transit purposes—the bus terminal at the 95th Street Red Line station’s currently well over capacity. For convenient reference, look at the far south side CTA map.

Notice that the Metra Electric line’s at the eastern edge of the space bounded by I-57 and I-94, along Cottage Grove Avenue. Most bus traffic, however, goes up Michigan and Halsted, further west. The proposed Red Line extension would run pretty along a ROW in between Michigan and Halsted between ~99th and 111th, and then turn southeast towards a station at 115th and Michigan, better serving the existing north-south travel market better. Although if something like the Gray Line were to be implemented, you’d probably see some shift to the east-west buses, I doubt it would be enough to serious reduce traffic at the 95th Street terminal.

There’s also the issue of where commuters will go. The Metra Electric line’s best suited to commutes downtown (and to Hyde Park, though I’m not sure how much of a destination it is; I’d guess it formerly was an important way to get to far south side industries as well, but unfortunately that’s not a major commute market anymore). However, a lot of south side commuters are making intra-south-side trips. The Red Line’s better situated to serve these commutes—if you work on, say, W. 87th Street, the Metra Electric Line, even with improved frequency, is too far east (and I doubt the Gray Line could ever match the frequencies of the Red Line—Millennium Station simply doesn’t have the capacity).

The Red Line extension also has the ancillary benefit of making possible a a new yard and shops facility around 120th, replacing the current one, which the CTA claims is small, outdated, and hard to access (Google Maps link). The current plan sees the Red Line extending all the way to 130th & Ellis to serve the Altgeld Gardens housing estate and a large park-and-ride facility for commuters driving up I-94 from the southeast suburbs. FWIW, I think 115th seems a more natural end point for the Red Line—a major intersection that could become a TOD hub (with a single track leading to the new shops-and-yards).

How To Fix the El


http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago...nt?oid=3473194




http://www.chicagoreader.com/imager/...ont_magnum.jpg

It's not like there won't be a station at 115th. What's the problem with a station at 130th? A south park-and-ride is an excellent idea. I don't know why we don't have one already.

Personally I would prefer the alignment to turn east at 115th and run elevated over 115th (or the adjacent alley) to the Bishop Ford and a park-and-ride there. It wouldn't serve Altgeld, but it would serve the new Pullman Park development and the historic areas of Pullman, and it would have a REAL transfer to Metra Electric and South Shore at Kensington. Even if Metra is hostile to the idea right now, it's stupid for CTA to built an alignment that rules out the possibility in the future.

Not to get too controversial here, but I'm not sure about the appeal of a park-and-ride station that also happens to be right across the street from a massive housing project. Generally, suburbanites and public-housing residents don't mix too well.

^Why is it important to spend lots of money to establish a CTA park 'n ride in an area already criss-crossed by Metra/NICTD lines?