They're gonna have to rebuild the whole wall. Hopefully the contractor eats the cost and not the taxpayer.

The 100 year old concrete walls being replaced on the Red & Purple Lines looked better than this

Was the concrete soundwall even necessary? They should have just have used a galvanized railing.

The tracks curve as they ascend the flyover. Leaving the sides open to the noise from squealing wheels 30 feet above a residential neighborhood would have been quite a "screw you" to Wrigleyville.

I'm pretty sure this is required, yes. This is how Environmental Impact is supposed to work - you identify impacts like increased noise pollution, and propose design solutions like a sound wall.

It looks like they tried to do too much, though. To keep the flyover structure as slender and sleek as possible, they specified a concealed panel connection that looks really nice and clean in a section drawing, but isn't rigid enough. Looks like the concrete spalling is caused by flex in the connection.

In the overall result from what was there to now, it seems more of a thoughtful gesture. Residents have endured much louder track noise on the existing steel structure and constant track switch clatter. I speak from experience. Ultimately, the sound walls will reduce certain noise, but to a limit. But imagine showing plans with no visible sound mitigation techniques. The problem with concrete, is unless there’s very specific acoustical treatments, it can bounce sound all around instead of absorbing it. The curve on the flyover is gentle enough that you don’t get that squealing wheel noise, but you’d hear sounds at the rail joints, and there’s a knocking noise, where the train “shudders” at the very top before descending. So it’s best to do all that you can to dampen that.

Oil has reach $5 a gallon in the city, and prices will continue to climb. Alongside offices requiring employees to return to work, this could jumpstart transit ridership post-COVID

Agreed. I was driving by a gas station the other day and saw $4.96 and had to do a double take. Even way out in the post-Cook exburbs, prices are north of $4 there too.

The Blue line outbound from downtown on Friday afternoon was PACKED. I have no pre-Covid exposure, so I don't know how that compares, but it was the busiest I have seen the trains in all of the time I have spent in the city over the last year.

Wow, well I guess that’s good for transit. However, many will probably choose WFH over riding the train so I’m not sure how much gas prices will really boost transit ridership

My bus (the 148) had standing room only on Tuesday last week, for the first time I can remember since COVID. Never thought I would be happy to not have a seat :cheers:

Waiting for a brown line train at wellington coming home from my kid's doctor's appointment at 5:00pm last Thursday, I watched two outbound red line trains roll by that were fully standing room only, the middle cars looking pretty damn sardined.

Our outbound brown line train was also standing room only.

So people are riding the trains at rush hour again.

My hunch is that WFH hurts Metra more than the L.

Many jobs are starting to go minimum hybrid (2-4 days a week in office) with the mask/vax mandates dropping and covid cases dropping. I'm sure there will still be plenty WFH going on, but like everybody is saying, the trains are packed now.

Yeah, if a company downtown is requiring employees to come in, they're not gonna waive the requirement just because gas prices are high. Get on the train, b*tch. :D

I think part of it is people are itching to get out and about. Now that folks know they don't have to wear a mask anymore, they want to get the fuck out of the house. When I was in Miami a month ago, the WeWork there was extremely busy, and it's because people didn't have to follow mandates.

Wow, this is great to hear. Standing room only buses and trains?

I don’t want to throw a banana bash too early, but I’m going to remain cautiously hopeful about the future of transit-dependent urbanity

I think the CTA was bound to come back, simply because of congestion in the city, relatively low car ownership rates, the hassle of finding street parking/paying for off street parking, etc.

I agree with Steely that its Metra that is going to be suffering from the hybrid/WFH trend, since a much larger percentage of its users are commuters.

CTA is gonna struggle with energy/fuel costs and huge shortage of staff from drivers/operators to mechanics. It's gonna get worse before it gets better even if ridership is ticking up. CTA buys fuel in bulk at pre-negotiated rates, so right now the increased costs are falling on the speculators. When it comes time to negotiate fuel for 2023, it's gonna be bad.

I imagine CTA will have no choice but to pay more for fuel and pay higher salaries to attract workers, and we will end up in another revenue crisis (aka "doomsday" scenario) like in 2010. Only this time politicians and the public have a pile of other doomsdays going on. With the discourse around WFH, will there be political support for pouring more taxpayer money into CTA?

One bright spot is that electric buses may finally be ready for prime-time. They are still far from perfect, but CTA can scale up their deployment of electric buses to blunt the impact of gas prices. Depends on what the Feds do as well, it would be great if they worked with bus manufacturers to scale up production and supported the training of new electricians to install/maintain all the charging infra.

well, crowded trains and buses might mean there will be political support for it.

at least in the city.

as i said earlier, metra might have the tougher hill to climb to in this situation as it is so much more singularly focused on getting suburban office workers into the loop (the very demographic most affected by WFH).

i would say that Pace has a tough hill to climb too, but it's already as bare bones of an operation as it can be; if you significantly cut it back anymore, you might as well just get rid of it altogether and give the working poor uber/lyft vouchers are something.

Labor is going to be the main problem, fuel is not a big part of CTA operating expenses:

https://imgur.com/73QBnpp.png from https://www.transitchicago.com/asset...r_website).pdf

Well headways are the main reason for standing room only. Very frequently right at morning/evening rush on the Blue Line the headways are still 12-15 minutes where they use to be 3-5 minutes. Today my train was the first one to come by at 8:45am in 16 minutes. So it was packed but if the trains were even running at every 5 minutes it would have been completely fine. As it was it was a huge crush.

Other problem just being the extreme homelessness problem etc on the trains. Well over half the seats on this morning rush blue line to the loop had people living/sleeping across all the rows. Legs out in the aisle and someone sleeping across to seats with their legs blocking the other two seats. Hard for people to pile in and stand.

We get downtown and the platform, tracks and stairs were covered in trash and filth, salt, etc. Escalator shut down and blocked off so everyone had to stand in huge lines to try and go single-file up the stairs as others tried to come down. Been like that all week.

Took the CTA for decades now and for the first time ever it's a huge hindrance in my desire to either WFH or be back in the office. I find myself not wanting to come in just because the train takes forever and is a stressful experience, that never even crossed my mind in the past. The conductors both going and coming were extremely apologetic over the speakers, said they were trying to do their best but there simply wasn't any staff anymore that could drive the trains.

Not to pile on the CTA, just making sad observations. We had multiple people fly in from out west for St Paddy's weekend and we told them all to take the train to our house right off the Blue Line. Both coming and going it was a huge mess, trains delayed for a very long time, etc.

Two times as people tried to leave on Sunday we had to run over and grab them after they got up to the platform because the next train coming was just "Delay" on the tracker, meaning it was at least 20 minutes away since that's all the tracker goes up to. We hadn't planned that the next train would be up to a half hour on the blue line in the middle of the day. Once it comes we're only a 15 minute ride to O'hare.

Took the Brown Line with our three year olds and family in town two weeks ago - just for fun, a "train ride". Got on at Kimball and only rode to Montrose and ate there and took the train back. It was 26 minutes before the train left going to Montrose and we stood up in the cold for 33 minutes trying to get back. Everyone was super pissed and we were very embarassed since we said it would be fun. Feel even worse for the people trying to go downtown, there was already a large crowd waiting when we got up there and when I finally saw their train heading towards them it was at least 5-6 minutes after we had left Montrose going north. I bet those people waited ~45 minutes for a Brown Line going towards downtown on a Saturday afternoon. This is going to really cause people to give up on it.

I saw this too. Many people angry because in such a predicted high volume times, trains were 15+ minutes in between. People were angry, trains were so packed that people that had been waiting for a long time couldn't get on.

I know there are factors like labor, etc on scheduling, but we KNEW this was going to be the biggest weekend in a very long time. It was sad to see the worst case scenario was playing out. People were upset and angry at all the huge delays and taking Ubers instead on frustration.

When our train system is running reliably, it is hard to state the impact that this has on regular ridership, because I don't have to think about waiting for 20 minutes for a train but instead head to the stop knowing it will always be less than 10 minutes until the next one.

i took the brown line to and from downtown last saturday for the festivities.

zero issues both ways for me, 0 minute wait on the way down in the morning as i got very lucky on timing for an inbound train at rockwell.

then about a 4 minute wait for the train home from the loop in the late afternoon (pretty lucky again, i guess).

sorry to hear about other people's transit horror stories.

The longer waiting times on the blue line wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so unpredictable. The train tracker is useless sometimes so you can't even plan ahead.It's gotten better since the height of omicron in January but 15 minute plus waits are still super common.

Seriously, the Blue Line has degraded severely in the last few years. I usually won't even take it right now because of the terrible wait times but more because the homeless/crazy inhabitants of the trains. I have a pretty high tolerance, but some of what I've witnessed recently is disgusting. I don't know if it's a CTA or CPS issue or both, but something must be done about the homeless on the trains.

Aaron (Glowrock)

Sounds like the same issue that occurred in NYC during the pandemic with a concerted effort now to address the system and get ridership back up.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...mid-crime-wave

Yesterday headed to Chicago to run an errand, damn Blue Line running through the median seemed quite full of riders. Fuller than I even remember it being pre-pandemic

Same, we are in office 4 days a week now and I have had no issues at all with the Brown line.

Red line has been fine during the week too, although I did have a ten minute wait today (Saturday).

The brown line is the crown jewel of the CTA. You dont ever hear stories about people shitting on the brown line or someone getting stabbed like the red/blue/green line. Plus it has the best view with the river and skyline

True, but it's also the slowest line......

If you are in downtown and need to jet north, obviously the Red Line is the better choice time wise.

Also doesn't extend to Jefferson Park as it should either to provide a transfer to or interline with the Blue to O'Hare, instead requiring a bus ride or an unneccesary trip downtown, just to state the obvious.

There's 5 zoning applications that just hit to renovate 5 Metra Electric stations - 79th, 87th, 95th, 103rd, and 111th.

Metra had renderings of the new stations in their recent board meeting, they all look really nice: https://metra.com/sites/default/file...E%20Update.pdf

Unbelievable that they have to file for rezoning to renovate existing stations. This train line has had passenger service for 100 years, how is it not already zoned for train stations?

Every time I look, the city keeps finding new tricks to get in its own way.

It looks like maybe they are building a couple headhouses on the street that are occupied by other uses currently. This probably explains the zoning app.

Every building permit has to have a stamp from zoning

Yes, I'm aware of how you get a building permit in Chicago. But there's such a thing as legal non-conforming use. The stations should be grandfathered in, regardless of what the current zoning is, because they've been continuously in operation. Also Metra is part of RTA which is a state agency, so you can argue they don't even need building permits in the first place, it's just a convenient way for them to coordinate with city departments.

The zoning code isn't handed down from God, it is continously edited and updated by City Council. They chose this system that makes Metra and CTA jump through one more hoop.

I'm thinking ahead to other Metra projects - what happens when they want to build the A-2 Flyover, and the neighbors complain? If the alderman takes the neighbors' side, no zoning change for Metra. It's just one more way for NIMBYism to rear its ugly head. CTA only barely got the Belmont Flyover, and only because Rahm steamrolled Ald. Tunney.

That's just at 95th I think, the other headhouses appear to be within the ROW.

^ I think you're overthinking it.

Probably zoning will just stamp the damn thing and move on, like they do for countless projects. They do their own bitching, though, and one time I had to pay an attorney to explain to zoning that the 8 unit building that I was deconverting to 5 units was NOT a single family home. I had to take a bunch of pictures to prove to them that the building was actually what it was. Lazy assholes.

Ok, I digressed....

What? No, there is a Zoning Change filed with City Council for each of the 5 station renovations. A zoning change requires a full vote of City Council, not some rubber stamp from a staffer.

It's true that City Council does lots of minor things like sidewalk cafe permits, but that's part of the problem. If the alderman doesn't like you, or you forgot to hire his law firm for your tax appeal, etc etc, they can hold up tons of routine things precisely because they aren't delegated to city staff.

IIRC, one of the things the 2004 zoning reform discovered was that Chicago didn't have zoning for parks, nor for transportation facilities, and it created both. The code reform anticipated a remap that never happened. So the Metra Electric zoning changes are just some housekeeping, not a chance for a shakedown—as certain suburban landlords would gleefully speculate.

Ardecila I get what you are saying, I was thinking in terms of a Zoning stamp. But yes, it does seem a bit excessive. But whatever, I’m used to it

Savvy aldermen know exactly how these kinds of "housekeeping" council actions can be turned into an opportunity for NIMBY obstructionism, or yes, sometimes a shakedown.

The failure of the city to do a remap after 2004 is maybe the original sin here, but the continual failure to do it is really bad.

Since the South Shore Line extension won't initially have a stop in Downtown Hammond, city hall is planning to build one themselves.

Municipalities get on board plans to grow housing, commercial developments as South Shore projects start
https://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...g7y-story.html

This will have to be an elevated station so it could get quite expensive (West Lake includes an elevated rail flyover crossing the freight lines thru Hammond).

Actually looks like the station will be at grade just south of the flyover. They will probably position it near Douglas St to anchor the courthouse square. I’m already looking forward to the quick electric train ride down to get delicious beer and burgers at 18th St Brewery…. https://www.nwitdd.com/hammond-gateway

Downtown Hammond could use it, though. So much potential to be a dense downtown on par with maybe Des Plaines or Elmhurst.

Blue Line extension is back on the menu

Chicago in the running for billions in new transportation funds: Buttigieg
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...tructure-funds

Yes, please finish the 75th St CIP.

Can we extend the ORD Blue Line branch too to fix the crappy terminal situation?

blue line extension into suburbia? Bruh no, please just make a connection to the brown and blue line, that would be something small that would create significant results.

Bruh yes. An Eisenhower Blue Line extension makes total sense, as was briefly discussed several months ago. Bellwood and Maywood are just as dense as any city proper bungalow belt 'hood and this extension would be used. Should have been done decades ago. I actually think extension even further to the 88/290/294 interchange @ Hillside would be justifiable. An enormous park and ride with direct highway access could be built there which would encourage even more ridership. Tangentually related is that that same triangle would make an interesting site for a major sports/entertainment facility.

As for O'Hare Blue Line, no thanks. The airport is a natural terminal and any effort to get to the west side of the airport and out to Schaumburg or whatever would cost a zillion dollars and be much better served by modernized regional rail.

Brown extension under Lawrence from Kimball to Jefferson Park is so obvious its painful. Another project that should have done years ago. I made this comment maybe a couple years ago, but the same project could trench the tracks from the north branch to Kimball and remove charming but problematic grade crossings. Kimball is also the natural location to keep an expanded below grade yard with a big ass TOD on top. A station at Cicero/Lawrence could also be the beginnings of a potentially significant regional rail/Cta confluence. And that triangle where the lumberyard was is begging for an impressive redevelopment with some buildings with more than three floors. One can dream.