Those things were 6 feet wide and 7 feet tall. It's too bad they couldn't have cleared out two of them, say up Clark and Dearborn, and make them one-way pedestrian corridors through the loop. Might not be used by many people, but it would be handy in the winter. Just have an exit somewhere with an elevator every two blocks. Maybe do the same east-west on Monroe and Adams.

I know there's the Pedway - but it's such a mish-mash, doesn't go many places, and makes you wind around, up and down, etc.

Also - what was up with the Brown Line this morning? From Belmont straight to the Loop was completely backed up the entire way. Took almost 30 minutes just to go a few stops. People were getting really pissed off.

^^^ A lot of the transit system today has been completely backed up from what I've seen. LSD was much heavier traffic than normal and all the express buses were bunching. I imagine the Brown Line got backed up from more people than normal crowding the doors and doubling the time each train has to wait at each station.

Red Line trains were rerouted to the elevated south of Fullerton starting around 7am because someone fell on the tracks in the subway downtown.

I believe that the freight tunnels are quite deep - I think they're deeper than the subway although I can't cite any source for that right now.

Not to mention that they're not exactly safe places, not having been designed with any modern safety measures.

Subway
 

1920 NY Times article about putting subways in Chicago under the sidewalks instead of under the streets. Whatever happened to that plan? ;)

Sorry to jump back in the thread, but 2 pages ago nomarandee posted a circle line article

Quote:
Pitula opposes Circle Line plans that involve the Ashland corridor. Instead, he advocates for the improvement of bus services along Cicero Avenue. "It's cost-effective and flexible and allows you to provide public transportation for all," he said.
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune

this reminded me of two things.

One the Cicero avenue line proposal I've seen in many places, sometimes proposed as a subway, sometimes proposed as a line in the rail ROW to the east. My experiences of Cicero driving made me think of this, because being stuck on a bus in traffic on Cicero is the only thing I could think of that would be more frustrating than taking the train all the way downtown to transfer to another line.

and secondly an idea that had struck me during discussions in Cincinnati about streetcars as a way of attracting development coupled with light rail transfer points along a line. Which is:

To develop a tram/streetcar line on the boulevard system.
Starting out as two 3-4mi lines,
1) Logan Square to Garfield Park (Blue to Green)
2) Science and Industry to Garfield Green Line (South Shore and Green)
eventually being expanded to one 20mi line. through the entire green belt.

I think of this, because the boulevards are greatly underutilized public spaces, with one way streets bordering them in opposing directions for most of the distance. As well as that they run through some neighborhoods that could use the investment, with minimal impact or cost. Two 3+ mile lines would cost the city around $300 million and not require utility relocation. They also exist in an area about equal in distance from the Circle Line as the Circle Line is from downtown other than the portion near UofC

anyway, looking for thoughts, I might make a map of what this would look like at some point, but only if there is actually any interest in me explaining the idea further.

First good photos of 5000 series test cars. Rumor has it the fronts you see here, which are virtually identical to the 2600 and 3200 series cars, will be updated (fingers crossed) with the production units.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...00BrynMarw.jpg

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...terlocking.jpg


The rest: http://www.subchat.com/read.asp?Id=843726

I've had this same thought since the first time I saw the Boulevards. Originally, Diversey was part of the Boulevard system, although you could hardly tell that today, and it'd be a hard sell to do the work necessary to push trams all the way to Lincoln Park, despite the fact it would be really useful.

yeah, I've been considering, if when drawing a map of this idea, I should show a final phase extending down Logan Blvd to where it meets up with what was intended to be Diversey Blvd.

The question becomes, Do you circle back and loop down on Western? or Do you go all the way down Diversey to the lake?

Diversey would be congested with trams and cars and buses, but a car less Diversey after Clybourn with only buses and trams might not be inconceivable 20yrs down the line.

No, the trains weren't very crowded actually - definitely something signal related.

I'm assuming it was the Red Line. Crazy how putting Red Lines northbound on the elevated structure can cripple the southbound brown line within an hour. I'm assuming Green, Orange and Pink had problems as well then.

..

^^
one of the tsunamis left in the wake of the Rod

also mayor, I think it would only be northbound green since everything else runs on opposite track from brown line

Anybody else less than excited to see that the new 5000 series look identical to the 3200's?

^Like was mentioned, there is still word that a more "stylish" cab end will make it into the production units. Those pics are of the test units, for all we know a final cab end "face" is still being designed. Although, I do admit that I don't see what the point of these test units not having the complete look of what will be produced is.

^^ Obviously, the new AC motors, as well as brakes and everything else, must work properly in all situations that might arise on the CTA system. Interior design and exterior design are just window dressing, so those don't really matter at this point.

It doesn't change the basic functionality of the railcar to put a different front on, so that doesn't need to be included in the testing phases. In fact, the resemblance to the 3200s is probably intentional for the early cars, so that they can be tested inconspicuously.

A new front, from a functional perspective, will only matter as much as it affects driver visibility, and how the lights and signage on the front works - relatively minor features in the grand scheme of things. Likewise, I'm sure these cars don't even have the fancy stuff inside, although they probably *do* have the longitudinal seating.

Testing compatibility with the power delivery and cab-signal track circuits throughout the entire system - particularly in winter. Apparently both systems presented major design challenges. Particularly, I heard there was a lot of concern about the new propulsion system causing interference in the cab signaling system that is transmitted through the running rails.

did you put do in stars because they won't have longitudinal seating, because from my understanding they had axed the nyc like seating do to rider complaints on the MAX trains they tested on the brown line.

I found some neat graphics of a Carroll Transitway station buried in 300 N. LaSalle's PD application. That was in 2005, so these are at least 4 years old. There appears to be a direct-ish connection to the Merchandise Mart L station, which is a big plus, and a landscaped decked plaza over Carroll that is shared by Helene Curtis Building, 300 N LaSalle and EnV, in which the CTA stairs and such would be located. Note: the drawings refer to "rails" and a "curbed busway" so I guess they are meant to be noncommittal.

The drawings do answer some questions I had about how loading-dock and parking operations would work around the transit line. Basically, there would be two grade crossings of the line, at Lower LaSalle and at a point just south of EnV. I assume there would be appropriate signaling at these crossings, depending on the technology used (bus or light rail). 300 N LaSalle's parking entrance and loading dock entrance are along the east side under LaSalle, so they don't dump traffic into Carroll. EnV itself includes a roadway on the lower level connecting Kinzie and Carroll leading to the second grade crossing. The platform is set between the two crossings.

Plaza Level
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/920...itwayupper.jpg

Track Level
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/848...itwaylower.jpg

They really should do the decking regardless of whether there's a transitway. It could function as a nice plaza in the summer and would certainly make access to the station easier on weekends when sometimes the Mart locks up their Wells doors forcing people to walk a block to the middle and a block back just to get into the station.