That's not what I recall. They wanted to build a tunnel to cut out the curves over Clybourn/Halsted/North and link up directly with the new station.

I'm not sure there is sufficient track length over Halsted to construct a station that will accommodate the upcoming 8 car Brown Line service.

Not directly transit related, but rather showing us where our state places priorities for transportation projects. $480 million for an uneeded, duplicative interchange.

http://www.southtownstar.com/news/73...change.article

$480 million could substantially modernize the north branch of the Red Line, rehabilitated aging track/structure through the system, bring the bus fleet fully up to modern standards....need I go on. Is it really such a calamity that right now, people wanting to transfer between 57 and 294 need to travel on 80 for a couple miles?

Yes.

This interchange is ridiculous. Out of the full complement of ramps (8) they only really need 4 (SB 57->SB 294, NB 294->NB 57, SB 294->NB 57, SB 57->NB 294). These 4 ramps shave 6-12 miles off trips. Unfortunately, 2 of them require costly flyovers or speed-reducing cloverleafs.

Any of the other 4 ramps would cut less than a mile from any journey.

If they want full connectivity, then the best way to do it is to build a 294 entrance at 147th. People switching highways can exit at 147th, drive 0.6 miles to the interchange at the other highway, and get on. Hell, they even could do a ton of improvements to 147th to make it limited-access for that 0.6 miles (removing two stoplights and widening), and still spend less than $480 million.

$480 million is appalling. I don't really have a stinging remark or anything. I'm sort of in shock. DISGRACEFUL.

Study: Ill. Amtrak line could draw 111K
| 08 Jan 2008 | 07:10 PM ET
CHICAGO (AP) - Train feasibility studies don't normally elicit much excitement from casino executives like Bill Renk.

But an Amtrak report released this week gives casino operators in Illinois plenty of reason to smile, concluding that a proposed passenger-train route between Chicago and the Quad Cities could carry 111,000 riders a year.

Many of those riders would likely be Chicago gamblers heading to casinos along the Mississippi River, the study concludes.

"We're very much delighted," Renk, vice president for sales and marketing at the Jumer's Casino Rock Island, said Tuesday. "What this would do is put us in a good position to expose Chicagoland to what the Quad Cities have to offer." There's also good news for longtime advocates of a Chicago-Quad Cities line who feared the project might be too pricey.

The upbeat study estimates costs of upgrading existing track for passenger-train use at between $14 million and $23 million -- lower than earlier estimates of around $30 million. State operating costs would run about $6 million a year, it says.

More at link:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/22562432/

There'd be great benefit from SB 294 to SB 57 and NB 57 to NB 294 as well... though the Tollway would lose some money from traffic that uses WB 80 to get to SB 57.

It's been in the works for 20 years though, you don't plan for something that long and not build it. I take it most of the benefits for the new interchange would be seen by truck traffic. The fewer local roads trucks are forced to use, the better.

One complaint I do have though is that if they're going to spend money on updating the expressway/tollway system, they need to modernize existing interchanges by eliminating cloverleafs, such as 90/290 in Schaumburg and the Hillside Strangler. 294/55 could also use some work.

I was about to post that after seeing it this morning. As a former Quad Cities resident with family there, I think that's pretty excting. I can easily see myself taking the train as gas prices keep rising.
And I have a grandfather in Moline who's too old to drive to Chicago now, and an Aunt who always gets lost, a train is a great option.
There's also the Augustana College students.

The article also mentions the posibility of extending the line to Iowa City. That makes the most sense of all. Lots of Chicagoland kids go to college at the University of Iowa

They do?

Yes, I hope they eventually create a flyover from SB I55 to S I294. As it is right now, you have to get off on La Grange. I'm all for this work on the I57/I294. It's retarded that there isn't a interchange already. While we're at it, lets extend Lake Shore drive both north and south.

Tons. Where else would the students come from, Iowa?

^ yeah, definitely. If you go by bars alone, two of my favorites are "hawkeyes" bars (right in wrigleyville and little italy)

yup, all the one's who couldn't get into illinois ...

anyways, so when is the big vote gonna happen today? i'm on tenterhooks here after a day of emailing and calling and checking google news and local news sites.

ps that interchange story is sickening.

One would hope there would be some sort of cost-effectiveness analysis weighing, say, the aggregate time savings and other benefits allowed by a $480 million interchange compared to the benefits of, say, an equivalent investment in mass transit. I would hazard a guess that more people are delayed for more time on the north branch of the Red Line than are delayed because of the absence of that interchange.

The cloverleaf from NB 294 to NB 290 is horrible. Tons of trucks use it to go northwest from the industrial belt along the Tri-State. It's one lane, and because of the geometry of the interchange, the round cloverleaf becomes an ellipse with even tighter turns. The traffic for that one backs up for miles. It takes me less time to continue north on 294 to O'Hare and then take 90 to Schaumburg. A fly-under would be awesome here.

I've never noticed huge issues on the 90/294 cloverleaf in Schaumburg. Construction on IL-53 has caused some congestion near the southbound exit to Algonquin Road, but that's about it.

oddly buried on the trib home page considering how much news this issue has generated:

House passes mass transit funding plan

Link, Chicago Tribune

Wouldn't be too hard to figure out, but unfortunately for us planner types, it's fantasy to think such rational considerations factor into capital project (i.e. pork) planning.

Followed shortly by:

Transit-aid legislation hits bumps
Link, Chicago Tribune

Basically, the original bill passed by the House came up for a vote in the Senate and fell one vote short of passing.

As a personal gripe, I offer this quote from the article:

To think of the insane amounts of money the state has spent in the last ten years on maintaining, repairing and adding roads boggles the mind. Compare that to the relative pittance allotted to the RTA. This guy's got nerve.

Taft

and round and round we go!

as frustrating as the state dems have been, the repubs have been just as revolting.

Yeah Tom Cross (R) is Dennis Hasterts sock puppet FWB. What he means by "Illinois other transportation needs" is the Prairie Parkway freeway.

If you really want to get sick check out the IDOT web page for project planning;

There is a plan for a 4 lane highway connecting Peoria to Macomb (pop. 18,000) A 60 mile- $640 millino dollar project.
http://www.peoriatomacomb.com/

Or the "Gateway Connector" project. Which is bassically a 3rd ring road FREEWAY around the Illinois side of the the St.Louis metro. Meanwhile Chicago still does not have a completed 2nd ring and ours are tollways.
http://dot.state.il.us/gateway/maplink2.shtml

But the best is the 209.5 mile route that would eventually link Davenport,IA to Alton,IL by a four lane freeway. Est cost $1.295 billion not including the 58 mile section between Jacksonville and Alton.
http://dot.state.il.us/us67/Map.html

I would love to see them complete those projects with Zero dollars from the Chicago 6-7 county region.