The Gray Line is just an idea suggested by an ordinary citizen. It has no agency support.

Really? I thought I read about it on the CTA website a few months ago!

I have to admit this makes me really nervous. I'm the kind of person who goes out of their way to avoid blaring video screens, whether there's sound or not. Combined with longitudinal seating that will eliminate the possibility of looking out the window and basically force people to look towards the interior of the car, I wonder if this will not make people more "captive" to video ads than they ought to be. Pace is nightmarish enough...

I know you might not like the fact of seeing all of the screens with ads but you also have to think...those ads are helping pay for our new train cars which we are in desperate need of. And as for the seats all facing inward, it is just opening it up for more standing room which will be great and allow more people to fit in the cars, hopefully making the CTA much more desirable to more people!

Nor will it have agency support as long as CTA and Metra continue to bicker stupidly. To have a world-class transit system, all we really need to do is work on inter-agency cooperation. This includes things like fare integration between CTA, Metra, and Pace.

Also, as much as Metra hates it, they will eventually have to start seriously providing service to inner-city areas. Metra's rail lines run to many places that aren't well-served by CTA rail, and it would be terribly wasteful to duplicate service. Metra Electric serves the South Lakefront, South Shore, an area that will begin to really increase in population over the next 30 years and will need vastly better transit access. The Milwaukee District lines serve neighborhoods on the Northwest Side that aren't even remotely close to the Blue or Green Lines. SouthWest Service runs through areas of the South Side, while the Rock Island serves Beverly/Morgan Park and other areas.

Eventually, either Metra's management will change their thinking about serving the City of Chicago, or they will be forced to by some frustrated planners and politicians. Then perhaps they will begin to add frequent stops in the city and start running trains on a 10-15min schedule to city stops only, with suburban trains running express to the city limits. This should preserve some separation between city and suburban riders and ease concerns about crime and safety.

Don't confuse Chicago-L.org with the CTA's website.

The current funding setup makes city service an understandable afterthought for Metra. That's why the Gray Line proposal simply calls for CTA to do a purchase-of-service with the Metra Electric. That's probably a lot easier than revisiting the regional funding formulae.

^ Right. Metra gets 0 tax revenue from sales within city limits. Purchase-of-service is the best way to go, but CTA's budget is precarious enough as it is. Perhaps the most plausible solution would be to 1) increase the size of RTA's annual discretionary funds so as not to hurt CTA's portion, then 2) have RTA pay for the in-city service. The problem there is that RTA is now bought-and-paid-for by suburbanites, so fat chance of them agreeing to subsidize in-city service without getting a major slice of bacon for themselves.

^^But I heard per mile those of us who live in the city and use Metra pay more. Do we pay enough to offset not getting sales tax from the city? A few months back there was an article that said those of us who live in the city and ride Metra actually help to keep those at the far end of the lines fares cheaper.

There should be a 1/2 hr train between Chicago and Evanston most of the day.

They're painting the wabash el structure to match the wabash bridge and adding accent lighting. old news? I just found out about via this document

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/jstush04/wabash.jpg

I actually didnt really know much about it already so thanks for the post. I think this is good, its going to make it look much better. What kind of accent lighting are they adding?

For those curious about the work being done on Wabash, you can find some info here:
http://www.chicagoloopalliance.com/b...ture/index.htm

There are some pdf files that describe the work in thorough detail.

Wow I love the final result. Just painting the L structure does a world of difference. And I love all of the new planters

Yes, it will definitely be nice when Wabash is finally finished. I'm on that street generally 4 - 5 days each week and it's sort of an eyesore. Unfortunately the L will still sound like a heap of scrap metal moving across the tracks, but at least everything will look much nicer.

Well hopefully in the next 2 years when they start getting the new train cars and finish the restoring and fixing the tracks, the noise level will hopefully go down alot as well. I go to school there so I am there all the time as well!

People boarding Metra in the collar counties (e.g. outside Cook) were and are very heavily subsidized on a per-trip, but on a per-passenger-mile basis things get more complicated. Generally, Metra's subsidy per trip is much, much higher than CTA and Pace, and moreso now with the bonanza of new sales tax revenue they're getting. Part of the deal was that they would somewhat increase off-peak and weekend service on every line where it's possible, but because of fuel costs now they're only improving service on the MD-N and UP-N lines.

The UP-N, MD-N, UP-NW, UP-W, BNSF, RI, and ME all have the ridership and TOD to justify more off-peak and weekend service...here's hoping if/when fuel prices come back to earth that Metra and it's oversight don't forget about that part of the bargain...

How will the noise level of the Wabash L be decreased by new railcars and new signals? These new cars will weigh the same and have the same type of trucks.

Didn't the original Wabash streetscape plan have a lot of modern elements? I was surprised by the tacky new retro signs with the little jewels on top.

Anyway, nice project regardless.

Yeah, I guess a visit to the mayor's office toned things down quite a bit.

yeah i thought i remember there being a proposal for some sort of funky lighting effect underneath the tracks.

It would have been cool, but i'm happy with how wabash is turning out. State, wabash and michigan (in the loop) are turning into solid residential/retail strips.

New railcars can be much quieter. The 2200 and 2600 series have notoriously LOUD trucks, and the 2600s further have a defect that makes the wheels go out of balance quickly contributing to loudness.

Also, wooden ties and metal tie plates are noisier than the recycled plastic ties they'll be replaced with over the next 2 years.

Oh, it'll still be quite loud, but a little less skull-rattling.