^ I don't know about that. Other than protesting on aesthetic grounds, is it really that important to have 2 L stations 2 blocks apart? I mean, practically speaking, they are literally a 3-4 minute walk from eachother. If replacing them with a single station in between hardly makes a difference and saves the CTA some operating money, then perhaps it's not so bad. After all, eliminating redundancy is one way in which transit in Chicago could be improved

That's great! That's an embarrassingly shabby station. Is there any other info available on this anywhere?

Found this cool picture of Midway :cheers:

http://p.vtourist.com/1495711-Final_...rt-Chicago.jpg

Not a bad way to win over last minute votes before election. I wonder how many people will actually fly to Decatur (2.5 hours from Chicago by car/train) when the airport wait alone is 2 hours.

These are precisely the type of trips that would optimally be made by frequent/quick/reliable regional rail.

Even if all our regional trains went 90-110mph, imagine how much more competitive they'd be with autos...I'm not greedy, I dont need 150mph in the midwest....yet.

So why isn't Southwest Airlines also chipping in to subsidize the service?

Any increase in Chicago's insanely high 9% sales tax will face stiff opposition. I'm not even sure that it'll bring in any new revenue since most Chicagoans with half a brain already make purchases over $300 online (or at the very least in the burbs)

^ Well, this looks more like a regional funding plan, and thus the 2/3 of Chicago metro residents who live in the suburbs will be funding much of this.

That article didn't mention any improvements to transit in the city itelf. I wonder what kinds of projects are being considered.

One thing Illinois has on its side is the fact that it is increasingly becoming a more Democratic state. Yet ironically, Democrats are often their own greatest enemy in getting these kinds of things done. None of Illinois' most powerful Democrats is a transit advocate. Maybe it's a Baby Boomer thing?

It's time for our generation to take over.

The solution needs to include some sort of regional levy on either property taxes, tollroadss/vehicles, or a business tax (the latter of which is commonly done in Europe), i.e. actually targeting the people benefiting from a good transit network.

Property tax hike would be most most appropriate since proximity to mass transit access is usually reflected in real estate prices. That way, people directly benefiting would be taxed the highest.

The new 12th Street Metra station might be delayed. Possibly for a long time.

Oh dear, why?

^ Eh? WTF?

Budget issues. Guy at CDOT didnt sound to happy about it.

Typical Illinois transit BS. Anounce a project before securing funds in the hopes of shifting the burden to the General Assembly to demonstrate why it's not paying for the project, instead of to the transit authority to show where the money will come from.

The money was never there. Maybe we should demand that from now on the transit authority must tell us where they are getting the money every time a project is anounced.

Actually, its the state (IDOT) that have repeatedly dropped the ball on this one. Metra and CDOT had their own funds lined up and were ready to go waiting on IDOT money.

What other projects are you talking about where it was the agency's fault funding didn't come through? I get the sense that most agencies are pretty tight-lipped about planned projects until they have funding commitments.

More bullshit, sometimes I wish Chicago was in a country which places transit infrastructure on a high priority. The world's richist nation can spend nearly $400 billion blowing up and rebuilding another nation, but we continue to let infrastructure in our own backyard rot. Unable to budget 500 million over 4 years, come the fuck on, I really hope a solution is in the works....



Warning: More slow trains ahead, CTA officials say
$500 million needed to fix infrastructure

By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune transportation reporter
Published November 15, 2006


The Chicago Transit Authority on Tuesday presented a bleak scenario of longer travel times on the system's eight rail lines due to a growing number of slow zones caused by a half-billion dollars in deferred maintenance.

Slow zones have more than doubled since July 2005, and the situation is expected to get worse unless new funding is provided to repair the aging system, according to CTA officials.

Almost half of the Howard leg of the Red Line has slow zones of 35 m.p.h. or less. It has led to a more than 40 percent increase in late trains, officials said.

Trains have also been slowed on the Blue Line as a result of stepped-up track inspections after a July derailment near downtown that sent more than 150 people to hospitals.

In addition, trains are moving slower due to work at Clark Junction on the North Side, where the Red, Brown and Purple Lines come together.

In the agency's 2007 budget that the CTA board unanimously approved Tuesday, $35.7 million will be spent next year to upgrade railroad tracks, elevated structures and viaducts on which trains have had to operate at reduced speeds because of deteriorated conditions.

But no additional money to further reduce slow zones is budgeted in 2008 through 2011, the remaining years of the CTA's five-year capital program.

The CTA is $500 million short of the state and federal funding it needs to erase slow zones on the entire 225-mile rail system, said CTA President Frank Kruesi.

"Absent a new capital program from the legislature, it's grim," Kruesi said.

Not counting any additional help to address the slow-zone problem, the CTA is already hoping for an additional $110 million subsidy from the General Assembly to make ends meet on its $1.13 billion operating budget for next year.

The CTA produces a monthly lineup of rail routes where riders should allow extra travel time due to slow zones related to construction. The current list, which runs through Sunday, advises leaving up to an extra 20 minutes for commutes during non-rush hours on all eight rail lines, due mainly to signal work and track maintenance.

More than 20 minutes of extra travel time is recommended during weekends on the Brown Line, where a $530 million overhaul is under way.

"Route travel times are conservative estimates," the report said.

The one bright spot concerning slow zones is on the Dan Ryan branch of the Red Line, where a $282 million track and station renovation project is moving toward completion this year. Slow zones on that leg of the Red Line will go down from about 24,000 feet of track to about 4,000 feet by the end of the year, officials said.

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jhilkevitch@tribune.com

Couldn't agree more. If there's one thing that will hold up Chicago's development, it is not the housing bubble but the depressing CTA.

500 million over 4 years is about 10 dollars per Illinois resident per year.

It seems like the CTA and RTA prefer to address budget shortfalls after the fact. The agencies look like they can't manage their own finances when every single year they run a deficit and go to the Assembly to beg for a bailout. They would have a lot more credibility if they just said this is the money we have for this year so we're going to cut service. If you want more service, call your rep.