From the CTA's perspective, it was good to push people away from disposable dip cards because they're expensive to keep making and keep getting thrown away. (As an added bonus, also bad for the environment.) That's partly why the single-rides are now $3 - to strongly encourage anyone who rides more than once to get a plastic Ventra.

Ventra also means that they only have to make two kinds of cards - the heavy plastic one and the single-rides - instead of the dozen or so previous kinds. Instead of having separate cards for regular fare, low fare, seven-day pass, 30-day pass, etc., all of those functions can just be loaded onto a plastic Ventra card. Cheaper, more efficient, environmentally friendly, etc.

Ventra can also be registered, so if you lose your card, you don't actually lose the money on it.

And the longer-term reason is to move towards an open fare system, where people can use regular bank cards and phone apps to pay and don't have to have any CTA fare media at all.

Also, the MTA actually uses the exact same private company to do their cards as CTA uses for Ventra.

Morgan Street 'L' Station Helping Fuel West Loop Boom, CTA Says

Also, it seems like the banks can charge whatever they want. I rode the train about 10 times last month using my bank card. I got charges for $2.25, $4, $4.50, and $5 from ventra.

How do you get charged $4 or $5 when taking the train?

You should talk about this with your bank... maybe they have some weird fee for contactless transactions. My standard Ventra card has worked without a hitch since I got it in January.

For reference, here is the ill-fated Central Area Circulator plan (commonly known as Daley's Trolley) that continues to inform discussions of downtown transit. The north end is cut off here but I believe it was intended to be at Clark/Division.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3356/...a5665b93_b.jpg
flickr/mister scantastic




Then the modified version from 2008's Central Area Action plan:

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/w...tor-Routes.png
src

Well, something eventually needs to happen. Perhaps it will take more population in the core to finally spur some sort of action

What happened? Why they didn't have streetcar or light rail? They should considering this. The traffic is very bad. You will struck on the traffic. Chicago is a busiest city.

But of course this wouldn't work to create the same types of Development on the South Side with a new CTA Gray Line "L": http://bit.ly/GrayLineInfo

No, it wouldn't. The Green Line had a station at Halsted until 1998 but it didn't cause a residential boom. There are still many many L stations surrounded by blighted and vacant buildings.

Unfortunately I think West Loop residential and club/restaurant development was NOT sparked by a new CTA station; the demand was already existing. The station did made Fulton Market into an appealing office/hotel destination, though.

Well, lets watch what happens on Cermak and see if the new station there has any effect.

There have been a few new businesses in the last few years (and an empty Lex building that converted to apartments), but the slow progression from the roosevelt towards south has not reached any real momentum south of 18th. If rapid growth on Cermak follows the completion of this station, I would think it would show these stations do indeed have an effect in already slightly developing at least. Maybe not the sole reason for increased development, but a major push to get it over the hill, so to speak.

Im not sure where any 'gray line' would have a similar effect though along the south lake shore. I think some existing momentum is required. Maybe near oakwood shores? hyde park? It would be rather far from the street and not as accessible as these green line stations though.

Here's the newly designed stairway canopy for the Harrison Red Line station still undergoing rehab.

http://i.imgur.com/OWaIn7zl.jpg

Looks like I unintentionally MC-Eschered the perspective with Jones Prep on that, so here's a bonus:

http://i.imgur.com/yNSHdWDl.jpg

http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs...isonent_tt.jpg
http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2...-10m-rehab.php

It really does look like it was designed to go along with Jones Prep.

I tried to persuade the PBC to integrate a new entrance (with elevator) into the new Jones, at the northwest corner of State & Polk, but I didn't get very far. Something about a water line being located there. I'm not sure why the idea of off-sidewalk entrances seems so alien to CDOT when it's so common in other cities with subways. Seems like it would be a good way to get other people to pay for the new elevators and escalators.

You mean like one that is inside the building?

Yup. One that is integrated into a new building, behind the property line. The ones at State Place, Merchandise Mart, and at Thompson Center/203 N. LaSalle are Chicago's sole examples, even though there are lots of places where the city has owned the property adjacent to a station in recent years and then sold it (usually for a song) for redevelopment.

Not so sure i would want all that subway rider traffic going through a school. I would have major security issues with that.

Not really a security risk... the subway entrance would not be connected to the inside of the school. The one at State Place (Roosevelt) is a good example. The school isn't really a terrorism target either.

Mr D, do you know anything about an off-street entrance at Clark/Division? Plans show a entrance to the SRO "hotel" at the southwest corner directly from the mezzanine.

In DC, every subway station I can think of is inside some kind of building. The entrance is usually a doorway at street level where you go in, then down several sets of escalators until you're near the core of the planet. The stations usually don't offer connections to their parent building unless it's a public thing like a mall. I hadn't thought about that in comparison to here.

NYC has a lot of sidewalk cuts though, so it's not like it's totally unusual.

^ NY also offers zoning bonuses for subway improvements, so developers have an incentive to provide them. The one at 53rd/Lex is pretty cool, built into Citicorp Center.

What about the NE corner of State & Grand, inside the property line of the Hilton (or the Weber Grill restaurant, if you will) building? Or is that just an emergency exit?