The Lincoln Park meeting had a pretty good turnout.

I think the focus on connecting trips is midguided, the focus should instead be on increased vitality of the central area. The city of chicago (CDOT, and Planning/Dev) should be more involved in the process.

that map is screwed up...what they have marked as Ashland is Division, no? Looks like the Western route, which makes great sense...

I agree with that sentiment with Western Avenue, since it is a wide parkway most of the Metra and CTA stops have one named Western and it can share with pieces of the Orange Line since the railroad runs parallel to it for a short stretch.

But one of the strengths of the Circle Line is that it utilizes the most out of their existing infrastructure, so this would be an easy sell for Federal Funding.

Overall they should look at building a new network of lines as well as this Circle Line. New lines down Western Avenue, North Ave, Fullerton or Belmont and Garfield or 63rd Street subway along existing wider parkways that then connects with the Metra Electric South Shore branch to create the "Gray Line" concept.

Division is the Name of the Blue Line stop. It is on Division/Ashland/Milwaukee. They are using Ashland on the map.

I agree with your sentiment about where the focus should be, Viva. It's just that I happen to consider Western to be part of the central area.

^Yeah, I agree. Although, the Ashland Coridor is the eaisest to expand on, The Western Corridor opens up so many more opportunities for TOD and so much more area that would be covered by extensive rail transit (I highly doubt this will be BRT, although with Westersn as wide as it is, I suppose its doable). I doubt the Ashland Corridor will bring in that much more high density development, as WILCO has already fucked up the chances of that in the locations that matter the most. The only problem with the Western Coridor is the south end of the routing which uses the Orange Line. One would have to travel from Roosevelt south to 35th before heading back north again. A much more logical routing under the Western plan would be building an El-Subway along 35th to the Red Line, which would also service US Cellular Field and IIT. Of course, that's just me toking away on a pipe dream. Then agian, the railyards along 39th-Pershing and the Stockyards Industrial Park could be used to bring the line east at a far lower cost.

What ever they do they must have easy connecting transfers at each line as they cross. They also need to make each area a TIF area and rezone a few blocks around it for denser buildings, retail, offices and housing. Urban Islands.

I hear you on the orange line connections, but I wouldn't worry about that too much. Most trips downtown will probably want to transfer at Blue or Green lines. You're right about the long detour south if you want to go east from Roosevelt, but I'm convinced that best way to go with this is to service with "L" transit the greatest possible length of Western.

And I say put it in the alleys.

And what is WILCO? Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has brought nothing but joy and happiness to my life. How could it fuck up anything??

Is it possible the circle line could be finished in time for a 2016 Olympics in Chicago?

http://www.chicago-l.org/articles/images/circleline.jpg

Yes

Possible, Yes, likely? I don't think so. The brown line reconstruction project that just started a couple of months ago was given the OK to start the process back in 1999. If I remember correctly the Circle line plan was given the OK by Congress to start the process in late 2005, assuming the exact same timeline, we would be lucky to have it finished by 2015. Throw in the fact that this project is larger in scope, and I just don't think it will finished by 2016.

**double Post**

As far as prep time and land acquisition time the circle and brown line should be about the same, but I believe once construction starts the circle line should be able to outpace the brown line. The brown/red/purple line construction project is occuring on track and stations that still have to be open and running. So construction has to take that into account. If they closed down the lines I bet they could cut a few years off this project...but of course that is not practical.

You are right on the point that building of most of the tracks (or right of ways, or BRT lanes, or whatever) should be faster, but I would guess that the planning will be much longer. The Brown line project's planning should have been relativly short, they know where the line runs. They still have to ID which of the three corridors they are going to use, what mode of transport, at, above, or below grade. All those decisions where already decided with the brown line.

So while the actual construction should be short, I would say the planning will be much longer.

For anyone that did not attend the Circle Line meetings, and want see the presentations (slides and boards) they are on the CTA website.

Public Meeting Public Meeting Presentation - May 2006
Public Meeting Display Boards - Transit Technologies - May 2006
Public Meeting Display Boards - Corridors - May 2006
Public Meeting Display Boards - Evaluation Criteria - May 2006
Public Meeting Display Boards - Preliminary Findings - May 2006


All the files are PDFs and some of them are up around 6 meg, so be warned.

i won't live west of western because of the lack of transit options although I'd like to. If the circle line were built today, i would love for it to be on ashland as I'd have that and the blue line no more then 2.5 blocks from me. However, housing is cheaper out by western so if the circle line were built, i'd definately buy a place out there after grad school.

I'm not completely aware of the areas on the west side as my time in Chicago has been spent mostly on the north side. So the density out there is beyond my knowledge. However I'm thinking the circle line would be best along a corridor that isn't too far from the United Center. It seems like Ashland would be the best fit, especially assuming the cost savings by using the existing Cermak north/south leg of the blue line.

Well, the Cermak Branch reconstruction was approved at the same time the Brown Line expansion project was approved. The Cermak Branch is now finished, while the brown line is now getting underway. Some projects take longer than others. The brown required large ammounts of eminite domain, cordination as the line cannot be shut down on weekends as the blue was, and re-bidding as all of the bids came in over prejections. All of which factored into a longer delay.

The CTA is starting a "temporay" line dubbed the Pink Line that will run on rebuilt trackes near the United Center. I think most of us believe that is temp change will last for the next 20 to 30 years so the Circle Line running that close to the United Center may be a dublicated service.

Hence the CTA wanting to move the western edge of the Circle Line farther west.