^ they have to shut down those bus lines for 9 days to host a 3 hour street race?

The math here seems fucked.

If true, let's hope this nascar in Chicago nonsense is a one and done.

It looks like mainly the south side bus routes are affected + the 126, since they travel over part of the race course (Columbus, Balbo, Michigan south of Jackson).

The changes to north side and west side bus routes are limited to the 3 day race weekend only. I still don't understand why, since none of them actually cross the race course. Possibly the city is worried about 2nd-order effects when thousands of drivers are blocked from LSD, Columbus and Michigan all at the same time, so they are trying to keep the center of the Loop open for cars. :yuck:

Unfortunately the NASCAR race is a 3-year deal. I assume it can be mutually canceled if the first one is a disaster. I'm not sure how much money NASCAR is making off this event, or if they are just writing it off as a colossal marketing expense for the franchise.

I think this has more to do with safety than anything. . . better to shut down the bus routes in the Loop out of an abundance of caution for emergency vehicles. . .

. . .

I think it will be cool, but they really should have increased the size of the course. Not this figure 8 configuration. Should have gone further north on LSD to either Monroe if you need it to get back to Columbus or Randolph back to Michigan Ave.

I am still trying to understand WHY this type of race needs to be in downtown Chicago in the first place, especially considering how a busy downtown area is not at all conducive to racing.

Formula One at least makes sense as a concept. Think Monaco. But NASCAR on downtown city streets? Clotaire says that's about as off code as you can get.

It doesn't need to be in DT Chicago anymore than it "needs" to be at Daytona.

How could Greyhound station sale affect riders?
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/6/...ion-department

I have a working theory that the Greyhound system is a conduit for the movement of heroin and other hard drugs throughout the country. . . but I'm sure I'm also not the first person to think about that. . .

. . .

I don't know about trafficking illicit drugs but I know they were good for shipping furniture until the service was ended last year.

I'm visiting Chicago in a couple of weeks and will be flying into O'Hare (landing around 5pm) and staying in the loop. As locals... would you suggest taking the Blue Line to Washington and then walking 1/2 a mile to the hotel, or would you suggest going with Uber? Thanks!

I take the Blue Line all of the time and haven't had any issues. If anything, I feel like it's gotten better over the last few months, but that's my own experience.

I dont ride the blue line as regular as I used to but yeah, makes sense if you're arriving at that time to take the blue line.

Metra's updating and simplifying their zone fare structure. Seems sensible:

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-revi...are-structure/


Current:

https://global.discourse-cdn.com/bus...67a677456.jpeg
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Proposed:

https://global.discourse-cdn.com/bus...3149eb1ea.jpeg
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Agreed... this is a big step for regional rail trips. Now they just need to end all their other terrible low-level practices (hostility to bikes, keeping whole railcars closed off, idling diesels in the downtown terminals, etc).

And of course plan for the big stuff too: more frequent trains, better rolling stock/multiple units, electrification, high-level platforms, through-running.

It does feel like Metra is finally taking baby steps in the right direction of regional rail. But the fiscal cliff is still looming and zero plan from the state to deal with it.

^ Are there any plans to electrify Metra?

There's plenty of examples of street circuits (Melbourne, Baku, Monte Carlo, Montreal, Jeddah, Las Vegas, Singapore, Miami). It would be a good thing for Chicago to increase its global clout. I agree with Busy Bee that it should've been F1 not NASCAR though, as it's far bigger on the international stage.

Shots like this would be epic.

• Video Link

• Video Link

Not seriously.

There has been some chatter about how ideal the RI line would be for electrification but no serious movement or announcements. Consider the agency here, I mean its amazing there not still using steam.

Since we're on the subject here with Metra I have to say I cannot stand the ridiculous nomenclature they have for the system. In an effort to streamline and at the very least appear more comparable to other international systems I've been obsessed over the years with instituting a simple alphabet naming system. The logic they use, or don't use, where a bunch of lines are named after the host freight railroad, or the host freight railroad paired with another direction to distinguish it from another line, in some cases a host freight railroad that longer exists and then some lines are just randomly named like "Heritage Corridor" (I mean WTF?) or based on geography like NCS or SWS. Then you have a line that's named after it's mode of propulsion instead of IC.

:facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm:

It's so horrible.


Imagine the system map here below, in the service order shown and keeping the line color intact, but instead just using an A-K alphabet in round route bullets:

https://www.railwayage.com/wp-conten...p-1024x886.jpg
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Just by delightful happenstance, you have the "Heritage Corridor" (I mean seriously WTF?) given an (H), Rock Island given an (I) (I know I know possibly problematic and wisely avoidable considering I looks like a 1, but it would work fine if a serif letter typeface was used) and Metra Electric a (K)... a (K)!!! How perfect is that? ME branch services could be designated K1, K2, K3 with a smaller number tucked into the circle or just (K) (L) and (M).

I think this was partly because of the effort to make RI the new mainline for St Louis trains instead of HC.

RI has a much denser schedule of commuter trains than HC does, and since Amtrak is nonstop while Metra makes all the stops, that means Amtrak will either need to crawl behind Metra trains or overtake them with a new 3rd/4th track. Another, outside-the-box option is to electrify to increase the average speed of Metra trains without cutting station stops, since electric trains have far better performance/acceleration than diesel. This is how Amtrak coexists with MBTA commuter trains in the Boston area.

I'm guessing they decided to go with the overtake idea instead. A 3rd track is planned between 75th St and 16th St, and the Beverly Branch can also be used as an overtake. If they extend the 3rd track between 75th and 87th, that should provide all the overtake room they need.