Yes, the Rock Island.

Buying new EMUs will take several years. I’d be more interested in turning up electrified rapid service as quickly as possible. Presuming Caltrain’s Stadler order works out that would be ideal but I think I’d wait until they start running them to throw that cash down.

SWS definitely belongs in this discussion. Very little freight, and what conflicts there are will be resolved with the (now fully funded) 75th CIP. It will even be connected to the RI itself.

The 75th CIP would have to be revised to leave space for infill platforms in Auburn Gresham, but if it were revised, then it would add quite a lot of ridership to the line. Remember 79th is still the busiest bus route in the city.

Think of how beneficial it would be for those residents to have a fast, frequent, and inexpensive one-seat ride to the loop.

But what, actually, is gained by electrifying RID and switching to electric locos? The performance benefits aren't that great vs EMUs in general, even assuming lightweight Euro or Asian coaches. In your scheme, you've still got to haul around the massively heavy gallery cars, so I'm not sure you could really call it rapid at that point. Assuming there isn't funding to convert RID to regional-rail standards all at once, I think upgrading to high platform (and sticking with diesel) would arguably be a better first step than electrification, since pax boarding would be so much faster. Existing Metra gallery cars could probably be converted for high-platform operation with a simple trapdoor, if you're looking to save on rolling stock.

Also, Rock Island doesn't go underground, so there's no pressing need to electrify unless you want the performance benefits of EMUs. Admittedly, there is the planned 1/2-mile tunnel at The 78, but that could simply be vented for diesel emissions the way Union Station is.

The AEM-7s still have better acceleration than anything on Metra's loco roster AFAIK. Especially if operated in a two cab cofig. Metra would buy more EMUs at a later date but I'd strongly suspect their rolling stock priority will be new bilevel cars and diesels (both remanufactured and new). Which I'm kind of fine with since it would give Caltrain a chance to break in the Stadler KISS variants they've bought and see what problems, if any, they have.

Environmentally it certainly would be better to ditch the diesels ASAP and I'm not exactly a huge fan (har) of how the exhaust arrangement at Union has worked out. Even when Metra buys new-er engines they're still going to have a lot of low EPA tier power running around. Less of it sooner would be really good.

Edit: Though as Metra's relationship with Amtrak worsens they may not be available at an efficient price.

I'd like to see Metra do what it can to keep the costs low for all railcar acquisitions until a real electrification program is underway. Buying brand new coaches just feels like a waste. Any electrification program should go straight to EMUs, as Caltrain has. The low-speed acceleration benefits are substantial enough that, in commuter service, it's basically pointless to go to the trouble of electrification without immediate plans to convert to EMUs. And if you can buy those EMUs just as you are retiring your old coaches, that saves you money on electrification - you get to subtract the cost of what it *would* have cost to replace your diesels and coaches.

So, to save money for now, buying Caltrain's fleet as they retire them. The oldest ones are about 35 years old, and the newest are about 20. They should be cheap but still have some life left. Their gallery cars and diesel engines are basically exact copies of what Metra is already running. Metra has a lot of experience in keeping them going. Yeah it ain't modern but it saves money on retooling maintenance shops, building up a new spare part inventory, and retraining employees on a new type of equipment. This is meant to be a stopgap, anyway. You want your equipment to be fully worn out by the time you buy EMUs.

At the same time, speed up the progress of electrification (from a starting speed of 0.) Start with RI as planned; all three branches. (yes, three; that includes SWS.) Gradually roll out electrification to the entire network over the course of the next 25 years, and as the Gallery fleet ages out, retire it and replace it with shiny new EMUs.

For downtown segments, especially, reducing the air pollution is both an absolute good and a stated goal for the region. Nose is also reduced.

Curbed also had an article about Metra Electric fares being aligned with CTA:
https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/7/24...e-reduced-fare

I like it, although if we're making tunnels, I think taking ME North through Streeterville, then West under Division, adding stops near Grand, Oak Street, Larrabee, and Goose Island to meet near the tracks by Clybourn would be a better long term goal, IMHO.

What do people think of using aerial gondolas to connect the Western stop on the Blue Line, the Clybourn Metra Station, Lincoln Yards, and the Fullerton Red/Brown/Purple stations? It would be relatively cheap, help Lincoln Yards, finally provide a connection between Bucktown and Lincoln Park. It could eventually be extended to the Lakefront on the east and the end of the 606 on the West of projected ridership was high enough, and also be a tourist attraction just for the spectacular views. I know there's be concerns about weather, but that doesn't seem insurmountable and it would be far cheaper than a Subway and certainly generate some great publicity for the City. In addition to the system in Colombia, New York has the Roosevelt Island tram, Portland has its riverfront one, so there is precedent, and New York's climate is comparable. Not to mention that Austria uses several for mountains, as do Germany and utter Central European countries. In function it would probably be most like Barcelona's Port Vell Aerial Tramway.

Limited capacity passengers per hour and the absolute nuclear firestorm of homeowner opposition I think are problems with this.

Dedicated bus lanes would be much cheaper.

I like the plan to but I've always thought it most ideal to attempt to potentially run up the ME through Lakeshore East, across the river, and north up Columbus, turning west at Chicago (or Division) and connecting to a densely developed Tribune Plant site before going either north or south to Lincoln Yards/West Loop.

All in that would be about 2.5 miles of completely new below-grade track that would give downtown Chicago much of what was needed for a circulator.

Yep. I know, I know, just let me get my checkbook ... ;)

They're not that noisy, and they're high enough to be less intrusive than the 606 so I don't really see much homeowner opposition. Capacity wouldn't need to be all that high to be useful, and buses would only be effective if given dedicated lanes, but there are no streets in that alignment where that's possible - unless you think residents would object to less to halving capacity on their favorite EW route to/from the Kennedy. I can't even imagine the outcry for that. Aerial trams are grade-separated, so offer the most value at rush hour. Buses are exactly the opposite of that. Bus capacity at rush hour can't possibly be very high on Armitage, North, or Fullerton between Milwaukee and Halsted anyway. I think trams can do 6,000/hr, which should be enough. It's not as if buses are going to be gotten rid of on those routes, so this is supplemental for just people moving from those lines to other lines or Lincoln Yards.

Specifically I think the height would be a major part of opposition. You're tying to logically think about what these people would oppose when it isn't about logic at all.

I've seen 6,000/hr as proposed but am not aware of any system that actually operates at this level. 2,000-3,000/hr seems more common. Which are throughputs that are readily achievable with more advanced bus service that could be deployed at far lower cost than building a tramway.

I was quite impressed with the systems I toured in La Paz and Medellín (and under construction in Guayaquil and Bogotá) in November. Much cheaper than any type of rail; much more politically feasible than dedicated busways.

But imagine the local reaction to something like this down the middle of North Avenue

https://i.imgur.com/CLkpUKM.jpg?1

or to riders having this view into the McMansions on Howe or Orchard:

https://i.imgur.com/WBEcZQ3.jpg?1

I'm not sure that I'd say a busway is more or less politically feasible than a tram in a neighborhood since I don't think we've seriously proposed it and let the locals shoot at it.

Yes, that would be amazing! I don't know why people would be against it. Buses get jammed in all the traffic around that area. Gondolas look really cool and futuristic, they make no noise from the ground and 0 pollution. Plus, it's so peaceful and relaxing to float up in the air like that and admire the views. Compared to the noisy loud L trains, I don't think people would even notice they were there.

I'd keep the tunnel as you proposed it, but add an extra leg below Ogden so UP-W, MD-N and MD-W can approach the tunnel from the north and serve the Near North area.

I was thinking it could run above the 606, which has already overcome political opposition, and it would pull in additional tourists and eventually it might be viable to pull it west to the western end of the 606 to get some grade-separated transit into Humboldt Park (again - given the spur there was torn down a half-century ago). It could serve all sorts of things that some politicians like, creating quite a coalition of supporters. Politicians that like the transit, politicians that like pulling transit into underserved areas, politicians that like transit that doesn't use carbon, politicians that like shiny, new things in their wards, politicians that like the idea of pulling more tourists out of downtown and into the neighborhoods. Gentrifiers might have mixed opinions - better transit, but might raise property values again. Of course some homeowners might object, and some might say it doesn't carry enough, but those are details to be negotiated in my opinion, not dead stops.

^That makes sense for west of Ashland—but where could it be routed between Clybourn and the lakefront that it's not providing views down into the backyards and bedrooms of the city's wealthiest and most powerful census tracts?

I'll vote for any S/RER service like the one that allows me to go from Koeln Hbf to Dusseldorf Flughafen non-stop in less time than it takes me go from the Loop to ORD! And the cars are clean, the tracks don't squeek, you aren't flung from side to side and random people aren't screaming at each other.

Yea, German and most Europe transit systems are lightyears ahead of Chicago for convenience and speed.

Why do trains in Chicago fling you around like a rag doll? I've never been on a train in Europe that did that. Is the suspension crap?

Several reasons: we're not very good with track in the US, because we've spent decades thinking primarily of freight trains and because we take the lowest bidder rather than being able to select the company with experience (this was a national scandal on the CTA O'Hare Extension back in the 1980s).

Then, CTA cars are basically lightweight streetcars running at 55 mph. They don't weigh much, and have short wheelbases. By contrast, Metra bi-levels are topheavy, so they sway quite a bit any time the two rails aren't perfectly aligned.

U don't say! They have money to put into transit, we don't.

Or, another way to state this would be "they've chosen to fund public transit" we've chosen to fund other things.

That's right - we suddenly had billions to bribe Amazon to come here, when there's not enough money to complete the order of 7000-series railcars. (Not 5000 like I said before)

Well yea, we have unlimited billions to buy the latest stealth fighter jets, laser guided missiles and mulit-decade skirmishes on the other side of the planet. But when it comes to trains in the US, they are far too expensive and we can't afford them lol.

I was referring to the L trains that fling me side to side, the metra trains seem more stable to me.

I f*cking hate buses on the Mag Mile during evening rush hour. They move so incredibly slow. It just took me 30 minutes to go 1 mile from Oak Street to the river on the 147. I should have just walked from the Delaware stop down to the park. I can walk much faster. I gave up at the Wrigley building and walked. I want a bus tunnel!

Me, too! There's already a lower Michigan all the way to Grand Ave, so they'd just have to do the 1/2 mile to Oak Street. Granted, the interchange at Oak would be quite complex, but they're planning to rebuild that entire area sometime anyway, so why not at least engineer it so that if they ever got around to doing a lower Michigan from Grand to Oak it could connect up easy.

I think it'd be best paired with a Lower Chicago Ave, too, to get the 66 bus through quickly. It can take nearly half an hour to get from the Brown Line Chicago Ave station to Navy Pier,w hich is insanely slow. Making a tunnel between Orleans and Fairbanks would be very helpful and, coupled with some BRT investments west of the River, the Chicago Ave 66 bus could really gain some ridership and also actually be useful for continuing on the gentrification of Ukrainian Village and southern portions of Humboldt Park.

Or, you know, we could just build bus lanes. The city is already doing bus lanes on Chicago from Michigan to Larrabee, funded in part by One Chicago... not sure if those are done yet but they are many orders of magnitude cheaper than a tunnel.

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2019/04/...the-new-lanes/

I doubt city officials would want to interrupt the signal timing of the traffic lights along the Mag Mile to allow for legitimate BRT. Plus there are so many buses through that stretch the lights would almost have to stay constantly green for north-south traffic and very little east-west traffic. Although I guess you’re only suggesting bus lanes and not anything related to signal priority. How have the bus lanes for Loop Link fared? Beyond creating fixed shelters for the homeless, has Loop Link been all that successful?

I've heard this line a billion times and it always confuses me. It's exactly like "Cold today. So much for global warming!"

Tax incentives that were offered to Amazon were like a rebate. If you spend $10-billion, you get $1-billion back. Or discounts, "Most people get this deal are taxed $10, but we'll only tax you $5."

Nobody was just going to hand Amazon billions of dollars.

Yes, absolutely. Do you ride those buses? They move pretty quickly through the Loop and drivers are fairly respectful. My girlfriend rode the Madison bus before and after the lanes were finished and definitely noticed an improvement on the sections where lanes were built. Loop Link also created great protected bike lanes through the Loop where previously only bike messengers and diehards would ride.

The only issue with the bus lanes comes from private office shuttles loading or just idling in the lanes. Until now, the city has been reluctant to crack down since they don't want to piss off the real estate industry that operates the shuttles. You don't even need enforcement cameras to crack down (which would require a state law), just a few cops at Union and Ogilvie stations writing tickets.

Bus lanes with stop consolidation/all door boarding on Michigan Ave would be amazing. Especially if they eventually tie into dedicated lanes when LSD is rebuilt. I don't even think you're really need transit signal priority except for where the routes turn into and out of the loop and there are less disruptive implementations for that.

Um, this is Illinois we're talking about. Any such hand over wouldn't be above the table, but I wouldn't put anything past Chicago or Illinois. Just sayin...

If they could somehow "link" the loop link with the mccormick busway and improve on that that might work.

Well, there's a study under way (well, maybe actual study hasn't started yet) to use the MPEA busway for South Lakefront express buses. They'd come off Lake Shore Drive at 31st, use a new busway through the Michael Reese site and McCormick truck yards, then the existing busway. A new ramp at Balbo would allow them on and off there for the existing routes downtown.

I just wish we could try a temporary bus lane on State or Michigan during Test of Chicago and Lollapalooza. When Grant Park roads are closed, it sometimes takes 6 or J14 trips nearly an hour to go from Jackson to 31st.

I wish the CTA would look into a proof-of-payment system for buses to speed things up. I think it would help with ridership as well. By continuing to require fares for trains, most pass users will continue to buy passes.

They would need some controls in place to protect against racial profiling. And i'm not quite sure what you do the "unstable" people who won't care about enforcement.

Better yet, the city should just have a couple gaggles of bike cops circulating in the loop at all times writing tickets to any violators in the bus or bike Lanes. They would pay their salary for the year in a single quarter.

Other places do these as pilots. All it really takes is for CDOT to put out a bunch of cones and some temp signs.

Single quarter? It would pay for itself in the first DAY! I've starting yelling things at them like "RED LIGHT, IDIOT, I have the WALK sign". So far it's only gotten me a bunch of fingers flipped at me, but I know I'll probable get shot some day, so I really must stop.

The popularity of the Hiawatha service is clearly rising.
 

Pretty good summary of construction projects needed to increase Hiawatha frequency to 10 RT/day

Improving the connection: Work ongoing to enhance Amtrak service from Milwaukee to Chicago

“We’re part of the Chicago megaregion, which is one of the 10 largest economic regions in the country,” Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said at a recent news conference. “And to put it simply, commerce is about connections, and this train helps us connect to Chicago in a more frequent, more effective way.”

Joel Brennan, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration, said that more than 40% of trips on the Hiawatha are business related, and 60% of those people taking the Hiawatha for business are making daily round trips.

“Businesses in this corridor clearly recognize the importance of this because 37% of the travelers indicated their business employer had paid for their ticket for these trips,” he said.

The Hiawatha service is Amtrak’s busiest line in the Midwest.

Absolutely embarrassing that Wisconsin’s Republican legislature is doing their part while Illinois is kowtowing to North Shore NIMBYs. If (and it’s a big if) the state chooses to sink money into the UP’s New Line as an alternative to the scrapped Glenview projects, it could give us a dedicated passenger corridor, which would be worth the expense, especially if the state can also gain ownership of CP’s tracks north of Rondout... but it’s very unclear where the state would get $100M for that project given our terrible budgets.

It's clear that alternative alignments are being considered and maybe the state government will decide to spend more money instead of upsetting north shore NIMBYs in Glenview. Though admittedly I would have liked to see the village flush millions down the toilet trying to oppose the project.

Amtrak considers extending Wolverine line from Chicago to Toronto
 

This seems like it would be excellent news, eh!

Amtrak considers extending Wolverine line from Chicago to Toronto

Aug 9, 2019 / 11:49 AM EDT

"EAST LANSING, Mich. — Amtrak is considering a proposal that would extend the Wolverine line’s rail service from Chicago to Toronto.

The proposal was discussed on Thursday during the Michigan Rail Conference at Michigan State University in East Lansing. The idea was first brought up in March in an Amtrak grant request.

Amtrak says the idea would involve construction of a border processing facility and upgrades to existing train stations along the way..."

https://www.woodtv.com/news/national...go-to-toronto/

Wisconsin is trying to connect to the stronger Chicago market. Illinois probably doesn't want that to happen, to keep business in state.

That would be awesome! Especially considering how marked up plane ticks seem to be to Canadian markets hopefully this would be a welcome alternative.

Absolutely.

Think about how it would affect Illinois if well paid professionals were a reasonable commuter rail ride from the Loop but lived in Milwaukee instead of Chicago. Will be even more appealing if JB gets his new income tax increase.

Wisconsin income tax would still be higher for people earning > $50,000, so well paid professionals wouldn't go anywhere. It's the businesses that would move up.

A couple of Ill & WI rail grant awards Through the FRA- SOGR program

WISDOT keeps making progress on the Hiawatha Line. Now they have a grant to add Cars and Cabs dedicated to the Hiawatha line. Most likely they will add onto the existing 137 car order piloted by ILL/CA.

Wisconsin – Next Generation Single-Level Coach and Cab-Coach Equipment Acquisition Project Up to $25,716,900

Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT)
The proposed project will replace deteriorated, outdated passenger cab-baggage and coach cars used in the Chicago–Milwaukee Amtrak Hiawatha Service with three single-level cab-coach cars and six single-level coach cars. The new equipment will adhere to the Next Generation fleet standards promulgated by the Next Generation Equipment Committee. The Hiawatha service is Amtrak’s ninth-busiest route, and its busiest route in the Midwest, serving almost 850,000 passengers annually. Replacement of the cab-baggage cars with cab-coach cars will increase seating capacity, reduce fuel consumption, increase equipment reliability, reduce crowding, and improve accessibility for passengers with disabilities.

Good to see ILL is getting in on some of this Fed $$ to replace an aging bridge used by Metra and Amtrak trains.

Illinois – A-32 Bridge Replacement Project Up to $17,840,000

Commuter Rail Division of the Regional Transportation Authority (Metra)
The proposed project will construct a new grade-separated double-tracked rail bridge over Milwaukee Avenue, immediately north of the Grayland Metra Station on Metra’s Milwaukee District-North Line in Chicago, IL. The project will replace the existing structure, originally constructed circa 1899 and rated in poor condition, with a new double-track bridge that will return the crossing to a state-of-good-repair and provide future maintenance and operating cost savings.

Here is the streetview https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9491...!5m1!1e2?hl=en

^ Nice. There are a lot of rickety old rail viaducts in Chicago that need replacing. More please