It would save a significant amount of time; something like 6 minutes.

In the case of a Cermak Green, it could just be that they do not have the width available for a fully ADA compliant station without going staggered. While Morgan had the luxury of building out over sidewalks, the Cermak Green abuts private property, so creating a station within the narrow gap between tracks is crucial to keep costs down.

^ I'm curious about how the ADA standards are construed. As far as I know, ADA concerns clear space around obstacles, and you could remove platform obstacles pretty easily, apart from vertical access. Set the platform up like Harlem or Cumberland with a box around the tracks and platform which supports the canopy and signage. Enclose the box to avoid the need for platform windbreaks. Suspend everything else from the canopy.

Yes, this would add cost, but you're also cutting the length of the station in half. This doesn't leave as much platform room for waiting passengers but it does provide a platform free of obstacles.

I don't know about 6 minutes, but it's probably the single biggest thing you could do to speed up Red and Purple trains, other than removing slow zones. On a 40-minute trip, cutting 2 or 3 minutes is a pretty big improvement.

Edit: Okay, the scheduled Red Line time from Wilson to Addison is 5 minutes. This includes a station stop at Sheridan. The thing is, trains rounding these curves must slow dramatically when there is another train on an adjacent track. Given the frequency and the overlap of Red and Purple trains, this happens pretty often. I know this personally, having ridden the Red Line daily for several months. Let's say it adds two minutes of delay over the scheduled time. A properly-designed high speed curve with a new Sheridan station would eliminate the delay and maybe shave a minute or two off of the scheduled times through the corridor for a total savings of three-four minutes.

My preferred solution, of course, would be to sink the North Main Line into a Sheffield subway through Wrigleyville, which would grade-separate Clark Junction, provide a new high-capacity subway station at Wrigley/Addison, and eliminate the Sheridan curve. North of Irving Park, the tunnel would curve westward to the current alignment and return to the elevated. The problem is accommodating all four tracks. I don't know if it's possible to dig a four-track tunnel with anything other than cut-and-cover.

Thought I'd post some recent photos of the new Morgan Street station under construction on the Green/Pink line. It's scheduled to open probably sometime this summer (btw, these aren't my photos):

First two from Zol87 (flickr):
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7034/6...6a1f3708_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7018/6...bf62e3c4_z.jpg

Last six from CurbedChicago (flickr):
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6227/6...cbfa3f2c_o.jpg

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6216/6...fdefe723_o.jpg

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6112/6...bb38593a_o.jpg

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6102/6...cec295f7_o.jpg

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6036/6...d053ebd8_o.jpg

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6236/6...ea265faa_o.jpg

New Skokie CTA station could open by March

Trib Local Skokie
By Brian L. Cox Special to the Tribune
Thursday at 7:46 p.m.

http://triblocal.com/skokie/files/ca...345_resize.jpg

^^^ I have to say I'm pleased with how the canopy has turned out. I thought it was going to be all fugly pomo and that's actually a pretty cool, modernish design for the shelter.

Do I recall correctly that the plan for streetscaping and a road diet to make Oakton a bit less pedestrian-hostile is on indefinite hold?

I don't know about indefinite hold. Skokie was so anxious to put it in that they did a trial version last summer with paint and cones. I'm sure the trial revealed issues that need to be addressed in the final design, and as always, finding the funding is a challenge. I never heard that Skokie was shelving the plan, though.

The few times I drove through there during the trial period, traffic seemed to be flowing smoothly.

The Oakton station looks great, although the paint is pretty yucky, and I was hoping for a translucent roof.

Here's some lousy photos I took of the Halsted Bridge. As you can see, it's not finished but you can drive / walk across it.

http://www.umich.edu/~ifmuth/20120105construction5.jpg

http://www.umich.edu/~ifmuth/20110105construction6.jpg

http://www.umich.edu/~ifmuth/20110105construction7.jpg

http://www.umich.edu/~ifmuth/20110105construction8.jpg

Looks like I spoke too soon; the village is shelving the plan. :hell:

Residents bitched to the village council about increased traffic on their side streets, but the data collected by the study specifically showed that there were no major increases in traffic. "Surely if you narrow a road, that traffic has to go somewhere, right? Well, gosh darnit, it's not gonna go in front of MY house!"

Surprisingly, though, all the businesses and landowners along Oakton were strongly in support of the road diet. I guess they were unable to sway the neighborhood residents.

All is not lost, though - Skokie was planning to fund the road diet and other streetscape improvements out of a TIF that is set to expire. Without the road diet, Skokie is freed up to make other, more extensive improvements to the downtown streetscape. No word on what those might be but they will have a large budget to work with so we might get something pretty nice.

I am a former motorman and CTA "L" trains are operated around curves without any bearing at all to other trains on other tracks or trains operated on other tracks in opposite direction.

The only exception is when there are personnel on the right of way, workers, track walkers, etc. Then only one train at a time can pass those track level workers, straight track or curved, with the Loop bound train given preference. There was a lot of track reconstruction at Sheridan this past year with personnel on the right of way, and that is what you might have experienced.

David Harrison

^ Ah that might be it.

January 17, 2012
Mayor Emanuel Opens Newly-Renovated Grand Avenue Red Line Station

The article also talks about plans for the following new stations:

Clark/Division
Cermak Green Line Station
Washington/Wabash Loop Elevated Station

http://www.cityofchicago.org/content...nestation.html

This seems like a crappy time to make a big public announcement. Illinois' whole allotment of CMAQ funding is in jeopardy. I guess the city could fund these things with bond revenue and then pay back the bondholders with the CMAQ when it is restored in a few years. That still puts the city on the hook for the interest, though.

6300sf is pretty spacious for the new Clark/Division mezzanine, especially for a secondary entrance. Here's hoping the city doesn't push forward with the crappy Disney design they've been using.

I do like that all three will open periodically in 2014. We're gonna have a good couple of years here in Chicago. In 2012, we get openings of Grand, Oakton, and Morgan. In 2013, we get the Jeffrey and Central BRT and probably some other stuff.

Just a random thought, but what does everyone think the best alternative to the disney tile is? There has to be an ultra modern, sexy, material that resists grime and graf better than the crappy tile.

Gorilla Glass? Too expensive?
Polished stone? Too expensive?
Ceramic alternatives? Ugly? Expensive?
Metals? Too easy to dent?

yay to the long overdue Washington-Wabash station and getting that side of the loop down to two stations finally

hopefully they are thinking about redoing State/Lake soon which is downright dangerous during some rush periods and special events downtown

^^ State/Lake, if renovated, needs to include a direct transfer to the Red Line. You could just build an enclosed stairway in the median of State that directly connects the two mezzanines with no street access. Handicapped access would be trickier, but you could probably embed an elevator in one of the adjacent buildings (Page Bros. or 190 N. State).

I saw this at Museumsquartier in Vienna. All of that city's metro stations are organized on a 1m grid, so wall panels, floor panels, and ceiling panels can all be mass-produced easily. Each station uses different materials, and individuality is achieved using different configurations on the 1m grid, artwork installations, and sometimes display cases set into the wall.

I believe Gorilla Glass is for consumer electronics. This particular glass material (spandrel glass) would be great for Chicago because of its large panel sizes.

-Installation costs are cheap since there are relatively few pieces.
-Since it directly adheres to the concrete wall behind, or to sheetrock, it won't shatter like a window would.
-Broken panels should occur rarely if at all, and they can be swapped out easily because the panels are so big, with little or no visual difference over the original panels.
-The smooth, reflective surface is easy to clean, will not stain even after decades of use, and the reflective quality makes the cramped underground spaces feel larger.

Plus, the spandrel glass is pretty similar in concept to the original Vitralite of the Initial System stations, so it's an historical homage.

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/42/775...4c16806c_z.jpg
flickr/Ronja

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3581/3...be99e9f9_z.jpg
flickr/andynash

^^^That would be slick.

Gorrila Glass is primarily going to be used in consumer electronics, but there is no reason why it can't be applied elsewhere once prices for it drop far enough. The problem right now is that it is expensive. The benefits of gorrila glass is that it is almost impossible to crack, chip, or scratch which means etchers and every day damage would be foiled.

The station you posted is gorgeous, but how to they prevent etchers from going to town on it?

6 minutes!? That's about as long as a train takes to go from Sheridan halfway down to Fullerton. From the time I see the train coming into view as it enters the curve into the station going southbound until the time we clear the curve leaving the station is normally a minute.

How would you same more than 10-12 seconds by straigthening out Sheridan? The trains come around the curve and directly into the station. Then leave the station directly into another curve. They're certainly not going 55mph when they do this. I take Sheridan every single day, and I don't see how the trains would be sped up that much between those two curves on either end of the station if they were smoothed out a bit more. Not to warrent spending millions and tearing down fairly decent buildings.

If any curve slows you down, it's the double curve on the Brown/Purple at Halsted and North. Even then, many motormen take those curves at very high speeds. Sometimes the people in the cars are all thrown around as the train charges through both curves.

I never said 6 minutes. I thought it was excessive too. I don't think 2 minutes of savings is unrealistic though. Plus, removing the tight curves reduces noise in the neighborhood and reduces wear on the railcars. For the Red Line, which has no other such tight curves anywhere, this is important.

There are various alignment options CTA could consider to smooth the curve, and if designed properly they could minimize demolitions. My preferred alternative would be to construct the station at a 15-degree angle (instead of pure east-west or 45 degrees). This would use up some of the backyards/detached garages of the homes on Irving Park (only one demolition, on the west end) and some of the ugly 1-story buildings around Sheridan/Dakin. Only two residential properties would be seized - the Irving Park home at 1045 W. and the 3-story building at 3934 N. Sheridan.

Presumably the new viaduct would be concrete and therefore substantially quieter than the existing shrieking steel structure. CTA could probably also design the new station such that the PA announcements and door-closing bells would not be heard off of the platform. The rebuilt stations at Belmont and Fullerton are much better neighbors than, say, Armitage due to the quieter structure. If you stand beneath the tracks at Fletcher, it's almost peaceful.

CTA Rendering Reveals
 

Clark/Division - New LaSalle Mezzanine
Looks like Rahm hates the Disney look too. :cheers: This wavy thing is gonna become a common motif. We already have it at Millennium Station.

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/6...kdivision2.jpg

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/4...kdivision1.jpg


Washington/Wabash
More waves. The new station will preserve views of the Wabash architecture with no exterior walls. Waiting passengers will freeze.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/1160/wawa3.jpg

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/6050/wawa2.jpg

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/5188/wawa1.jpg


Cermak
No renderings of this one. Looks like disabled people will need to use the ramp instead of an elevator. This will save a boatload of money for the city.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8720/cermak1.jpg

Then how can that new Cermak station possibly cost $50 million?

It's some structural steel, some metal stairs, and a concrete platform on stringers. How can it cost three times as much as an entire friggin' Walmart?

Beats me. There are plenty of vacant lots nearby that can be used for staging. Maybe they need to do intensive repairs to the steel viaduct?

I don't really know how they can maintain ADA compliance with a platform that's no wider than the one further south at 35th. A more rigorous application of ADA is what gave us the wide platforms at Belmont/Fullerton - unless that was just a convenient excuse to get more funding in order to build properly-sized transfer platforms.

I rescind my remarks about the staggered platform. Apparently the platform will be a conventional center-island one, with more than the required 6' of clearance between obstacles and the platform edge.

I also failed to note that there will be an elevator, which will be installed at the north end of the platform. The ramp will provide handicapped access to the south end of the platform.

I'm glad the CTA isn't spending a boatload of money building a station twice as long as what is required. I'm not glad that the CTA is spending a boatload of money more than they should to build this station.

Steel viaducts can be made to be pretty quiet if they have a ballasted deck rather than ties directly affixed to the steel substructure...

Sorry I am a little confused here is there going to be a new entrance to the division / clark red line stop at Lasalle? So will one be able to enter the subway at Lasalle and division instead of walking over to clark? I am assuming the entrane at clark will remain as well?

It's probably an all-in cost, not just the construction contract value --- so it would include planning, design, construction management, construction, and owner (CDOT/CTA) staff time billed to the project, all escalated to year of expenditure dollars.

I'll have to check, but there may be some infrastructural work (utilities, structure, track, signals) bundled into the project as well that aren't directly tied to the station but make sense to do as part of the same project.

Well for one thing, because it's not a Walmart, but rather a train station. Walmarts and other box buildings like that are dirt cheap to build. They are all pre fabricated and basically come as kits that they just slap together. A custom designed, fabricated, and erected train station that needs to be built around the operation of an active, electrified, rail line is going to be just a wee bit more expensive.

Theoretically, yeah, but the 110-year-old South Main elevated structure isn't built to carry hundreds of tons of ballast.

Yes, new entrances along LaSalle. I don't know yet whether the stairs will be on the east side or west side of LaSalle, but the west side would be more convenient for people walking over from Wells or ParkSide.

It would obviously be a lot cheaper to only put them on the east side of Lasalle, but for the price they're paying I hope they can manage to put them on all four corners of Lasalle.

I would guess they'll build out the Lasalle entrance first so they can shut down the Clark entrance while they rebuild it, similar to how they staged the Cermak (Red Line) project.

Thank god for the new design of these stations. I don't think I can stomach another cartoon rendition of our skyline. The bright red wall is a good idea that will help keep this underground space looking lively and is a massive improvement over the current mezzanine. I hardly feel bad seeing the moderne interior go if its being replaced by something that is at least respectable such as this.

Are you cool with this for the platform?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-J...20Platform.jpg

It sure would have been nice if they carried the modern look throughout the station down to the platform instead of the tacky PoMo vibe.

You'd be surprised how expensive canopies and railings can get.

They probably will. Making renderings takes awhile and I'm pretty sure CDOT doesn't employ a dedicated CG guru. The picture of the Lake platform was just included to give an idea of how the platform will look when all the improvements are made. If I had to guess, CDOT will probably still use the mosaic tiles on the ceiling (since it's a proven material) but in a simpler pattern or a solid color.

A clear glass-like roof? Won't it be covered with bird shit within a couple of days? I doubt they'll be able to keep it particularly clean.

^My thoughts too

Lol good point! Also, I wonder what the weight limit on the roof is, that snow can get awfully heavy, although I'm sure they factor that into the design.

I really dislike the waves.

I actually think the center platforms like that are fine. They're not avant guard or anything, but the smaller tile avoids the pre-school look of the larger tiles, and the stainless steel and granite are contemporary enough to at least look modern institutional and not really tacky.

They could have done that wave thing beneath the arches as well. Instead of the waves flowing parallel to the tracks, they could have just done them perpendicular and done that slot light between wave segments.

I don't mind the tile barrel vaults though. They hide the grime and they do brighten up the station.

No matter what materials or how much lighting you use, you're never going to get Chicago's subways to achieve ultimate great design. The lack of visual connection between mezzanine and platform, low ceilings, and columns everywhere will allow certain problems to perpetuate. Crime, vandalism, crowding, increased cost of labor for security and maintenance, etc.

Same here. I would greatly prefer a planar flying carpet style canopy than this wave garbage.

I actually don't mind the mosaic barrel vaults either. I have no problem with historical designs if they are done right. Using real mosaic tiles is a traditional building style and the extra expense of the small tiles is worth it. It's the cartoonish crap a la Chicago Red Line that I hate.

I dunno, the glass can stay pretty clean if it's got enough slope that the grime can be washed away by the weather. There might be a little shit building up on top of the waves, but I'm sure it will be fine.

If they are going to cover the tracks with anything it should be glass so the passengers can admire the beautiful architecture while they wait.

We finally get a new station, they're spending $50,000,000 on it (Cermak), and they're putting it less than 1,000 feet away from another train station!!! The Chinatown Red Line is literally a block away! You could run from station to station in less than 1.5 minutes!

What's the purpose? There are plenty of other things I'd spend $50 million on...

I kinda wish that instead of spending $50 million on one new station they'd spend $100 million and put a jog in the Green Line east over Cermak to Indiana, the south to what Google Maps calls "Service Dr" and/or 24th Place. The lots affected by both turns at Cermak are either vacant or used for parking, so you could put in fast curves, and on the south end of the run there appears to be space for fast turns, too.

Doing that you could provide *direct* access to McCormick, while still having good service for the surrounding area. It'd be about 3/4 of a mile of new track, and one station and since it would be new track, there wouldn't be train interference. I'd think they could do that all for not much more than $100 million since the Douglas rebuild was 5 miles of track and 8 stations for about $480 million within the past 10 years, all done while maintaining active service most of the time. Twice as much money compared to just a new station, but a lot more functionality. Seems like a good deal to me.

I was looking at the CTA's open data sets today.

1993 was the worst year in many decades for ridership on the CTA's 'L'. It bottomed out as a result of population loss and continuous service slashing. Since then, however, there's been a strong upward trend in 'L' ridership and if December's numbers come in where I think they will, then ridership for 2011 will have been nearly 63% higher than in 1993. 1993 was also the year the Orange Line opened for service (the most recent totally new line here in Chicago, the one that goes to Midway Airport), but it is only responsible for about 20% of that growth.

Oddly (well, not so oddly if you know the history, but odd just looking at the numbers), 'L' ridership trends aren't mirrored in bus ridership trends, so the overall worst year for CTA bus+'L' ridership, 1997 was the worst. Since then total ridership has risen 20%, although 95% of that gain was with the 'L' and only about 5% of it was gains in bus ridership. Until bus ridership starts growing again, it will be a while before we get back to the 703 million riders the CTA peaked at in 1979. Of course if gas prices spike again over the next few years (without destroying the economy) it would certainly support the same conditions that pushed 1979 to such historic highs. Certainly, getting to the low-to-mid 600 millions that were typical in the early-to-mid 1970s could happen again.

^ I doubt we'll see this until Chicago's city population begins to rise again. Likely much growth in mass transit ridership must have been occuring on Metra over the past few decades. Plus, with the growth of suburban job centers, a lot of mass transit ridership has been replaced with auto trips to office parks.

All of the numbers I quoted were CTA-only.

'L' ridership is now probably close to the highest it's ever been since WWII. Bus ridership is holding steady. We really don't need the city at large to gain population, we just need people to repopulate the parts of the city near 'L' stations that have lost a lot of population. Some of the places hit bottom and are starting to regain population. Also, it's important to remember that the majority of ridership is and always has been adults, and that the adult population of Chicago today is higher than it was in 1950.

I think you might be surprised what the addition of relatively few miles of new track coupled with a few new stations and a city focused on actually encouraging dense development near low-use 'L' stations.

Overall, the Chicago 'L' has the 3rd-highest ridership of any metro-style system in the U.S., but that number drops to 5th if you include Canada. And on a riders per mile basis, we're not even in the top 10 measured by riders per mile.

Right now the average station has a few over 4,200 riders per weekday and yet 87/141 (61.7%) of the stations have fewer riders than that. 45 stations have fewer than half that.

Is it possible to dramatically increase ridership at stations by investing in both the stations themselves and the area around them?

Absolutely yes. The population of the City as a whole has really very little to do with ridership - the structure of the population, both demographically and geographically is far more significant, and the getting people to consider it a safe option is perhaps the most important part.

Can the City and the CTA together improve ridership with some investment and development guidelines? Absolutely yes. The Pink Line/Douglas Branch doubled its ridership between 2001 and 2011 with the renovation, even as most of the neighborhoods it serves lost population and were very hard-hit by the recession which reduced work commuters. The Blue Line O'Hare branch increased ridership by 22% with no population growth and very little direct involvement by the city except for working to improve crime statistics in the areas served by it (the City didn't intend that the crime reduction improve ridership, but that has been a side effect because it encouraged the continued expansion of the gentrification of Wicker Park and Bucktown areas). The Brown Line ridership rose over 27% between 2001 and 2011. I think the population in that area has been fairly stable, but even if it did rise some I *know* it hasn't risen by 27%. Even in Evanston you can see what does and doesn't work. The Purple Line ridership in Evanston has slightly increased - about 5% or so, but most of the stations have lost ridership. The ones that have gained are the ones like Dempster and Davis that have seen new TOD built near them.

On the other hand, the Orange Line has risen less than 1% - it's essentially flat over the past ten years. Why? Because nearly no TOD has occurred around it. I'm not familiar enough with those wards to know who the Aldermen are or why development hasn't been better encouraged there, but I can't remember the last time I heard about any major projects along that corridor. There are a number of places where major residential or commercial development could take place, and there are a few places where new stations would enhance the usefulness of the line and thereby encourage more ridership - but until those happen, it's likely to stay stagnant. If we accept your cop-out that general population has to increase to increase ridership, then there will be no incentive to actually take the steps that actually do work and have worked elsewhere in Chicago to increase ridership.

The South Branch of the Green Line is another good example. The area around it essentially bottomed out in the late 1990s, early 2000s, and in the Bronzeville areas you started getting some gentrification. And what do we see? We see strong ridership growth in every station from 35th through Garfield except for 51st, which lost about 3%. The east and west branches south of there have lost ridership, however they didn't see any investment until the end of the decade. There has started to be some investment along both recently, and if the CPD continue to get crime under control in those areas I expect to see ridership numbers come up in those areas in the next ten years. Englewood in particular could see some really strong growth if crime there comes down. It's just over 20 minutes to the Loop on the Green Line from there, it has nice parks and good expressway access, and many bungalows and 2-flats or inexpensive development sites within walking distance of the two stations. If it started to turn around, the CTA could re-open the Racine stop, too. Granted, it has a ways to go, but look how far Wicker Park came in 20 years. Even in ten years, Division/Damen/Western stops on the O'Hare branch increased ridership by nearly 45% just from gentrification and really very little brand new development. Total populaiton within walking distance of those stations was about stable. It increased in some blocks, decreased in others for what balances out to a slight increase - but nowhere near a 45% increase in population.

So while, yes, increased population growth for Chicago would probably help increase the CTA's numbers faster, there are plenty of things that don't require overall population growth in order to spur ridership increases. It really is mostly as simple as getting residents to feel like it's a safe, clean alternative and making sure that new, dense development is encouraged near the existing stations.

^ Thanks for explaining that, emathias. Very informative post