This would be perfect, gives both lines 24 hour service, and doesn't require the Loop to be in operation.

I phrased that poorly. I meant I noticed on Metra that BNSF is replacing ties with concrete ones. I noticed it around Halsted. Also if you look down the Jackson street bridge over grant park you can see some of the track now have concrete ties.

Yeah, good idea. All the track connections already exist...

Cocktail napkin calculations put an elevated 2-lane each way truck expressway with CTA train tracks underneath running more or less along the that train line paralleling Cicero from Jefferson Park to 79th, and curving over to the Dan Ryan, with transit stations at every transfer point and approximately every mile in between and access ramps to the expressway only at interchanges and once in each stretch between interchanges at somewhere between $5 and $6 billion. That's a lot of money, but I'm willing to bet a case could be made for it, especially if the truck expressway were a tollroad. The time to do it would be now, while vast stretches of the route are heavily depopulated.

Oak St?
 

On my last cab ride, my driver took the Oak St. going east. At one point in the Cabrini Green area, the street becomes a parking lot, before becoming a full-fledged street again. Why hasn't the city fixed this? My driver said the city didn't want to make it a thru street?

The City plans to fix it, it just hasn't gotten to it yet. Check out page 14 or 15 of this document:
http://origin-www.thecha.org/assets/...14_reprint.pdf

Yeah, it's not a thru street, it was vacated in the 1950s for the Cabrini Extension homes and the superblock planning strategy that was popular at the time. Crossing there is technically trespassing into CHA property. Plenty of adventurous drivers and pedestrians still do it, of course, but if you park there you will get ticketed.

As emathias notes, the CHA and city planners want to reconstruct the street to make it open again. Most likely they will try to shift this cost onto the developers who eventually build housing on the adjacent land. The developer, in turn, may seek TIF money to build this infrastructure, or a write-down of the land sale price from CHA to offset this significant cost.

Watch this space, there may be news in the next few months...

There are probably ways to cut costs here. Instead of stacking them, you could run them side by side and eliminate the railroad entirely in certain segments. A busway could be combined with the truck way on 4 demarcated lanes, instead of rail, with simple prefabricated shelters at each station.

I don't think the route is as depopulated as you suggest. Maybe in Garfield Park and North Lawndale. The majority of the route runs through working class Hispanic neighborhoods that underwent a fairly smooth racial transition and haven't really seen population loss.

We should build a cut + cover "Lower Cicero" the entire length of the road. You could get freeway speeds down there without disturbing the cityscape above. In fact, using my magic money tree, I'm going to go ahead and build lower level streets under Ashland, Pershing, Western, and Irving while I'm at it and limit the upper level streets to one lane each direction with BRT and bolevard like landscaping.

CTA already through-routes Midway and Kimball trains in early rush hours. Between 6-7am every other train departing Midway turns into a Kimball train after Roosevelt. IMO, this should be a permanent routing at all hours as one train line. Doing so would reduce movements through Tower 18 and open up the Loop to additional capacity.

You should use the money tree to fund an Ashland subway instead.

^^ While you're making use of the money tree fund, how about a subway under Lawrence from Kimball to Jefferson Park? That way the brown line can provide a more convenient option for getting to O'Hare rather than heading all the way downtown and then out again on the blue line or taking an east/west bus between the red/brown lines and the blue line that's subject to traffic jams. Auto traffic can use Foster or Montrose to bypass the area.

Getting across the Edens is going to take more than just a subway project under Lawrence.

I am not sure what you mean by this comment, but crossing under the Edens is not a significant engineering obstacle. The bigger and more interesting question is what happens in Jefferson Park.

Planners would have to decide how they want the station to be set up. The simplest thing would be to build a separate station somewhere for the Brown Line to terminate, with a bridge or tunnel connection to the existing Blue Line platform. You could build this elevated over the existing tracks, in a subway cavern deep underneath the existing station, or some third site off to the side on what is currently private property.

However, there's a significant benefit to building some kind of track connection too, so that trains can move between Brown and Blue Line tracks during emergencies and service moves, or even so that certain Brown Line trains could continue directly to O'Hare. That track connection is tough to build, since it would require the Kennedy to be shifted.

Union Station Transit Center
 

September 1, 2015

^^^ Yes, and I wish they had used my idea to build a structure underneath to attach to the south concourse which could hold more bathrooms, restaurants, and other vendors, as well as providing escalators from street level bus stops to this new structure. Oh well, maybe they can do that in the future.

There will be an underground connection from the Union Station Concourse to the new bus terminal. Unfortunately, it will be a cramped little hallway.

How many panhandlers wide will it be?

I was just reading about the opening of the new 34th St station in NYC as well as the expected opening of the 2nd Ave subway and got to thinking about when Chicago will have its new rail spurs/lines. We can't even get the downtown BRT right, with all the cost cutting.

We need east-west service downtown. We need to get West Loopers to Streeterville/Navy Pier and vice versa. They are both seeing tons of population growth. It needs to be a subway.

And the Blue line needs to jive better with the system. Screw everything else.

What does this mean?

Just noticed the big new canopies over the sidewalk at Roosevelt. Pretty nice, they definitely scream "transfer point" to the average bystander and provide some needed protection from the elements.

^The canopies are nice, but I guess I was expecting more than just a big sign with the station name for those tall vertical elements. But everything I can think of—like something telling how soon the next train arrives—is awfully expensive to be made redundant by smartphones. The big monitors on the sidewalk are more practical anyway.

I guess we could put up a sign like this, but too many visitors (and Chicagoans) already forget that CTA is an integrated system, in which the buses play a vital rôle, and start wondering why there's no L line to Soldier Field.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...lock_tower.jpg
Wikipedia Commons

i've never understand people who think soldier field isn't served by the el. take the red/orange/green lines to roosevelt and just walk. it's like a 15 minute walk, big deal.

i would never dare dream of taking a bus to soldier field on game day. you're just gonna end up uncomortably sardined and stuck in traffic for eternity. walking wins.

Imagine if the Bears ran a simple shuttle line between the Roosevelt station and Soldier Field on game days. Just show your ticket.

^ You can also walk from Cermak now.

^Plus the 128 shuttle from Ogilvie and Union Sta.

There are also two convenient Metra Electric/South Shore stations as well as the Indiana Bus and Roosevelt Bus. Soldier Field is well served by transit, but it just so happens that there is plenty of parking available and football fans like to tailgate. So, unlike the Cubs in Wrigleyville where it is almost impossible to park within 1/2 a mile if you drive, people view Soldier Field as a place you drive to.

There will be an 'L' line to Soldier Field soon.

Random, but anyone know who is in charge of changing burnt out stoplights and if something has changed there lately?

I saw a few burnt out red/green lights earlier this summer and thought to myself how extremely rare it is to see them burnt out. I've now been seeing them *everywhere*, downtown, lakeview, west side, northwest side.

I can't be THAT unlucky that I go from seeing basically none in 14 years to now well over a dozen in just a few months - and I don't even drive more than once a week.

It could be that the LED lamps were installed more or less in the same period several years ago and they are starting to fail around the same time?

311 is your friend.

NICTD West Lake ext
 

NWI Times

This actually might happen -someday. InDOT has set up a funding mechanism and local govts are on board. But man does it hug the state line.

Also with the West Lake extension and additional trains, can Randolph Station handle the increased loads? Doesnt the Randolph only have 3 platforms set aside for NICTD train sets?


project page; http://www.nictdwestlake.com/index.html

^^^ I'm sure it's purely coincidental that there is a stop literally right next to FFF Brewery.

Hmm. I always kinda figured NICTD would need to run diesel on the new line, either with dual-mode locomotives into Millennium Station or pure diesel trains and a transfer at Kensington.

Now it seems they are just looking to electrify the new branch and use their existing fleet of Highliners. That would make this the first electrification of a mainline railroad in America in nearly a century, Northeast excluded. Hopefully they will not need to accommodate double-stack containers on the new route.

It also means all the new stations must have high platforms, so NICTD will need to accommodate freight and Amtrak on gauntlet tracks. Hopefully they will find a way to let Amtrak trains call at the new Dyer station.

41st Street Pedestrian Bridge...

This was approved today by the Chicago Plan COmmission. Apparently a Tiger Grant has been obtained and the percentage ratio will be 80/20 federal/state funds.

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...D720/ry%3D480/

http://www.cordoganclark.com/municip...t_bridges.html
http://www.cordoganclark.com/portfol...Bridges/13.jpg

Nice to see these ped bridges moving along on the south side. I think there should be one every few blocks.

There'll be access every 1/2 mile.

Bronzeville and Hyde Park already have access every 1/2 mile, except for the area around McCormick Place where there is a 1.5 mile gap.

Good to see the 43rd St bridge funded and moving forward. Note that the original plan called for new bridges at 41st and 43rd, which are only 1/4 mile apart. 43rd already has a bridge which is perfectly serviceable, so its replacement will not be funded right now.

BVic, do you have any recent photos of the new 35th St bridge? It's really difficult to photograph, unless you're biking on the Lakefront Trail.

http://www.cordoganclark.com/portfol...0Bridges/7.jpg

No. I haven't had the opportunity.

Only a mile gap (Cermak to 31st) because McCormick Place is considered lakefront access. You can walk through it any time day or night, supposedly. I've never tried it late at night, though; maybe it's only until 11 pm when Burnham Park is open.

Awesome! I see this would also put rails back into a abandoned ROW that now has a trail, which makes this project even better, if it happens.

No time for me at the moment to read the project details, but do you know off hand if Dyer Amtrak station will be consolidated into the new terminal? I hope so for inter-connectivity.

Yep, its open when shows aren't going on, but I've never tried to access the lakefront from it. Its a neat, creepy post-apocalyptic feeling walking through there when the building is empty.

Doesn't look like it. The new South Shore station would be at 205th St whereas the Amtrak station is at 209th, so 1/2 mile apart. Dyer just built a new station for Amtrak, so it's unlikely they would relocate into the South Shore's station. Then again, by the time West Lake Corridor is actually built, the "new" Dyer Amtrak station won't be so new.

I mentioned this before, but the fundamental problem is that the South Shore will have high boarding height and Amtrak trains will have low boarding height. They can't use the same platforms unless one of them makes costly changes to their railcars.

However, there's no reason why you couldn't have a single track with a high platform on one side, and low platforms on the other. Kind of a Spanish solution.

Although nothing major, I did find this important for both RPM and the West Lake extension

FTA announces TOD grants
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/n...od-grants.html

$1.25 miilion to develop a TOD plan to go along with RPM? Draw half mile radius circles on a map with the center point being a rail entry, and upzone everything inside the circle aside from historic districts. Done.

^ WORD. That cost all but $0!!

Common sense is free, my friends. That's why it's called "common" sense.

Perhaps to do some of the leg work to put together proposals for development projects?

Don't Amtrak trains use high-level platforms all along the East Coast? Why not here? All the Amtrak equipment I see in the CUS yards have traps for high-level boarding.

Anyone know what the hold up is with the 35th Street pedestrian bridge? They poured the portion above LSD months ago, but the portion above the IC ROW has not had any work done. They haven't even removed the other half of the old bridge yet.

As the president of one of the local neighborhood associations potentially impacted by the flyover, I pushed the Alderman's office and the CTA to create a plan for leftover and impacted property, particularly along Clark and Wilton. We need to have a plan in place to deal with these potentially vacant spaces so that developers will know what the neighborhood's expectations are for reinvestment, potentially making the process less painful for true higher intensity TOD. This plan would also include other suggested public benefits that could be funded as part of this project, things like bike/ped infrastructure, public art, plazas/open spaces under the tracks etc. The point is to have an urban design plan that evaluates some of the potential engineering and design scenarios.