I guess the better question would be do you believe the current proposed RLE route has the potential to "revitalize" Roseland?

:yes:

I was gonna say something similar but I figured I'd get the usual barrage of hate and "you're so suburban!" that I didn't bother stating the obvious

I mean the housing stock in Roseland isn't deteriorated to the same level as some of the neighborhoods along the green line so you wouldn't be starting out from rock bottom. And if it helps stabilize the neighborhood and direct some rehab money into the area then why not.

Edit.
Read a few abstracts on the economic impact of the construction of the orange line. Obviously roseland and the southwest side are different neighborhoods but it seems the property values in areas adjacent to the orange line started going up when the extension was announced in the 80s. I wouldn't be surprised if it at least stabilizes the prices in Roseland if the red line extension is fully confirmed.

Certainly the impact would be greater than if the extension were in an expressway median.

The Green Line is sort of a poor example, the West Side stations are constrained by lots of industrial zoning and the South Side stations have in fact seen a lot of redevelopment (although there could certainly be a lot more).

I hope other city departments will work together to steer funding towards social housing and other forms of development near the new stations.

^ Demand is the bedrock of construction.

Literally nobody is saying "I don't want to live in Roseland because there isn't a train that goes downtown from there." Meanwhile, there are north side hoods with no CTA L access that are doing perfectly fine.

The Red Line construction will fix nothing for anybody, and will cost billions.

State senators and reps are pushing to use the new federal funds to jumpstart rebuilding the Ike and Blue Line Forest Park branch

Use $2.7B from federal infrastructure bill to rebuild the Eisenhower Expy., officials say
Sun Times article- https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/11...-290-coalition
And link to the 20-page ILEPI report- https://illinoisepi.files.wordpress....al-11.8.21.pdf

I'm all for expanding 290 to 4 lanes between Hillside and Austin. It doesnt make sense for it to go from 4 lanes to 3 lanes for a few miles and then back to 4 lanes again. It causes such a traffic nightmare at most hours of the day.

Definitely happy to see they want to rebuild the Congress branch of the blue. It would be great to get rid of the block long "ramps" to the stations, and simply replace them with stairs and elevators, ala the UIC-Halsted station. Removing the eyesore abandoned stations would be great too. I wonder how feasible it would be to add express service from Forest Park to the Loop as well? The Congress line was initially planned to be a 4 track line, which is evident from the unused subway portals just west of the Jane Byrne. Space would definitely be an issue, especially through Oak Park where there is barely enough room to widen 290 to 4 lanes and reorganize the off ramps from the left to the right lane.

The Congress Line is built for 4 tracks from Halsted to Central, and then 3 tracks from Central to Desplaines.

Judging from the recent section of the Kennedy they widened to 8 lanes, they would need about 136' of total width to widen the Ike. Looks like they are planning to take the CTA's 3rd trackway through the Oak Park trench, but they would leave the 4-track section east of Central. To be honest, 3-track railroads kinda suck since they just pile up trains at one end of the line (this is why NYC subway doesn't use a lot of its center express tracks on 3-track sections). A mix of 4 and 2-track sections is better for an express/local service pattern.

One other aspect of the Eisenhower project that's not talked about is that they will build a regional path through the corridor, basically extending the Illinois Prairie Path eastward to Columbus Park. And the city is now working to convert part of the CSX Altenheim Line to a trail through North Lawndale too. That's two huge chunks of a West Side "bike superhighway" that would get built and could eventually extend to downtown.

Hrm. I assume CSX would not be willing to give up any space/trackage from its ROW in that section of 290 either.

How awesome would a Congress Line extension to Mannheim Road at the Bellwood/Hillside border be? The Eisenhower has the row to widen to 8 lanes, even with accomidating westbound ramps, by shifting the centerpoont south easily creating an easement for a 2 track line west from the current Forest Park terminal tail tracks to Mannheim. The large open land on the west side of Mannheim could also hold a new yard and a sizable park/ride facility. Possible intermittent stations at 1st Ave and 25th Ave. Rush period trains could potentially run express on a 4-track row to and from Halsted to Austin drastically speeding service for western end riders.

Sure seems like this should be part of the conversation.

The funny thing is that it actually used to do just that, in addition to having a Westchester branch running N-S to Mannheim and 22nd:

https://i1.wp.com/thetrolleydodger.c...size=470%2C286
Source: www.thetrolleydodger.com


Sadly, the line was ripped up in 1951, right before the area experienced the post WW2 suburban boom. Had it stayed on for a few more years, ridership would have justified its existence and the area may have developed in a much more urban manner, at least near the train stops.

You can still see the old ROW with the property lot lines and housing development: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8558...m1!1e3!5m1!1e2
Look for the curve that is just northwest of the Mannheim & Cermak intersection.

I think extending the blue to Mannheim could serve a purpose, offering a route downtown in between the UP-North and BNSF Metra lines. The area is fairly dense and built up, so ridership numbers would be plausibly good. Having stations out that far from the Loop however would definitely necessitate the need for express trains, if not all the way from Mannheim then at least from Austin to Clinton. Otherwise it would be a 90 minute train commute, which would make driving on 290 fairly comparable, if not faster.

Can anybody give the rundown on this?

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/opin...invented-metra

I assume it's some version of https://hsrail.org/midwest/crossrail-chicago

That would be great. Screw One Central, I'd rather have this.

I love this idea. I used the RER in Paris since I stayed a bit outside the city center, which means I didn't have access to the Metro. But the trains that went out to my area felt just as nice as the Metro. Plus, they ran frequently and fast.

I would love Metra to succeed as much as the next person, but I feel like they need to repurpose those lines for something more on the lines of RER trains that are outlined in this vision. Right now, the UP-NW line runs, at best, once or twice an hour. Having a train that ran this line every 15 minutes would be amazing.

My only question is how does the Metra Electric line connect to trains traveling to/from the East... It could be done at 75th onto its existing route, but does that defeat the purpose?

Too little information to actually state what plan will be implemented.
But let's not confuse Express Commuter trains with High Speed Rail trains.

I also would like to remind everyone that the METRA electric district powers their EMU commuter trains with 1500 VDC, not several thousand volts AC that most HSR trains require.

It's difficult to get upset with public comments falsely responding to poorly written news articles. :shrug:

Maybe using the SSL track? The tracks are parallel by the Dunes I believe so could switch there?

The CrossRail calls for both express commuter and high speed. Not sure what the article says though.

I could see that, but there's only 2 tracks so I would anticipate there would be some conflict with the SSL trains.