Thank you Ardecila!

I'm not on the expressways that much, but I was driving up the Dan Ryan going into the Kennedy and I was shocked at how AWFUL all those bridges and onramps/offramps look from the circle up through the loop exits. They just replaced all those in the past 10 years and they look terrible with rust everywhere and even pieces of the decorative sections that are just missing. How can it look so trashed in just a few years? Any fixes in store? I would go after the contractor.

^ Sure sounds like a classic Walsh job!

Connections ~ Connections.......

What's Rauner's take on transit, tollway?
 

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2...ews/141119964/

Marni Pyke posted: 11/10/2014 5:00 AM

"Pensions, schmensions. Readers of this column want to know what Illinois' next governor thinks about roads, transit and airports, issues sadly lacking in this fall's knock-down-drag-out election battle between Democrat Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican winner Bruce Rauner......"

Eyes on the Street: Metra Renovates 18th Street Electric Station
 

http://chi.streetsblog.org/2014/11/1...ctric-station/

Steven Vance Monday, November 10, 2014

The South Loop-focused blog Sloopin reported last month that more residents in the Prairie District are using the Metra Electric service’s 18th Street station to catch a fast, on-time ride into the East Loop. A trip from 18th Street to Van Buren or Millennium Stations costs $2.75 and takes 10-15 minutes......

Metra’s $100,000 club includes conductors, engineers
 

http://chicagosuntimes.com/news/metr...ors-engineers/

Rosalind Rossi 11/11/14

Want to make at least $100,000 a year? Consider becoming a Metra conductor or engineer. Be prepared to put in enormous hours for your six-figure salary but not earn time-and-a-half for your extra time......

Metra employees get raises averaging 15% as agency eyes fare hikes
 

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2...ews/141119719/

Marni Pyke 11/11/14


Metra leaders will vote Friday on proposed fare increases, including up to 19 percent for monthly passes in the same year hundreds of employees' salaries jumped by 15 percent on average......

While of course labor cost are going up -- there is the F A C T that CTA and Metra W A S T E Thousands of Dollars Each and Every Day by operating competing Transit Services throughout Chicago's South Side, and they don't even want to acknowledge that F A C T -- nor do anything about it.

Which one do you think should be abandoned, the Red Line or the Green Line?

Neither one, they both provide needed South Side services, there is none along the (densely populated) Lakefront however; I'm mainly talking about the Red Line Extension, and Southeast Side long-hauls on Lakeshore Drive.

Why do you think of the Lake Shore Drive buses as costing money, instead of thinking of them as saving money? Those #6 buses stop right in front of the Jeffery Blvd apartment buildings. They don't require riders to walk or ride a crosstown bus a mile to a train station just so (when the train comes) the ride downtown would be a few minutes faster.

I always catch an express bus downtown to work in the morning, but when I leave the office at 8pm, I always take the Red line home because express buses are no longer running and the buses that are available take 15-20 minutes longer than a train ride with walking factored in. The southside lake front, particularly an attractive neighborhood like Hyde Park, will never attract a resident like me until it is served by CTA train service. I do believe a new heavy transit rail line down the south lakefront will improve economic development.

^The #6 runs until 1 am. If that's not relevant because you live way west, over by Cottage Grove, more service on the Metra Electric won't help you either.

I did not realize that the #6 runs with 12 minute intervals. Maybe it is due to my personal preference or experience with awful routes (e.g. #36, #22, #151, #148 etc.), but after living about 15 years without a vehicle, I feel more comfortable having easy access to a CTA rail line that provides a high frequency of service around the clock.

Mr Downtown just gets a kick out of disagreeing with everybody around here.

Of course express buses and trains are equal. Didn't you know that?

Greg Hinz at Crain's reports that CMAP is pushing a "Fund 2040" quarter-cent sales tax for the six-county area to help implement their GOTO 2040 plan. Reportedly this would generate about $300 million annually for transportation, water infrastructure, and open space projects, which would be doled out through a competitive process and not based on a pre-determined list.

$300 million per year is about half of what LA County receives from their half-cent Measure R sales tax, for comparison, so we could see a handful of ambitious projects financed this way, including the Red/Purple Line Modernization project or some of the stuff in CREATE, especially if used to secure Federal matching funds. That dollar amount could go up, too, if Rauner's proposal to extend sales tax to services goes through.

I do not think this is enough money to implement the ambitious Measure R-like "Transit Future" proposal, but maybe a few key elements from that plan could move forward.

http://fund2040.org/

The CTA says it has shot HD videos of all the lines, but the first ones posted on You
 

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/11/...-cta-red-line/

The CTA says it has shot HD videos of all the lines, but the first ones
posted on You Tube show the ride along the Red Line in both directions.....

(Sorry for duplicate posts)

Would have been really nice to have had this before the election :hell: