Holy crap, why have I never seen a map for this connector project before? That looks amazing. It essentially includes a lot of whats on my wish list into one mega project.. Clinton St subway, Carroll Ave ROW, NW transit ROW...
If obtaining a ROW along Roosevelt isn't feasible, there is always the St Charles Airline ROW to connect the lakefront rail (proposed Gray Line) to the Red/Green/Orange lines as well.

Yeah I know people that Uber to work. While I personally use rideshare as a last resort, I can understand frequent use for commuting from areas served, but not well served by transit. Especially for urgent meetings in the neighborhoods

it’s easy for me to say, wow what a luxury, but that’s because I have a cta station by my house and commute to and from downtown. If someone able-bodied is ubering from Fullerton-Lincoln Park area to the loop...well then, you aren’t getting any sympathy from me for expensive rides or rideshare taxes and fees. The bus or train should be the primary mode

It's great. I love that the South Loop actually becomes the South Loop, lol.

Good thing it hasn't been implemented, at least not with that routing. I wonder if some planners seriously overestimate just how much traffic is likely to go to Navy Pier during non-summer months and weekdays. Yea, it is the most popular destination/attraction in Illinois but I think having a terminus at Navy Pier instead of running a route the length of Illinois Center/Streeterville/N Michigan Ave and connecting River North L stations with an East-West route along Chicago or Grand would be foolhardy.

^ Navy Pier terminus aside, I still think that route is valuable because it gives an east-west route to the River North neighborhood, and is fairly easy to do since the ROW already exists. Once in place, you can easily branch off from there north through Streeterville (possibly along Columbus/Fairbanks) then loop back to the Red Line at Rush/State. Going south to Illinois Center and connecting to Millennium Station is also a very viable idea.

The layout of the existing transit system downtown is such that it's difficult to add or augment in a way that is clear and easy to understand.

The current system is not even all that easy to understand, the two subways were intended as the first phase of a replacement for the Loop, but now that we've made the decision to keep both, they don't connect with each other. Nothing in the downtown system was designed with a regional transit focus, so the L lines don't really connect to Metra very well either.

European cities, to the extent they face this problem, just go underground and play connect-the-dots, but Chicago's skyscrapers and their deep foundations mean that even subway lines have to (more or less) follow the street grid. Not that we could afford to build underground anyway, the last cost prediction for the Brown Line extension was $4B in a low-rise neighborhood.


That's why I like the Clinton Subway; it has been the most logical and simplest addition to the downtown transit system I have seen proposed. It uses industrial areas along the river to deviate from a grid a little bit, jogging from Kingsbury over to Clinton and then, on the south end, back over to Wentworth to rejoin the Dan Ryan Line. It fits existing service patterns, you could send either the Red Line or the Purple Line into the new subway while the other line continues to serve State St. It links Ogilvie and Union directly into the CTA system. Now that North Branch and the Related 78 site are being considered for large-scale development, the Clinton Subway would serve both.

4 BILLION to extend the Brown line?!! That is insane. That can't be right.

^ Extend to where?

To connect to the Blue Line at either Montrose, or Jefferson Park.

Kimball to Jefferson Park. About $950M/km. It's not a detailed projection, I assume CTA just took benchmarks from other US construction projects, probably LA's Purple Line extension is a good comparison. Also I don't know what the YOE (year-of-expenditure) is considered to be, that figure might be the expected sum after 10-15 years of inflation.

The Brown Line extension has not been studied in detail, but CTA keeps submitting it on their wishlist for CMAP's 30-year plan along with other zombie plans like the Mid City Transitway and the West Loop Transportation Center.

I know the concept is still obviously in its' infancy, but is the goal to just connect to Blue @ Jeff Park or to run some of the Brown trains all the way to ORD? Obviously a passenger ped transfer connection to the Blue at Jeff Park is much different than building a rail connection to the Kennedy ROW.

I'd be ecstatic with a kimball to Jefferson Park extension of the brown line. Of course it will never happen.

The New Lake/Damen Green Line Stop Could Transform the Near West Side
Streetsblog Chicago
By John Greenfield | Apr 25, 2018

So they've "broken ground" on the new Damen infill station, but have we seen any renderings of what the station will look like?

I like the Montrose option because it allows the brown line to continue south as the mid-city transitway, connecting to Six Corners, and allows for a connection with two Metra lines instead of one.

No. I'm guessing they don't exist yet, or they would have been unveiled yesterday.

It sounds like this project is on a pretty accelerated timeline - expected completion in 2020. Design of the station probably is still highly conceptual, not at the rendering stage. Perkins & Will is architect.
Based on verbal descriptions, it sounds like the station will be similar to the Cicero/Lake station, with a stationhouse on the SW corner of the intersection leading up to an elevated mezzanine and then access down to both platforms.

The work being started now is just a reconstruction of the Lake Street pavement, that will lower the road surface by a few inches to better accommodate trucks. They will also relocate a few support columns at the Damen/Lake intersection like they did previously at Ogden/Lake. The station itself will not start construction until next winter.

I think it would need to be a transfer. The Blue Line is pretty maxed out at peak, I don't think there's enough room in the schedule to squeeze all Brown Line trains onto the Blue Line north of Jefferson Park. Ideally the Brown Line platforms would be an underground cavern two levels down, with one set of access leading directly to the Blue Line platform and another leading up to the bus plaza.

Good to hear they are building it, but gosh $60 million for an infill station sounds really high. Yet a stretch of road only costs $12 million to rebuild and sink it down, Wow! Trainsit is so expensive!

Then I saw the latest presentation on the red line modernization. It's going to take 7 years to rebuild just 4 stations and the tracks between them!!! Not even the whole North red line. At this rate I don't think well see anything like the brown line extension in the next 25 years, although I'd love to have that personally. I really like the idea of it going to montrose and then south along that cross town rail corridor to connect the brown line to other parts of the city as well. I think a transfer at the blue line would be fine. I don't have a problem with transfer as long as you can connect the dots. What's so great about the European train systems is you can connect the dots between almost anywhere to anywhere in the system including easy transfers to suburban trains. We need more of that here!
I think we need some kind of outer loop train that goes north and south connecting all the metra lines as well. Whether its along Western, Ashland or some other NS street I'm not really sure.

Navy Pier Flyover Delayed Until 2020

im going to be an old man before this thing is finished

even a cheaper streetcar situation that did parts of the connector would be a huge benefit

The Navy Pier Flyover may be turning into a debacle, but the south side pedestrian bridges seem to be proceeding on schedule. 35th St bridge was finished pretty much on schedule (after years of seeking funding) and now 41st St is well on its way. 43rd St pedestrian bridge will be put out for bid later this year.

Road bridges at 31st and 39th will also start reconstruction this year. In 2 years' time, pretty much every bridge to the South Lakefront will be new.

Here's a full chunk of the 41st St bridge getting shipped from Missouri, courtesy of IDOT's Twitter:
http://i65.tinypic.com/1zfklyq.jpg

^
thats great to hear.

City eyes light rail route from North Side to downtown
By Ryan OriContact Reporter
Chicago Tribune
May 2, 2018, 3:40 PM

http://graphics.chicagotribune.com/n...it-desktop.png
img source

If only there was a convenient way to connect this potential rail route and the red/brown/purple lines.

That’s all I needed to read. Let me remove everyone’s excitement.

There will be no rail, light or heavy, built here. Ever.

It will be a bus.

Now moving on....

I don't see anything wrong with bus rapid transit. Those side streets have few people parking on them, and zero residents to worry about. If these streets can be closed to traffic and reserved for buses and deliveries only with limited bus stops, that's just as fast as a rail line.

Also, buses can leave the transitway at the north and south ends, and fan out to link with CTA and Metra stations in mixed traffic. Rail doesn't have that flexibility, it couldn't link with other transportation unless the city extended the tracks and the power lines through residential neighborhoods at great cost, and frustrated everyone during the process. You think the Lincoln Park NIMBYs would put up with streetcar tracks down the middle of Southport?

Arlington, VA
http://i66.tinypic.com/2w5suw5.jpg

Seattle
http://i66.tinypic.com/2dr9bus.jpg

^ Good Point

I'm just glad the city is smart enough to reserve the ROW now while nothing has yet been built and there's no developments or residents to get in the way of it. BRT is fine by me, at least initially. Once ridership numbers go through the roof as the area is developed, then the city can consider upgrading to light rail.

Like OhioGuy said, I wish there was a way to connect to the Red/Brown lines, and I'd throw in the Blue and UP Metra lines as well.

I'm assuming this will run down by the metra stations and also with that alignment there can be another offshoot on the same "system" that runs down carroll? I would love it if they did this, so i assume they wont.

Glenview wants to spend about half a million bucks to prevent upgrades on the Hiawatha. :rolleyes:


http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburb...510-story.html

People in Glenview need to be kicked in the nuts

I'd be so pissed if they wasted my tax dollars over fighting a measly 3 additional round trips. Its impact is minimal, as compared to freight trains.

The snobbery in America has reached epic levels. People need an ass whippin'

:haha:

^ Especially considering that Amtrak stops in Glenview! No love for a train line that directly connects them to a major airport and two different major cities. Meanwhile Lake Forest is all in a tizzy because its elected leaders dared to lobby for Amtrak stopping in their town.

At this point Amtrak should simply lay on the horn nonstop through these communities as punishment.

Honestly, the reason the plan calls for a holding track between Glenview and Northbrook is because that section of line has no grade crossings, so no roads will be blocked by an idling freight train. Also, the land around said section of track is mostly industrial or commercial, so there are very few residents who will even be affected.

Glenview and Lake Forest are just pissed off that they weren't forward thinking like Winnetka - where the village actually lowered the train tracks so that they were below grade. It really keeps the noise levels in check (not to mention provides a measure of safely the other towns don't have).

^ Has nothing to do with "foresight". Winnetka got lucky during the late years of the Great Depression, and received a huge infusion of Federal money from the PWA because Harold Ickes wanted to help out his hometown.

It's not likely that other communities could have accomplished similar projects. Even the mandatory grade separation in Chicago was done by elevating the tracks, as that would not cause drainage problems or undermine adjacent buildings. It was also done at a time when the railroads held tremendous amounts of cash (the Apple/Facebook of their day) and could simply write off the $1.6B cost (adjusted) of citywide grade separation as a rounding error.

^Also, the death of Ickes' niece in a grade-crossing accident made him particularly receptive to the idea. And the presence of an actual hill at Indian Hill made it easier to engineer.

and wilmette got pinched between evanston's elevated northewestern tracks and winnetka's trenched ROW and had to make up the difference, so it got screwed with the worst of both worlds - at-grade street crossings located at the top of a berm.

Ah, yes... so much cringing while driving over the tracks there. "Is this the day my car bottoms out?"

This is actually quite exciting

Metra to introduce new roundtrip ticket

http://www.forestparkreview.com/News...ndtrip-ticket/

Yes that's great news above thank you for posting that. We in the lowly burbs use Metra a lot, not just to commute daily to a Downtown job but the rest of us use it to get into the city without the insane car traffic and parking fees. Those that do commute Monday-Friday do get good deals when they buy monthly passes though.

It is so cheap it must be subsidized by some faction. The routine improvements in the rail line, million dollar new stations, Locomotive replacement and repairs ( their new rail cars included too), and just the diesel fuel consumption alone cannot be paid in full by the relatively paltry fares IMO unless ridership is so high it would make sense. But Metra does not compare to the number of riders on the L, Which IMO is sub superior in almost ever aspect of traveling on a heavy rail network.

We need a Senate and House to keep up the investment in Urban and Suburban Rail. I know we lost a lot from the post Obama years. Hopefully a city metro centric POTUS and congress and cycle back and help in such needed financial assistance.

I was a season ticket holder to the Cub games for almost a decade. I took the Metra 90% of the time all the way on the NW line from Crystal Lake. ( ending at Harvard) btw. I hate that place the Illinois town of (Harvard) personally for my own reasons.


I'm not a daily commuter like I know many are, friends, family and whatnot but I appreciate Metra rail more than the average born in the city, not step one foot out of it unless one goes on vacation, and will die there, more than any city resident any day of the week.

It would be very affordable for family's esp

Kind of like the 5 dollar all you can ride tickets and kids were free on the weekends not to long ago.

Alas the price went up just a little more now for the same pass that was the same price for like 20 years so I understand prices that cheep cannot last forever.





On a side note I would like to just post this general link below about future transit options out there.

I do admit that the ideas are pretty old but it would be awesome to see even a little bit of it.

It does not mention covering rail tracks in the south end of Grant Park much but the rest of it is visionary ( it appears to have been established in the great reign of the Obama/LaHood era but is still updating their website )






https://www.midwesthsr.org/crossrail-chicago









.

Press for the 78 references a new L station - has there been any mention on where they want it?

Renderings show a new underground station on the Red Line at 15th/Clark, with the main entrance taking the place of the ventilation structure on the SE corner.

Thinking about the construction staging, it definitely seems feasible to build. If the cut-and-cover method is used, it almost seems straightforward to build a station with two new side platforms.

Most of the so-called "station box" would be built off-street beneath private property, and only Clark St would need to remain open through the construction site. Red Line trains would need to flow through the zone on weekdays, but the concrete tunnel lining can be daylighted and used to protect the trains while work continues on the outside. CTA can send the Red Line trains "over the top" to the elevated tracks on weekends as necessary, and then back into the subway at 13th St.

There's obviously plenty of room for staging west of Clark, even more room after the Metra tracks get relocated. Looking at CTA cab videos, it doesn't seem like the track in this area is especially curved or sloped, so it might be possible to build a reasonably level, straight platform. Not sure if the existing tunnel is deep enough to allow a mezzanine to be constructed above, if it is too shallow then the station might have to be built with two separate and disconnected platforms for northbound vs southbound trains, potentially with a transfer tunnel beneath track level.

I was wondering, is there any way to move the south union station staging yards farther south to open up all that close in real estate . I.e. an expanded rock island 43rd st yard or the row West of sox park?

Good. The long distance routes make no sense and drain Amtrak's already meager funds. Those funds would be better used improving the short and medium length routes that are actually competitive with driving and flying.

I think a great trade would be a new yard where Sox Whatever Park it is now is located. Put a new sports complex south (and maybe north) or Roosevelt where the current yards are. Maybe in part a new Westside park where the UC lots are.
The Sox will never draw at the Ball Mall and it is time they face that fact. The UC still holds up pretty well even if it not cutting edge or modern by any means. And the Bulls/Hawks have put a good deal of investment by the UC in recent years. But eventually, if a Sox park were a draw there then maybe an arena on whatever side of Roosevelt a new Sox park was on. That location may be the Sox last best chance to be relevant in this city long-term.

If you are moving the rail yard, move Sox park to where the rail yard was....a park on the river with home plate at the southwest corner so you have skyline views from the main seating area....have housing and entertainment area built on the rest of the site. And of course link it all to the new Clinton street subway that would now run up to Finkl steel site. Best part is you would have no NIMBYS cause nobody lives there! I got a couple hundred bucks to get it started!

This will inevitably happen at some point in the future but probably not for at least 20-30 years. Once 'The 78' is finished and the South Loop is fully built out there will be enough pressure to develop that site. Riverfront land next to downtown is too valuable for it to remain a train yard for long once all other plots are developed. Although the transit connections are currently horrible... development of that site is a further reason for the Clinton street subway.

I would be against using valuable land closer to the Loop for a new Sox Park. If anything if it ever does move from 35th it should be further out, not further in, and closer to the actual fanbase that frequents the stadium. Truth be told, if the actual center of gravity vis a vis actual game day ticket buyers was measured, you'd place the stadium way down south or southwest. A spot on Lake Calumet in Pullman comes to mind among others or if you completely disregarded transit accessibility somewhere in the SW burbs down by Chicago Ridge or something.

But I have another perfect spot. How about at the fork of the Dan Ryan and the Skyway, 63rd and State, west of the NS rail yards. It's the historic location of the Englewood station and could be revived with a development of this size. It's the perfect size for an awesome ball park "campus" with parking acreage and Metra/Cta accessibility. The enviro clean up would probably cost a few pennies, but the site is begging for a more prominent use.

Thoughts?

Map

Honestly i am fine with where it is, just pick it up and rotate 90 degrees west.....does not need to be banished further south....this notion that ALL sox fans are only from the south side is not true. If you were to move it out of the city i would just move it to the southwest or west burbs somewhere.

With the state budget crisis, I don't know why they aren't looking to develop the parking lots around Sox Park. It would be great to push the parking into garages and build a real neighborhood around the ballpark. It's not a bad location, it just needs a different vibe.

As for the railyards - eventually, in 40-50 years' time, that parcel will be needed for downtown growth and it can be decked over. Right now, though, it's not just a Metra yard but also Amtrak's yard servicing countless regional and long-distance trains. BNSF and several Amtrak services branch off at 15th St, so the current location is, in fact, the most efficient one. A yard further south or southwest would require trains to deadhead between Union Station and the yard, tying up track space that could be used by actual trains with passengers on them.