Well - Here's one sure way to increase CTA/Metra pickup NW of downtown.....

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/loca...month/3083105/

What I want is to restore the train station to the correct (downtown/Main St) location in each of these towns. If they had done so in Elburn, there would be little need for a TOD plan because the existing streets all converge on the downtown already.

Not sure if this regional rail network is still alive.



https://siteselection.com/issues/202...gs-to-come.cfm

From Site Selection magazine, January 2023


The Shape Of Things To Come

Infrastructure investments drive momentum in the Midwest.

I
llinois Gov. JB Pritzker is happy to point out that his state was ahead of the federal government in making generational investments toward infrastructure development. Pritzker, who was re-elected in November, spearheaded “Rebuild Illinois,” a $45 billion capital improvement project approved by the Illinois legislature during the first months of his first term in office. In August, Gov. Pritzker announced that under Rebuild Illinois, the Illinois Department of Transportation had made more than $8.6 billion in improvements to some 4,422 miles of highway and 412 bridges.

“Since I signed our historic, bipartisan infrastructure program into law,” he said, “Rebuild Illinois has undertaken a massive transformation of our state’s transportation systems.”

And not just that, Pritzker boasts, but now that funds are flowing from the $550 billion federal Infrastructure Act, Illinois, he contends, owns a commanding position for associated funding by already having laid the groundwork for specific road, rail, airport and port projects. The Infrastructure Act, state officials say, has allowed the state to expand projected spending by $4 billion.

“Because we passed Rebuild Illinois two-and-a-half years before, we are actually shovel-ready,” Pritzker said, “We’re in a position to do much more and more quickly.”

Under the year-old Infrastructure Act, Illinois has banked $73 million toward the state’s single most conspicuous transportation project, the $7.1 billion modernization of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the world’s fourth busiest. That project recorded a milestone in November when Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg travelled to Chicago to announce that — after a four-plus year environmental review — the ambitious renovation had received final clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration.

“Chicago’s transportation infrastructure,” Buttigieg said at O’Hare, “is what makes this city an economic powerhouse of global importance.”

“We’re in a position to do much more and more quickly.”

— JB Pritzker, Illinois Governor

Projects analyzed under the FAA review include new terminals and concourses, on-airport hotels and airfield and taxiway improvements. With the federal green light, construction is set to begin this spring on two satellite concourses that are to provide more than 1 million sq. ft. of gate and amenity space. The new configuration, said Mayor Lori Lightfoot, will dramatically expand the airport’s ability to accommodate aircraft of all sizes.


https://siteselection.com/images/1223SS_Midwest-one.jpg


...

As intriguing as it may sound, do not hold your breath, for the ultimate end-product is a 40-year dream with a projected price tag of up to $162 billion. The plan envisions a 3,000-mile passenger rail network consisting of “pillar corridors” radiating out of Chicago with endpoints in Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Detroit. Trains would run as fast as 125 miles per hour. A “hub and spoke” layout would serve to incorporate destinations as far-flung as Sioux Falls, Des Moines, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison, Carbondale, Dayton and Cleveland.

...

Here's a question - Is there a place for someone like Brightline within the Chicago/Midwest arena?

I hadn't heard of Brightline until two seconds ago hearing about the LA/Vegas route about to be developed. I don't know the background, but when I looked up the trains and routes in Florida, they look damn nice.

Obviously Metra technically has jurisdiction for the metro suburban market, but can Brightline make an entrance with something like a Chicago/Milwaukee route?.... Or a Chicago-MI route? Or is this something Amtrack also plans on tackling?

Just thinking out loud after looking up Brightline....

Good question and I look forwards to a thoughtful question.

One thing I noted about that train map.
Most Big universities are on the line.

I did notice a few misses. Such as Iowa City, Bloomington Indiana, Ann Arbor Michigan, DeKalb Illinois but I figure it's on there and overlooked like the others I mentioned.

Getting to Milwaukee, Madison, and Urbana Illinois than on to Carbondale should be top priority first. Of course, for ND, South Bend but that should be easy too, the infrastructure is more than already there in many duplicates I figure. At even a slow speed of 125 mph, you're still going to have to under dig or overfly. At Grade crossings should really be avoided at all costs.

Imagine if we ever got the trains up to speeds one can see in Japan.
The Iowa line should be easy and pretty straight forward all the way to Omaha Nebraska.


• Video Link

They're not going to be going to any corridor thats already served by Amtrak. Brightline in Florida and the high desert between LA and LV are both fulfilling a market that previously did not exist - albeit one much more traditional diesel "higher speed" rail and the other very much real electrified true high speed rail.

That's a good point..... Here in the Chicago area, there really isn't much ground that isn't already covered by CTA/Metra/Amtrak...... Unless you start thinking about any routes not in the works from any of these agencies, that also don't already exist for a high-speed upgrade.

With that said - It could be kinda cool if Brightline could establish some "loop" routes to connect various lines across the city/metro. Think if it as an "RER" that can loop you through the city, connecting CTA lines - Almost like the CTA circle route we have all dreamed of. Then you have another one or two suburban "RER"-like routes that connect various Metra lines.

Of course, this may be very difficult in the city as there would have to be land bought, etc, etc. I'm sure any costs/red tape would preclude this idea ever getting beyond a bar conversation, let alone an actual idea penciled on paper.

Unlikely. The investor appetite to fund rail privately in the Midwest is non-existent, because of our slow population growth and limited tourism market. The strongest city-pair travel markets in the Midwest all cross state lines too, which make the approval process exceptionally tough when you start talking about building thru red states like Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio.

Maybe if Brightline was a smashing business success, you'd see more companies forming and trying to take on the Midwest, or maybe even the Class I freight railroads getting back into the passenger game. But as it stands, Brightline is only modestly successful even in a high-growth state with huge tourism numbers.

Both of the current Brightline projects are sort of unique situations too. In Florida they had the existing FEC mainline with a highly cooperative freight partner, and a cooperative toll highway authority that let them expand to Orlando. In California, they have hundreds of miles of open desert between Victorville and Vegas, a cooperative state government letting them use I-15, and they have shied away from entering the LA basin where construction gets difficult.

I think any private effort in the Midwest will end up more like Texas Central. Lawsuits and political opposition will kill it before it starts.

Thanks for the rundown - Makes sense. They seem to offer a pretty solid product, so hopefully it gains some traction where they are putting them in.

If you always wanted your own CTA car, a place in West Virginia is selling some old 2400-class cars for the price of a mid-size car.(they ran on the Purple Line until the 5000s started coming in)

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/3/...-west-virginia

^^^Never really cared for the looks of the BV 2400 cars. The Budd 2200's were beautiful to me with the sharp lines, corrugated sides and the blinker doors. If I could turn one of those into a backyard studio I would.

HSR Alliance gave an update and it seems like Chicago Gateway didn't get a MEGA grant because it didn't quite fit the criteria of the program. The good news is that Amtrak recognizes this is a critical project and is splitting the program into 4 different projects, and will apply for FY22-23 FSP grant for all 4 projects :cheers: Here's a quote from Amtrak expressing their support for the program:

The "criteria for the program" being big, splashy projects with big, splashy ribbon cuttings like the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincy.

Glad to hear this is still alive, though. Hopefully they stop handicapping themselves and do the whole thing properly - a 2 track ramp into Union Station instead of single track, properly refurbishing the SCAL bridge, a 2-track quadrant connection at 16th St, triple-tracking the Rock Island (or 4-track passing segments), etc.

CTA Begins Plan To Rebuild Red Line’s Sheridan, Rogers Park Stops In Massive North Branch Overhaul
Block Club Chicago | Joe Ward | 9:20 PM CDT on Mar 16, 2023

Here's a completely fair question... Is the time lost from the slowing of trains through the Sheridan s-curve, an s-curve with a station in the middle of it unlike say the old sharp s-curve at Harrison/Wabash, really significant enough to spend massive amounts of $ on saving at most 10 or 15 seconds with a huge smoothed out trackway?

Red line trains already need to slow down for the stop anyway, so I wouldn't think the S-curve is overly detrimental to speedy service... though it does slow down express service on the purple line since it doesn't typically stop at Sheridan. I'm relucant to see the little retail corridor outside the current Sheridan station demolished/altered significantly to make the curve smoother when red line trains will always need to slow down in that general area regardless of the presence of the S-curve in order to stop at the station.

If they need to move the station because the current spot is too constrained to make it fully accessible, I would assume they'd move it to the north side of Irving Park where there's adjacent linear parking along Graceland Cemetery that could be used for an expanded/fully accessible station?

The only new corridors I see Brightline taking up are the Texas Triangle Routes...but the rest of the Country will largely have to deal with Amtrak and most state plans seem to acknowledge that. Amtrak has a lot of plans for the Midwestern Region and if the FRA Study gains traction then the Interstate Regions will be well-connected as well. Michigan , Minnesota and Illinois have strong plans and securing funding seems to be easier. While Ohio , Indiana , Wisconsin , Missouri are kinda shaky in the funding / political will dept. I'll just list the plans/proposals for the Chicago Amtrak Hub over the next 15-20yrs , I don't know the final name of some of these proposed services so I just them a generic name. I pulled most of this off of the 2035 plan and various state proposals and the FRA long distance Study with the full build out.

Chicago Hub
Illinois - Indiana - Michigan : Southern / Eastern Routes

• Build an upgraded Airline Route allowing for direct access to Chicago Union Station from the Eastern Routes
• Overhauling the Chicago Union Station Complex
• Shift Amtrak Operations over to the South Shore Line West of Michigan City for increased reliability
• Increase Track Speeds to 90-110mph along all Illinois and Michigan Routes

• Increase Service along the Amtrak Pere Marquette 1x>3x daily
• Increase Service along the Amtrak Wolverine 3x> 6x daily
• Increase Service along the Amtrak Blue Water 1x>2x daily
• Increase Service along the Amtrak Illini/Saluki 2x>3x daily
• New Service : Amtrak Hoosier Northern – Chicago – Fort Wayne – Toledo – Cleveland – 2x daily
• Restore the Amtrak Hoosier State and extend to Cincinnati – 3x daily
• Restore the Amtrak Kentucky Cardinal to Louisville – Indianapolis – Chicago – 3x daily
• Restore the Amtrak Three Rivers Service : Chicago – Fort Wayne – Akron – Youngstown – Pittsburgh – Harrisburg – Philly – NY – 1x daily
• Restore the Amtrak Mountaineer : Chicago - Cincinnati - Christiansburg - Roanoke - Petersburg - Norfolk - 1x daily
• Restore the Amtrak Floridian : Chicago - Louisville - Nashville - Birmingham - Jacksonville - Orlando - Tampa & Miami - 1x daily
• Restore the Amtrak International : Chicago - Kalamazoo - Detroit - London - Toronto - 1x daily

Illinois - Iowa - Missouri : Western Routes

• New Service : Amtrak Quad Cities service to Iowa City – Davenport – Chicago – 3x daily
• Restore the Amtrak Black Hawk service to Dubuque – Rockford – Chicago – 3x daily
• Extend Carl Sandburg to Hannibal - Quincy - Naperville - Chicago - 3x daily

Illinois - Wisconsin : Northern Routes

• New Hiawatha Service to Green Bay from Chicago-Milwaukee – 3x daily
• New Hiawatha Service to Madison from Chicago-Milwaukee – 5x daily
• New Service : Amtrak Great Rivers to St. Paul via Eau Claire from Chicago-Milwaukee – 2x daily
• Restore the Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha - Seattle - Spokane - Missoula - Bismark - Fargo - St Paul - Eau Caire - Milwaukee - Chicago - 1x daily

Now I have a few proposals that i'd like to see happen over the next 20yrs a mixture of Amtrak & Regional Rail Expansions , though very unlikely to happen without a massive political shift

• Extend the Metra Electric Line to Kankakee
• Extend the South Shore Line to Goshen
• New Electric Regional Rail service to Fort Wayne from Chicago Millennium Station
• Extend the Electrified West Lake Corridor to Lafayette
• Electrify the remaining Diesel Metra lines
• Electrify the Amtrak Illinois , Hiawatha to Milwaukee & Michigan Routes
• Build the Metra Southeast Service : Chicago – Thorton – South Chicago – Balmoral Park
• Southern Tier Limited : Chicago - Toledo - Cleveland - Erie - Binghamton - Scranton - Newark - Hoboken - 1x daily
• North Star - Chicago : Milwaukee-Appleton-Superior-Duluth -1x daily
• Restore & Extend the Amtrak Lake Country Limited : Madison – Janesville – Chicago – 3x daily

Not sure if this belongs in the airport thread, transit thread, or both. A new way to get to O'hare is coming in a couple of years...

United and Archer will open an air taxi route to Chicago’s O’Hare airport in 2025

https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/VV...29f17d.cf.webp

https://www.engadget.com/united-and-...191352804.html

Hmm is that location really going to save people a lot of time? No way to build a heliport on top of a building or something? Roof of the union station tower would be kind of ideal...

I guess if you can clear security at the heliport and you're flying united it would save lots of time.

Cool! Although I would prefer to see a landing location somewhere in downtown, but I assume if the program is scalable and successful, they could extend it to multiple drop off locations.

Are there any other cities planning on something like this, or can we gloat at being first here?

I’d say that they need to get it approved and off the ground to be able to float about being the first. Many ideas like this have come and gone, but having United Airlines behind it gives this some credibility.

The article specifies they will start offering service from Newark airport to Manhattan. Not sure we’ll be first. I live near the helipad and I’m really not looking forward to this noise every 15 minutes.

Ah yes. More transport innovation from Silicon Valley. An electric helicopter that almost certainly burns more CO2 to produce than a normal helicopter does in its entire lifecycle.

The heliport location also makes this largely useless since you still have to get a car to get anywhere.... this is in contrast to Manhattan where you can actually just walk from Wall Street to the helipad. Manhattan being an island and the tunnels/bridges being gridlocked 75% of the time also makes NY a much more compelling use case... a use case that is already proven with Blade offering traditional helicopter service for $195 per seat.

Given the location of the "vertiport" a ~10 minute drive from downtown, I'd think they'd need an integration deal with some ride hail app to make this work.

I suppose some execs might just have their secretaries schedule a car and a VTOL and a plane ticket separately and not care, but they'll broaden their audience if people in a hurry can book at least the car and VTOL together with one tap.

And given they're flying specifically to O'Hare, and probably heavily targeting United ticketholders even if they'll take others' money, I'm expecting they'll end up encouraging people to share VTOL rides during the times leading up to popular airline route departures.

It could be like a flying public bus for people with expense accounts.

23 March Damen Green Line station progress via FH Paschen- https://www.instagram.com/p/CqIxQyQN...d=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
https://cdn.inflact.com/media/337259...e909d773896c5c

Unbelievable how long it takes to pour foundations for a one-story building... and after several years of delay on the actual construction start!

I know they are reinforcing the existing steel El structure, which is more time-consuming work and very delicate with Green Line trains passing every few minutes...

Looks like Amtrak is also seeking $175 million for the program through their annual portion of IIJA. Amtrak wasn't kidding about applying for every possible grant to fund Chicago Gateway. Hopefully we hear some good news soon.

Grant request: https://media.amtrak.com/wp-content/...ials-FINAL.pdf

Union Pacific Transferring Commuter Rail Services to Metra
https://www.up.com/media/releases/me...-nr-230330.htm

Does UP even use these tracks for anything other than passenger rail? I've always assumed they are shared lines, but maybe I totally made a bad assumption. I'm only familiar with the UP-NW route and have never seen anything other than Metra on the routes.

The UP-West runs on Union Pacific's trunk line to California. Lots of freight traffic.

April 2023 Plan Commission
 

132 E. Van Buren St. &
401-407 S. Michigan Ave.
(Loop, 42nd Ward)

A proposed Lake Michigan and Chicago Lakefront Protection Ordinance application, submitted by the Commuter Rail Division of the Regional Transportation Authority ("Metra"), for the property located at 132 E. Van Buren St. and 401-407 S. Michigan Ave. The site is currently zoned IPD No. 677, T District, POS-1 and is within the Public Use Zone of the Lake Michigan and Chicago Lakefront Protection District. The applicant proposes to rehabilitate the Van Buren commuter rail station. The project will renovate station components and include a green roof as part of overall roof improvements, tunnel and stair construction, elevator “Pop-up” enclosures, ADA Improvements, platform improvements, and Van Buren Pedestrian Bridge ADA improvements.

Trying to read between the lines here, perhaps a little too closely. Is there even the smallest chance this funding could attempt to parlay this into decking over the station and that segment of Grant Park? I mean, talking about green roofs and "pop-up enclosures" certainly makes me ponder that the push to deck over the station could be attempted. How I wish......

No. There was an article detailing some of the renovations that included an elevator shaft where the current Paris metro donated iron work is. It would be a pretty conventional “pop up” elevator shaft that meets ADA requirements. The roof that would be greened is the one over the current station that is west of the tracks probably would not even include the overhang over track 1, but I could be wrong.

Yeah the green roof would replace the ugly gravel roof portion above the stationhouse, and tidy up all of the mechanical equipment in that area.

Supposedly it will also include a 3rd platform on the east side that will turn this from a 3-track station into a 4-track station. A 4th mainline track is needed through this area once South Shore starts running their West Lake trains to Dyer.

Overall this is a much-needed investment in a crumbling area of Grant Park. Hopefully they can do Congress Plaza next... for such an important part of the cityscape and a historically important site of protest, it's really in terrible condition.

Does anyone know the most effective methods of lobbying for small changes in the walkability/streetscape of your neighborhood? (Ie. raised crosswalks, bumpouts, etc.)

Last night I walked to meet a family member to watch the championship game at a bar two blocks away from my apartment, and each way almost got hit by a car turning into a crosswalk where I had the right of way... so yeah, I'm thinking I'm pretty fed up.

https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/t...1638649352.jpg

Write to your alderman or their chief of staff... each alderman gets "menu money" every year to do small projects. If you can rally a few hundred neighbors to support your idea and the cost is reasonable, there's a good chance you can make it happen. Raised crosswalks are not fully embraced by CDOT yet, but you can get a bumpout, a flashing stop sign, a median refuge island, restriping the crosswalk with paint, etc.

CDOT is also piloting "left turn hardening" which could be a solution for your problem, but those little flexposts don't survive very long:
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/dept...e-to-impr.html

Here's a Q&A Crain's editorial board held for Johnson two weeks ago, below are his responses regarding transit. Glad to see the Union Station revamp and BRT are a priority!

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/poli...-questionnaire

Does anyone know if there are any future plans to build overpasses for grade separation in those tracks north to Union Station in West Loop? For all the new high density developments in West Loop, level crossings make the neighborhood feel somehow underdeveloped and industrial. Not to forget these tracks are used by 3 Metra lines and Amtrak services to the west, being one of the main arteries feeding Union Station.

NONE, although there is a plan to add a Metra station at Racine. https://chicago.urbanize.city/post/w...-alderman-says

I just read in Chicago YIMBY that the Van Buren Metra station overhaul is going to cost 100 million USD. That only includes changing and expanding the entrance in the east side of Michigan Avenue (the one with the Paris Metro art nouveau access structure), replacing broken windows and overall esthetics of the west entrance, making the roof a rooftop garden, adding stairs and a ramp to the existing bridge crossing the station, some basic updates to the house station + platform and adding a new access via Jackson street with ramps and elevators. How can this cost 100 million USD? This seems overly expensive.

It’s a bigger project than you think, they are digging up everything in the park between Michigan and the rail trench, going two levels down, and rebuilding from scratch. The existing ramped tunnels don’t meet ADA slope requirements and they leak like a sieve, so hopefully the total rebuild will solve both problems.

They are also building a 4th mainline track and a 3rd platform east of the existing two, which should provide more capacity into Millennium Station for South Shore’s new line to Dyer.

Exactly. So much of this revamp won't really be noticed by most people using the station, yet everything listed is of the utmost importance to address. I'm glad Metra is doing what really needs to be done instead of some haphazard patchwork that only address a few critical issues but leaves everything else neglected.

Aaron (Glowrock)

43rd St station renovation

https://files.constantcontact.com/55...d033b1a7da.png

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/...id=OI_Byg58CO0

Does anyone know what the status of the State & Lake superstation currently is?

I just saw that Johnson appointed Buckner to the sub-committee for public transit. That is really good news in my opinion. Hopefully this will help with CTA becoming reliable again.

Not only reliable, but more importantly safe. riding the redline in this city is like the wild wild west, I think riding a train in Afghanistan would be safer and cleaner

Utility relocations are ongoing, quite a bit of that work has since been completed.

Great move, also helps that Buckner can introduce legislation in the state house to help with the inevitable fiscal crises CTA will be facing in the near future. If he is directly engaged with CTA, that will hopefully make this process proactive rather than a 11th hour solution to head off a doomsday scenario of service cuts.

My condo association sent this update about it:

The utility work has somehow resulted in power outages to our elevators :shrug:

Surprised Janesville, WI is even considering a Metra stop as an option. The only way that would work is if Metra is chosen to operate the Rockford-Chicago route.

Rock County will form ad hoc committee to examine rail service expansion