That's because the investment is too small.

Gas is almost $6, several friends have said they're now taking the bus & train and only driving when they have to

This video news piece from the ABC affiliate in South Bend is 2 months old but I just came across it. Possible changes to the South Shore Line in South Bend are discussed.

• Video Link

Metra to sell $100 flat-rate monthly pass
 

SOURCE - https://metra.com/newsroom/metra-sel...e-monthly-pass

now that it's coming together it's becoming clear how much of an impact the redline north rebuild is gonna have on uptown/edgewater, looks fantastic

Could you elaborate

The weekend Metra Electric trains have been packed to the point passengers have to sometimes stand for the ride. But according to Metra, people don't ride the trains outside of rush hour. So I was probably hallucinating my train ride :rolleyes:

I think there's some truth to what you are observing. I ditched my car a couple months ago, so when I go out to my cousins (conveniently located near the Fox River Grover Metra station), I just hop on the Clybourn stop and shoot out. I've noticed a solid number of people on the trains, which is great to see. I suspect the $6 gas has something to do with it......

Riding the Metra again does make me super happy that there are plans to incorporate a new Clybourn stop into the Lincoln Yards project. It's so easy for me to hop on a Divvy in front of my building, shoot down Milwaukee, onto the 606 and to Clybourn. It's a fun ride actually.

I did a metra pub crawl through the NW burbs on the UP-NW yesterday with a group of friends. Started in Norwood park, then hit Edison Park, Park Ridge, Des Planes, Mount Prospect, and ended in Arlington Heights then back to the city. So we were on 6 different trains throughout the afternoon and evening, and all trains were very heavily patronized, not standing room only, but the vast majority of seatswere occupied on all cars we were on, so folks are definitely using those weekend metra trains to get around the metro area. $6 gas is no joke when those all day metra passes are only 7 bucks.

HOLY SHIT CROSSRAIL CHICAGO MIGHT GET FUNDED!!! METRA MIGHT FINALLY BE COMPETENT!!


A unified push to revamp Union Station: Today's Juice

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/juic...g-crains-juice

Just read it on my juice blast. Great news indeed!

I'm excited but waiting for more details here.

The SCAL bridge is the keystone of the CrossRail plan, but I'm waiting for an official statement on how Metra/Amtrak plan to use the bridge. I think the plan initially is to fix the reverse move on New Orleans and Carbondale trains.

In the medium term they also want to shift St Louis and San Antonio trains onto the Rock Island, so those trains will use this connection also. Long-term, they may route Michigan and East Coast trains this way, but that requires other new connections on the South Side and Indiana.

No idea what plans, if any, Metra has for the corridor. The SCAL is operationally separate from Metra Electric with no connections until you get down to Kensington. Further investments would be needed to really do CrossRail, including track connections between SCAL/ME and new McCormick platforms.

This is my first time hearing about a direct line from O'Hare to downtown on Metra. Would it just be one stop at McCormick? Seems like there should be a stop at Union Station, no?

The CrossRail plan was developed by advocates (Midwest HSR Association), not by Metra or Amtrak and is currently not official in any way, although CMAP did put in on their unconstrained project list (read: wish list). Under CrossRail, Metra Electric trains would go from University Park to O'Hare with major stops at McCormick and Union Station and lots of other local stops.

https://hsrail.org/sites/default/fil...e%20rgs-01.png
https://hsrail.org/midwest/crossrail-chicago

The construction of a bridge on the St Charles Air Line does not mean that Metra is ready to embrace CrossRail - it seems like (for now) this is an Amtrak-led project that will primarily benefit intercity trains. Right now the trains to St Louis can go fast through the open country, but once they hit Joliet they have to crawl up a congested freight line through the SW burbs to get into the city. Building the SCAL bridge will allow the St Louis trains to switch to Metra's Rock Island line to get through the burbs instead, which should allow faster and more reliable service to St Louis.

It would also cut maybe 10 minutes off the trip time for Amtrak trains to Champaign/Carbondale and New Orleans, which don't use the Rock Island line but they do have to make the railroad equivalent of a slow 3-point turn to get into Union Station.

Now that I have looked more into this.... Amazing. For sure, a direct fast line from O'Hare to the city with a stop at Union Station would be phenomenal. I would love to see something like Union Station in Denver where it's not just a train stop, but a "living room" for people coming into the city. There's restaurants and comfy seating inside the facility. Wouldn't take much to put that in, but it could do wonders for first-timers coming into the city.

Freight trains still use that elevated rail section parallel to 16th Street don't they? Does a freight railroad own that corridor? If so, how does that impact these plans in terms of reliability and frequency if the corridor must be shared and schedules negotiated between passenger & freight trains?

The St Charles Air Line is owned by Canadian National and has about 6 freight trains per day. I don't think that will be too much of a hindrance to passenger service, but if it is, there is room to add a 2nd or 3rd track along 16th St and up to 2 additional tracks across the river on the old B&OCT bridge (the one that is currently locked in the 'up' position).

I'm always so annoyed they didn't flip the new rental car facility at O'hare and put the ATS on the east side of it instead of the west side. You could literally have the ATS and Metra station consolidated together to transfer people.

As it is now extend that ATS up another 1,000 feet with a station over Higgens. Have an exit on the south side tied into the Sheraton and Holiday Inn and then rip down that crap on the north side and put in a large master planned hotel/convention, etc complex directly tied into the ATS. Willow Creek runs right through the middle of it, redevelop that as a functional water feature right through the middle.

This is awesome news! Untangling the Amtrak mess south of Union would be a dream come true. The talk has been going on forever. Hopefully the funds come through and shovels hit dirt on this finally.

Express trains to O'Hare are badly needed and would be a huge boost to the city as well. Attempting to do it on the Blue Line was never the right approach (thanks, Daley) since you would need to at the very least triple track the entire Blue Line, which would be either prohibitively expensive or downright impossible to do on the elevated structure and subway tunnels. Whereas using existing rail networks and having Metra operate it is much more feasible since the line and existing station (O'Hare Transfer) exist.

Much to MayorOfChicago's point, it is silly that you need to lug your suitcases across 1000 ft of parking lot to go from the O'Hare ATS to the Metra station. I wonder how much more it would cost to simply dig a tunnel and have a Metra stop directly underneath O'Hare, ala the Blue Line? It would be a huge timesaver and be much more convenient to ride only one train downtown, instead of having to transfer from the ATS. Alas, almost 100% unlikely to happen anytime in the near future. I will gladly settle for express runs to O'Hare Transfer from Union, if we are lucky enough to get that :)

Yeah, that's one thing I don't like about the ATS.... Is how it's a bit inconvenient. I tried it for the first time last month. It was very nice, clean, etc. But..... knowing how to get from T5 to the Blue Line was a bit of a puzzle for someone who isn't a long running O'Hare vet. It would be nice of the transit options were a bit better integrated. But I also understand there are legacy systems and costs.

This news is great though. Chicago is lucky in that is has a solid rail network in place because of its history. It can easily tap into that and put in a system without having to shovel billions for any new tracks. So many other cities don't have that convenience, and it will cost them so much more to build out new lines in the future.