^^ yeah, I know certain newer systems like Montreal's have the track slope up slightly on the approach to stations, so gravity can assist with braking and acceleration.

Anyway, the more I think about this, the more it sounds like it will exceed Related's budget. Certainly this should cost more than $100M, especially if prevailing wage is required and costly mitigation is needed for Dearborn Park residents. Maybe CTA should just buy out that whole block of 15th. :shrug:

Would be a prime time to just bulldoze it...I can dream, right? :haha:

Cool program graphically displaying Chicago's entire transit network in a day - Although I think the South Shore line is missing as well as Amtrak's 10 round trips to Milw.

Credit Mapzen: https://mapzen.com/blog/animating-transitland/

https://vimeo.com/230857619

Take note Amazon--all lines lead to [near] OPO.

That is insanely great. Insanely great. Should be part of the weather report every night or something; citizens should always be very aware of how much, or little, transit is available in their city.

I don't know why the pace keeps speeding up and slowing down so randomly though. Just for illustration purposes I suppose.

This isn't transit-related, but it is transportation-related.

Curbed: Navy Pier Flyover project to begin phase two construction this week
BY JAY KOZIARZ OCT 9, 2017, 2:13PM CDT

Finally some movement!

Yeah, I don't really understand the phasing of that project. Usually phased projects have "independent utility", i.e. people can start using each phase once it's built. I would have expected the ramp down to Navy Pier to be in Phase 2 or Phase 3, and the section over DuSable Park to be in Phase 1 so it could immediately start providing benefits.

Anyway, I hope CDOT learned from this project so they can do the Riverview Bridge at Addison more economically.

This looks pretty cool and can be used for buses. It would be really nice if Chicago could convert all the buses that use Michigan Ave into electric buses - air quality would be far better in that corridor then.

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I've actual wished for a bus tunnel under Michigan Ave from Oak Street to Grand, at which point buses could cross the river on the lower desk of the Michigan Ave bridge. Somewhat similar to Seattle's downtown bus tunnel (though it was converted for light rail and soon will become exclusively used by light rail). Moving the buses under Michigan Ave would help speed up travel in that very congested corridor. Just a pipe dream though. I know it will never happen.

New 'L' Stop Is Coming To State and Lake
 

THE LOOP — A new "L" stop is coming to State and Lake streets, replacing the 122-year-old station that overlooks the Chicago Theatre.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Thursday that city officials have secured a nearly $57 million federal grant to build a new elevated train station in the heart of the Loop.

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017...ing-state-lake

So it's going to be getting the Washington/Wabash treatment?

I've advocated for that, too. It would solve a lot of issues, and the existing bus lane on Michigan could become sidewalk, improving walkability and enabling some little performance artist type things. Or close the two center lanes and narrow the side lanes and turn North Michigan into something like La Rambla in Barcelona. I mean, you could do that anyway, but it would be a lot easier with the buses underground.

Usually when I advocate for the extension of Lower Michigan north from Grand as bus-only, I also advocate creating a bus tunnel under Chicago Ave from Orleans to Fairbanks. That's even more of a pipe dream, but it would also greatly improve 66/Chicago flow and travel time between points west and points east of Michigan. The most difficult part of that would be how to deal with the Chicago Red Line station. Even a tunnel from Wabash to Fairbanks would help, but not nearly as much.

Eventually, if Lower Michigan could be turned into a busway, it could be connected to the busway next to Metra Electric and the lakefront express buses from the South Side could get through downtown much faster. One can dream ...

Not to knock on Wabash/Washington, but this station occupies an iconic vista on an iconic street. They better design this well

^^ I am so excited about this! That platform is a danger. I still remember when some poor lady got a bag caught on a Brown Line train or lost her balance, or, whatever, and fell under the train (not suicide). They had to close the platform and Lake Street, because parts of her fell to the pavement. There are sections of that platform that can't be more that 3 feet across.

Fingers crossed for a great design, one that opens up the view down State (obviously going to be somewhat blocked). Related - the way Randolph / Wabash is opening up with the removal of the station is ASTONISHING. Bigger impact than I imagined.

"The newly announced upgrade project will also include new elevators to bring the elevated platform to ADA compliance as well as provide a link to the Red Line subway system below."

This has been top on my wish list for the loop L for ages, direct connections! I'm guessing you would still have to use your card as it would connect the mezz to the mezz much easier than plantform to planform (wouldn't that just have to be an elevator?) but that's still huge!!

https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/10/1...a-station-loop

^ That's awesome! I wonder if it'll be an elevator-only connection, or if there there will be stairs / escalators, as well?

How big would the elevator be? There's a mad rush at that station in both the morning and the evening to get to or from the Lake red line stop. I can't imagine even 10% of one L car could fit into the elevator. Crowding around it would probably be awful too.

So unlike Randolph/Wabash which stayed open while the new Washington/Wabash station was built one block south, the State/Lake station will simply close, be torn town, and a new station built in the same exact location? Meaning those transferring to/from the red line will have to walk another block or two to/from Clark/Lake or Washington/Wabash for 2-3 years? Or ride to the southern side of the loop to transfer at Harold Washington Library?

^
Not the cheapest option, but the red line stop at Washington could be reopened?

^How would that help anything? Red Line already stops at Lake, with street entries in the middle of every block except Washington—Madison.

Elevator only transit stations are a nightmare.

You could then get onto the Green/Pink/Brown/Purple/Orange lines at Wabash and Washington, which would be a shorter walk than State/Lake to Clark/Lake.

For real, they need a straight shot escalator down to the Red. It could be done in a very striking architectural way with some imagination. Too much to ask?

Side note, I've fantasized about a helical escalator for years. This would be an amazing use of one.

And what prevents you from doing that now? The only mezzanine that's closed is Washington-Madison. The walk from Randolph-Washington to Wabash & Washington is the same number of steps.

It's always hard to tell with these things, but the numbers being thrown around are pretty big. If CTA doesn't gold-plate everything like Washington-Wabash, then maybe there will be room in the budget for some underground construction to allow for a direct link.

Has anyone heard anything in regards to the design and/or timeline of the Damen green line stop?

With the announcement of the Michael Reese hospital development (or I should say potential for something to happen someday) my vision would be to finally make the metra electric into the Grey Line and then have the end of the line on the north swing down and under Lake Street and build a new underground terminal station butting up towards the Red Line at State Street.

Make the new station at State/Lake elevated tie into this new station under Lake on the east side of State and also the Red Line directly under State.

If you want to dump in some dollars take over half of the lower few floors of the building on the southeast corner of State/Lake and make some new mezz space for the subway stations and have the elevated station dump into the second floor of that building and give the whole thing the Clark/Lake at Thompson Center type station within the building itself.

Would be a great connection! You could keep all your current exits, but you could build an entire transfer station to directly connect all three stations without having to leave the fare area if you moved some stuff around in the north mezz area of the existing red line at Lake.

Don't think it's supposed to start construction until 2018 and take approximately two years to finish. Every time I take the brown or purple line I wonder why there isn't a stop at Division yet. There's so much construction visible from the L as it crosses over the street.

Why would they want to put one there?

The problem on those lines is not one of ridership, it is one of capacity. A new station does nothing to address this.

The trains are already filled and throughput in the loop ultimately limits the number of trains.

Unless there is some heretofore untapped reverse commute potential from that location, it would be a waste of scarce resources.

I'm an advocate of an infill station at Division. I think the ongoing and planned construction for the area, coupled with the redevelopment of Goose Island, warrants the reconstruction of the station at Division. There have already been several hundred residential units added to the area just west of Orleans, with literally thousands more to follow. Atrium Village's redevelopment is also well underway. The station at Division would open up transit options to GI and that would only accelerate the former manufacturing district's revival. This area is becoming an extension of downtown and would benefit from increased access to transit.

Atriums redevelopment had some concept of a new station built right into the complex. Of course that's great on paper, who knows when it comes to $$$

Also:

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2015...wn-line-l-stop

I'm pretty sure the CTA put an easement on the parcel to make space for the station, so at least there was foresight on that front.

With the announcement yesterday of UI's Innovation Center plan at Related's site, along with the other developments planned for the site (not to mention the chance for Amazon to locate here), perhaps this potential infill station is becoming increasingly worthwhile? How difficult/disruptive would it be creating an infill subway station along an active line? Though I would assume it's a little easier than might typically be the case since the CTA has the option to reroute red line trains to the green line tracks if necessary.

^Were I the CM, I'd build the new flat tunnel with southbound platform immediately to the west of the existing line. It would be fairly simple cut-and-cover with plenty of room to work except right next to the existing tunnel wall.

Then cut the Red Line over to the new tracks (one weekend, by running "over the top") and build the northbound platform, mezzanines, exits, etc.

I was bored and thinking about transit to some of the north branch Amazon sites. Independent of Amzn, I feel this line warrants further study by CTA...and not just because I made this map :). I'm sure many of you have thought of something similar before.

The line could be two-phased to begin, with a hopeful expansion south to complete phase III at a later date. The line would utilize existing rail lines for portions of the route.

http://i.imgur.com/axQaZi9.jpg

Stops would be at:
Phase I
Roosevelt/Clinton
Harrison/Clinton
Jackson/Clinton
Madison/Clinton
Lake/Clinton
Chicago/Larrabee
Division/Larrabee
North/Clybourn
*joins red or brown line to Howard/Kimball

Phase II
Cortland/Clybourn
Fullerton/Ashland
Diversey/Ashland
Belmont/Lincoln/Ashland
Belmont/Western
*joins blue line to O'Hare

Wilson Station is officially open.

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Cool video...but..the music...wtf? It's not Game of Thrones. Throw some EDM on it...just sayin.

^ Right, nor a station overlooking a chasm in rural China. I thought the same thing when I saw it yesterday. Some old-timey talkie music (or EDM) would be more fitting here.

The last 45 seconds of that video looked like some of the best CGI ever made. I had to do a double take.

Now somebody just needs to buy that horrible strip mall across the street and develop it into something proper

There's hope! The largest tenant, Payless, moved out this year.

Chicago/IL's Amazon bid includes up to $400M of state funding for infrastructure, regardless of which site is chosen. With some fiscal discipline, that might be enough for a new underground CTA station at 15th and a barebones Metra platform to serve Rock Island.

At any other site, $400M could fund a long wishlist of things. At Lincoln Yards, for example, it could fund a new transitway to downtown and a series of new river bridges.

$400M could also fund more than half of "Phase I" of the circulator project. I don't know how seriously the city is taking the white paper published for the circulator, but even having the stretch connection Navy Pier to Union Station would be beneficial.

Has it been discussed what a transitway to Lincoln Yards would include? BRT?

Post #13785 included a great solution to address access to the large redevelopment opportunities along the north branch of the Chicago River. I'm sure the planner would love some feedback. :cheers:

Transportation news that is worthy to post about: the section of the extended IL-390 roadway is set to open Wednesday between I-290 and Busse Rd., and was kicked off with a 5K and fest over this past weekend. I took a couple of shit-tastic photos (below) before the run that don't show you much, but I saw a couple of great shots on the Tollway's Twitter page.

Looks like 3 lanes in each direction from Lake St. on through to about Wood Dale Rd., then down to 2 lanes EB to 83. WB looks to have 3 lanes all the way down.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4462/...306cf90e_b.jpg
IMG_8050 2 by Brandon DaPrato, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4465/...5183059a_b.jpg
IMG_8051 2 by Brandon DaPrato, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4504/...9b21cf74_b.jpg
IMG_8052 2 by Brandon DaPrato, on Flickr

That's great but when do they actually complete it to York Rd ? I looked at the IDOT website and they practically seem to be avoiding any mention of a completion date, and barely mention the existence of that project phase at all. Did they put it on ice until the I-490 legs get a timetable? I imagine the interchange geometry at York could be completely different if I-490 never gets built.

On a related note, does anyone know of a website that has more current aerial photography than Bing or Google maps? Those can do a pretty lousy job at keeping up with urban developments that change much faster than a two or three year cycle, as is the case around O'Hare (not to mention downtown).

The cheapest thing would be a busway using existing street ROW as much as possible. Many of those side streets are lightly used and could certainly have space given to bus lanes. On the south end, it would tie into the Canal and Clinton bus lanes to do a circuit around the Metra stations.

The City's Framework Plan included an alignment, but it's super conceptual. It would require General Iron to leave, possibly two new river bridges, a new street to be constructed between Kinzie/Clinton and Chicago/Halsted, etc. Much of it depends on what gets developed and when. Not insurmountable challenges but big ones to be sure.

There are a lot of estimates, but the latest timeframe I'm aware of is to have the entire 390/490 project completed by 2022-2025, which corresponds to the theoretical completion of an O'Hare Western Access terminal/facility.

The stretch between York Rd and 83 is supposedly slated to be finished by the end of 2019.

If 490 never gets off the ground, I believe that they will at least build a partial interchange to connect York Rd to 390. There are a lot of contingencies around that last mile past 83 (the western terminal being one, and Canadian Pacific and their ongoing land-use feud/facebattle with the Tollway being the second). In addition, we're now starting to get some details regarding the Tollway's reconstruction of the central Tri-State, so I'm not sure how that'll factor into all of this.

BRT wouldn't work along the N. Branch. Clybourn is a nightmare north of north and there's only one lane each direction. Orleans is a parking lot during rush hour and one way south of Ontario. All SB buses would have to make their way to Halsted at Division. Wells is awful during the rush. Division is also heavily congested, as is Halsted, which is desolate compared to the surrounding areas, but still manages to have heavy traffic at pretty much all times of the day anyway.