^As I noted, the GAO report only looks at federal funding. Roads are funded at many levels of government.

Durbin announces $51 million dot investment to improve transit in illinois
 

http://durbin.senate.gov/public/inde...2-ddd9d7ab47d8

October 12, 2011

DURBIN ANNOUNCES $51 MILLION DOT INVESTMENT TO IMPROVE TRANSIT IN ILLINOIS

Chicago and Rock Island among recipients of funding
[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced today that several Illinois transit projects have been awarded a total of $51,657,400 in grants through the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The DOT grants include funding to upgrade transit facilities, study new transit routes and replace aging buses and equipment with new fuel-efficient vehicles and cost-saving materials.

“Bringing new buses with more capacity and cleaner emissions to cities throughout Illinois, improves the quality of life for all residents – even those that don’t rely on public transportation,” Durbin said. “Investing in this infrastructure today will contribute to the long-term economic growth of these areas in the future.”

The following investments in Illinois’ transit infrastructure were made under this announcement:

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Chicago: $30,000,000 in funding for the purchase of sixty-foot hybrid diesel-electric public transit buses to replace a like amount of forty-foot conventional diesel powered buses that are beyond their useful lives. Hybrid diesel-electric buses achieve at least 20 percent greater fuel efficiency than standard diesel buses, which save fuel dollars while promoting cleaner air. Each sixty-foot bus replaces an average of 78 passenger cars, helping to ease traffic congestion in neighborhoods served by the CTA. This project was selected on a competitive basis through the 2011 State of Good Repair Program.

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Chicago: $6,000,000 in funding to make accessibility improvements at the Wilson Red Line Station which is served by four bus routes that together they provide direct service to 55,275 people. The project includes a new elevator control room and rail maintenance room, a new elevator inside the main station house at street level, as well as street modifications and exterior rehabilitation. This project was selected on a competitive basis through the 2011 Bus Livability Program.

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Chicago: $2,000,000 in funding to conduct a study along the Chicago Lakefront Corridor to determine the feasibility and appropriate level of investment for high capacity transit connections in the 24-mile corridor from Howard Street to 103rd Street. The route is currently served by 18 CTA bus routes carrying 109,000 weekday passengers on congested roadways. Along with a need to address congestion in the corridor Communities in the study area need rapid and reliable transit service to provide convenient access to Central Business District as well as job centers outside of the central area. This project was selected on a competitive basis through the 2011 Alternatives Analysis Program.

Pace – Suburban Bus Division of the RTA, Arlington Heights: $5,075,000 in funding to replace obsolete emergency generators for its garage facilities. The current generators are between 17 and 26 years old and are obsolete. This project was selected on a competitive basis through the 2011 State of Good Repair Program.

Rock Island County Metropolitan Mass Transit District, Rock Island: $2,082,400 in funding to build a transportation hub in downtown Rock Island. The proposed 1,600 square-foot building will accommodate 10 buses at any given time and will include a lobby and restrooms. The current transfer hub is much smaller and has no bus berths for transferring passengers outside traffic lanes, greatly impeding traffic flow. This project was selected on a competitive basis through the 2011 Bus Livability Program.

Rock Island County Metropolitan Mass Transit District, Moline: $3,000,000 in funding to replace buses in the MetroLINK fleet that are beyond their useful lives with clean-diesel and compressed natural gas buses. This project was selected on a competitive basis through the 2011 State of Good Repair Program.

Illinois Department of Transportation, Statewide: $3,500,000 in funding for the Illinois Department of Transportation to replace vehicles in rural transit agency fleets that are beyond their useful lives. This project was selected on a competitive basis through the FY 2011 State of Good Repair Program.

Crain's Chicago Business, Greg Hinz

CTA floats no-fare-hike budget that requires huge union concessions

As far as I'm concerned, with "leadership" like Mr. Kelly, I'd be perfectly fine tolerating a strike for as long as it took to break the union. In any other context, what they threaten would qualify as extortion - particularly when it's threatened against the general public.

I'm not sure what the union actually thinks Plan B might be besides more layoffs of their membership at this point. Claypool clearly has the backing of the mayor who isn't likely to capitulate to the CTA unions given the battles he has ahead with other city unions.

^^^ Yeah, I don't think the union gets it. Daley isn't mayor anymore, Rahm's not going to put up with this shit. I'm sure he'll crack some skulls if they try to push back. You can tell Gabe Klein is telling Rahm to do this. He's probably making the very argument that we've outlined here: fare hikes will reduce ridership and therefore revenue. They are counter productive. The real problem is the bloodsucking union preventing any sort of progress from occurring.

I will enjoy watching Rahm dismantle these idiots almost as much as I will enjoy him "keeping the protesters in line" during the NATO-G20 event...

Chicago Proposes “Congestion Fee” On Parking to Fund Transit


Read More: http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/10/1...-fund-transit/

Well some might not care any more, but after talking about it for months on end construction has re-started on the UP-North bridge replacement project. There has been a crane at Sunnyside and Ravenswood now for a couple of weeks and when I walked by today, there were steel beams, lane closures, a whole mess of ties, and workers setting up a bunch of hydraulic lines. Eight years to go. :cheers:

Chicago's 'Congestion Fee' Gets Chilly Reception


Read More: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/21/141595...illy-reception




http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011...319263549&s=51

Crustiest Station No More!
Wilson El To Get $135 Million Overhaul

http://www.uptownupdate.com/2011/11/...son-el-to.html

135 million? Doesn't that seem a bit excessive for an el station?

Not when you consider the complexity of the project. They will need to rebuild the elevated structures to allow enough platform width for elevators. Hopefully it will be a proper express/local station like Belmont and Fullerton - actually, it will hopefully have a full canopy.

The weird thing is that this is all money down the drain if CTA decides to build a subway for the North Main project. My guess is that the subway was always a pipe dream option, though. The mere fact that this project is progressing tells me that CTA will probably go for the cheap "refurbishment 4-track" option.

Side note: apparently Chicagoans coined the phrase "pipe dream", as the first printed usages of the phrase occurred in Chicago newspapers around 1890...

I thought the same thing. Morgan is being built for $35mm~ ...one possible explanation that crossed my mind was that it could possibly involve the proposals in the RPM project. Thee of the six "options" involved serious changes to how an elevated station at Wilson would function. All three called for Wilson to become a Red/Purple transfer station with a secondary entrance off of Sunnyside.

Just a thought...

Ah ok, well that makes sense, thanks. I always get suspicious when I hear figures like the here in Chicago!

Better article from Crains:

Alright, so it looks like Claypool will pursue a piecemeal approach to the Red Line project instead of the massive New Starts rebuild envisioned by the RPM studies. That makes a lot of sense, actually, and provides the opportunity for Chicago to receive New Starts for other stuff like the Red Line South.

Unfortunately, it looks like we'll be stuck with the awful Sheridan curve for the foreseeable future.

Not sure which 11 stations the article is referring to. I'm seeing:
Loyola
Wilson
Clark/Division

Possibly:
Cermak
North/Clybourn
Grand/State
if Rahm wants to claim those as a victory for his administration.

Articles mention that the stations between Cermak and 95th are in for an upgrade, but they were all just rebuilt 8 years ago. I guess Claypool could send in the Clean Team? :shrug: There are still 3 stations without elevators, too (87th, 63rd, Garfield).

Any word as to whether Purple Line would be able to access the new Wilson station?

I’m not sure what the relationship between this and RPM is—it either could be the first phase of a less-intensive version or a tie-over until a big Red-Purple Project happens (the transit equivalent of a road resurfacing). I’m starting to think it’s somewhere in between—they’re waiting on rebuilding the stretch north of Wilson, but this will essentially be lifted out of one of the Red-Purple alternatives. It looks like the subway and all its advantages—no Sheridan curve, no Ravenswood interlocking issues, track geometry good enough to eliminate the need for express tracks, stations not-exposed-to-the-weather, higher ridership—won’t be coming. If that’s the case, we’re either headed for the shorter-term refurbishment or one of new elevated structure scenarios between Ravenswood and Morse. I’ve heard bad stuff about the Red Line embankment, and given that the projected lifetime of the basic rehab option was only twenty years I’d hope they would go with one of the fuller rebuilds, but since (at least with transportation) Rahm seems focused on quick results I’m guessing we’re getting the basic rehab, one station/part of the embankment at a time.

Sheridan could still be widened some point in the future, though probably not without eminent domain—if that’s the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if it became a Red Line-only island platform, especially if Wilson gets Purple Line access.

I’m pretty sure the mention of refurbishing stations from Cermak to 95th was just a goof—they’re either planning or already working on slow zone-track-ballast work on the Dan Ryan.

this is a travesty especially when you contrast Chicago's much superior in-place transit infrastructure with that in LA for instance. LA is getting things done in the right way vis-a-vis Chicago when it comes to building promoting transit....I really realy hoped for the subway option; maybe it will still happen but doubtful

I am getting more and more disheartened with Chicago's place as an alleged major world city. We claim to be; but so much of what we do here is bush league more deserving of a place like Cleveland than alleged world city.

I'd kill for instance to have a transit system in Chicago as good as Barcelona:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...x-Met2.svg.png

or Madrid:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ro_Map.svg.png

Can't really compare our transit system to those cities because even central Chicago is only about 1/2 as dense as the parts of Madrid or Barcelona served by their respective metros.

So not only do they have more taxpayers per track mile, they have more riders per track mile. Then the requirements for "safety" or disabled access and whatnot aren't as burdensome in Spain. They still mostly have elevators, and are as safe as US systems, but the federal requirements here are of the sort that greatly increase costs (by nearly double).

Given our present density, BRT is probably our best hope for increased rapid transit outside of the core. We might be able to get a little extra - maybe a Clinton Street subway, or maybe a circulator subway between the N Michigan Ave corridor and the West Loop, but outside of that we don't have anywhere near the necessary density to be building major rail projects.

The best long-term hope would probably be to start making destination centers outside of the Loop that are dense and attractive and on existing rail lines, and then start connecting those centers at some point in the future. If the Midway area were designated a dense low-rise (due to the airplanes) commercial district, something in Grand Crossing or Chatham, something near Jefferson Park, dedication to building up the commercial aspects of Uptown in a dense way, and the edge of Austin and Garfield Park, continued densification in Hyde Park, and you'd have decentralized areas that could then justify rail connections between them. Then allow Western between Foster and 79th to be built out at DX densities, and you might eventually be able to make a case for a Western subway.

Perhaps. Still seems like a huge amount of money for just one station. Back when I was still in university, an entire state of the art academic building went up for $25 million. I realize transportation has its own challenges, but still. I can't help but think about how much was poured into the Brown Line project, which ultimately still is plagued by problems and shoddy construction issues only a couple years later. Should be interesting to see the renderings.

The Brown line capacity expansion project was $530mm and involved work on 18 of the 19 stations, 16 of which were nearly or totally rebuilt... the only real screw up was the wood selection for the decking.

source_chicago-l.org

^ One benefit of the subway option for the Red Line is that the CTA can actually sell the ROW to private developers. That doesn't exist for the other options. I wonder if that has ever been discussed at any of the meetings?