^^ That shouldn't be too hard to do. Mies' shed isn't very big, the stairs could easily just shift to the north a little bit.

rest in link

More in link

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Speaking of major changes in local rail infrastructure ...

Obama Administration + public works to heal recession = CREATE finally gets some serious funding ?

I'm posting the article to ask a question: What are we doing wrong? How can NY/NJ get together nearly $9 Billion ($3 Billion of federal funds) for a single tunnel and the CTA rejoices when it gets a few hundred million to renovate an entire line? As a transit novice, I'm just not clear why the disparity... but it's seriously annoying.

http://enr.construction.com/news/oth...SMContentSet=0

:hell: :hell: :hell:

I'm sure the answer here is simple: politics.

Taft

..

.....a "single commuter rail tunnel" .....but under the Hudson river !!!!!!! ...it's about 2 miles across the Hudson at that point then it has to get deep into Manhatten.......no surprise that it costs that much.....

New York has political will behind its transportation projects. Chicago, meanwhile, has only a bunch of planners behind its transportation projects.

When was the last time planners went to Washington and brought home the pork?

Politics has a lot to do with it. When Nelson Rockefeller put the bridges under the MTA umbrella, he not only took away most of Robert Moses' power: he gave an immense and fairly reliable source of funding for multi-modal regional transportation.

Basically, imagine if all Chicago area tollroads had double or triple the toll rates, there was a commuter toll to drive downtown from outside the city limits , and all that money could back bonds to pay for transportation (both road and transit). It's not that the money isn't there in this region, it's that it's not mobilized to pay for infrastructure. Illinois Tollway is under political pressure to keep tolls as low as possible for non-commercial drivers at all times (aside from the tollway simply not being under a regional transportation umbrella), and there are no convenient large bodies of water separating the region's main employment center from the bulk of the population.

Good news on the HOT lanes, perhaps the first step towards a fully functional and reliable BRT system linking suburban business parks. Man the tribune commentators are really tearing into this concept. Some of them are pretty ignorant, but none the less its building support for blago's removal from office. :)

The bulk of complaints around construction headaches, but those should be minimal. If you look at the schematic of how the Green Lanes will be set up, it's really just some green paint and some I-Pass towers. The I-Pass towers will be set up in the center barrier and cantilever over the traffic lanes, like a traffic light. A double-solid line will separate the Green Lanes from normal traffic. Green Lanes will not be installed on 80/90 in the Southland, where they would make little sense due to the heavy volume of truck traffic. I disagree with putting these HOT lanes on the Northwest Tollway (i.e. Addams) which is only 6 lanes wide, and will be reduced to 2 regular lanes each way after this.

Really, this isn't that complicated or expensive. The lofty "Congestion Relief Phase II" program has a huge pricetag of $1.2 billion, but most of that money is going towards the two massive new interchanges.

Oh, I'm not surprised, either. I'm jealous! Just think of the improvements to the Metra/Pace/CTA that could be bought with 9 billion. My head reels.

Thanks for the info, Viva. That confirms my suspicions. I read the Trib and NYT every day and get the sense that even though NY has its problems, their political system isn't nearly as dysfunctional as ours here in IL. I think sensible transportation funding is just one area where we could improve greatly by having real leadership in Sprigfield and in Cook County. I'll just keep dreaming (and voting for fresh, ambitious voices).

Taft

^ I gather the Chicago area could accomplish some portion of an equivalent if the CTA/Metra/Pace management were folded together under the RTA umbrella, and if the Governor somehow also put the Chicago area tollways under the RTA's control

In theory, yes, but acheiving those includes a million little what-ifs along the way. I'd disagree with Taft that NYC's political culture is significantly less dysfunctional than ours (to wit: the City's recent humiliating failure in passing congestion pricing). New York has the MTA for a million reasons, and many of them are beyond the technically superior solution to regional infrastructure, involving rather personal idiosyncracies (e.g. Rockefeller v. Moses, Moses' prior leadership and development of the toll bridge cash cows under the Triborough umbrella, etc.).

Of course, all of the above does come down to New York having had several political leaders who could seriously get things done, working tirelessly and intelligently towards achieving their aims: Not only Rockefeller and Moses, but also LaGuardia, FDRoosevelt, & Al Smith, to name a few.

In fairness, Chicago has been "blessed" with two Daleys who could get things done in a serious way - but we've generally not benefited from the same sort of leadership in Springfield (either in the assemblies or the governor's mansion) as NYC has from Albany. Part of that is chance, part is geography, and part is demographics, with Chicago having a smaller percentage of our state's population than NYC has in New York.

It's an interesting topic, and I won't ramble any further so as not to threadjack. But I can recommend a reading list for those interested.

I understand what you're saying but in today's news, MTA is raising fares and cutting service. Not a good situation out in NYC.

Also very frustrating from an Illinois perspective is how often the state and municipalities drag their feet on matching federal funds.

Wahoo!!! :banana: :boogy: :cucumber: :eeekk: :awesome:

CTA Completes Three-Track Operation at Fullerton Station

I can't wait to ride the red line to work on Tuesday morning. No getting stuck behind a purple or brown line train that gets slowed down due to stopping at Diversey. :)

Hit up Fullerton on Saturday on my way downtown. Looks tight. The brown line trains were switching tracks south of Diversey though, so the red line trains were still backing up before Diversey. I imagine that's something they can fix quickly though.

It only took 15-16 minutes to travel from Addison to the loop on the red line this morning. We cruised right along from Belmont to Fullerton - I felt like jumping for joy. :)