A 16th street station is much better than a 18th because:
(1) it puts it exactly halfway between the stations at Roosevelt and Cermak
(2) it can serve both the Orange AND the green lines
(3) it can have a transfer to the St Charles Air Line, which I think we all agree is an important future transit corridor.

I think there would be room to do it if the flyover for the inbound leg of the Orange Line over the Green Line were rebuilt a few hundred feet further south. This would leave enough space between where the Orange and Green line merge and where the ramp to the subway diverges to take out the middle two tracks, and put in an island platform in their place. There should be room for an approx. 25 foot wide island platform there without moving the outer tracks at all. This is certainly up to modern standards, leaving plenty of space for elevators and escalators. The station entrance could be built under the viaduct on either or both sides of 16th.

It moves the point where the green and orange share tracks a little further to the south but I doubt that would affect capacity in any meaningful way. The only property taken would be mostly vacant parcels where the flyover is rebuilt near 18th & Wabash. Most of the flyover could be built without disrupting service; there would just need to be a short period of single-tracking the Orange line while the new flyover is connected and the old one disconnected. The scope of the single tracking would be from the crossovers under the Dan Ryan to the crossovers at 16th street. Orange and Green line trains would all experience some additional delays during construction, but who cares.

Something like this.

More expensive than what they're doing at Cermak? Sure. But worth it, IMO.

From the Sun-Times:

Downtown bus-rapid-transit project pushed back until 2015

Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld said it's taking "longer than expected to complete the design" of the project and consult with building owners and stakeholders.

Clark and LaSalle is open. I really like it. Tried to take some better photos with my phone but was promptly asked to stop. You'll have to see it yourself or wait for some official ones from the CTA.

Haha thanks I was gonna head over there tomorrow... still wanna check it out.

Who asked you to stop taking photos? The CSA? Did you happen to get an employee number? CTA's photography policy:

The general public is permitted to use hand-held cameras to take photographs, capture digital images, and videotape within public areas of CTA stations and transit vehicles for personal, non-commercial use.

I told the attendant it was allowed but he said something along the lines of selfies only and there's fine print somewhere. I know the policy but I wasn't going to argue. The guy was at least polite about it and as an employee and I had to respect his orders for the time being.

http://i.imgur.com/4ovtnUs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GTp2Xa7.jpg

^ I like this. It's still got the cheesiness of the "skyline tiles" and the multi-colored granite floors, but the wavy ceiling and the red tile wall are very nice and more simple.

The floorplan of the space is nice, too - that curving wall running back to the elevator is a nice touch and the sight lines are wide open, with an attendant booth dead center. I just wish CTA didn't insist on such massive, bulky turnstiles and security fencing. Most of the more enlightened metro systems have switched to a low-slung faregate, with an attendant right nearby for surveillance.

Bike Lane Backups
 

Voice Of The PEOPLE, Chicago Tribune, Friday, July 4, 2014

While understand the need for bike lanes in the city, what the department of transportation has decided to do to Broadway between Foster and Montrose is out of control. That stretch of road used have two lanes of traffic in both directions just the rest of Broadway going north, but the city has decided to concede one lane to bikes and to create a common turn lane for both directions. What has ensured is constant backups in that stretch of eight blocks. If you are heading northbound, the traffic in the area around Argyle that normally would block the far right lane now blocks the entire street. Heading southbound, the immediate merge at Foster creates a backup that nearly doubles the time it takes to navigate through those eight blocks.

--Michael Birn, Chicago

Cry me a river - if you want to blast past Uptown, get on Lake Shore Drive. The whole point of the streetscaping/bike lanes is to reduce traffic speeds and throughput on Broadway. Drivers are traveling too fast and it really hurts the attractiveness of the area for businesses and for the pedestrians who patronize them.

It's ridiculous that there are so many vacant storefronts, empty lots and drivethrus so close to rapid transit stations.

I do hope Broadway can get some landscaped medians with trees eventually. That will cut the perceptual width of the street in half and make it seem less windswept and barren.

Looks like the mezzanine level is finished at Clark & Division? I assume the platform level was being improved as well? Is that finished or nearing completion?

The platform is partially renovated. I didn't pay the fare to go downstairs, but it resembles the one at Lake. IIRC the ceiling mosaic is a little different.

http://www.chicago-l.org/stations/im...ke-state07.jpg

Nice to see something moving forward. Metra had a plan to seek Federal funding for a UP-W improvement, but ultimately UP decided to fund the needed improvements on its own with state assistance.

Metra still needs to rebuild A2 Interlocking, though... this was part of the now defunct UP-W project.

Is this legit....

-----

CrossRail Chicago

http://www.midwesthsr.org/crossrail-chicago

New, electrified express trains linking O’Hare to the Loop, McCormick Place and the University of Chicago.

New, cross-town commuter trains linking the south suburbs to the northwest suburbs.

Setting the stage for high-speed rail and more than $13 billion in economic impacts.

.....




http://www.midwesthsr.org/sites/defa...il-chicago.jpg

not legit

Then that amounts to just an advocacy group that asks for help to make it happen.

Yeah, pretty much. It's just an idea at this point.

It may be included in the next round of CMAP's official project list (GOTO 2040), which will make it an "official" proposal that can compete for Federal funding if politicians wish to pursue it.

At that point, it will be "legit" but still very unlikely unless it has a strong political backer. Given the regional nature of the proposal, it will likely need several strong political backers from city and suburbs. It's actually pretty similar to the plan that the Liberals just unveiled for GO Train.

A new video was posted showing progress on the Englewood Flyover. Looking good, do more trains get shifted to the LaSalle St. Station as soon as it's done?

• Video Link

^ No... a second flyover is needed at 75th and Parnell before the Southwest Service trains will shift to LaSalle.

The only immediate benefit for the Englewood Flyover is that Amtrak trains on the lower level (Wolverine, Pere Marquette, Blue Water, Capitol Limited, Lake Shore Limited, Hoosier State, Cardinal) will experience fewer delays coming into/out of Chicago.

A third flyover at Grand Crossing will allow the Saluki and City of New Orleans to go through Englewood Junction as well.

This is research I alluded to a couple years ago when I gave a tiny bit of help to Ed Zotti - I hope more of it is publicized after the meeting, it's really quite fascinating.

New moves pondered to unclog downtown transit

Ed Zotti the Straight Dope guy?

Looks like it.

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ed-zotti/4/888/b29

Here's an idea: given the new implications of the redevelopment of River North as an entertainment hotspot and tech hub, what if we did LRT on Carroll Ave, but rezoned the entire length of it as a street as well. Essentially allow all the buildings along that stretch to build another level of retail in the basement facing Carroll. However, leave the entire stretch of Carroll as a pedestrian mall with a tram/trolley moving slowly down the center of it? It might be impossible to mesh with the current loading situation, but it could turn into an incredible nightlife district if you could build proper access to it from the upper streets and also create a reason to get people down there, which is what Trump's river retail suffers from.

Imagine if you essentially had a cut and cover subway that was never covered and was also wide enough to support retail and foot traffic along the sides. Maybe pave all of it with cobble stone and allow lots of sidewalk cafes. Does anything like that exist anywhere? Allowing pedestrian and LRT traffic to mingle at low speeds?

Or hell, maybe cut out the transit portion all together and turn it into the "low line". Make it a linear park/plaza lined by restaurants and even allow it to connect to the lower streets to the East and encourage buildings to convert their basement spaces to retail a la Billy Goat?

Why would you do that? The whole point is to speed up transit, but a tram on a pedestrian mall would be slower than the buses we have now.

I'm interested to see what Zotti's proposal is. Maybe he even got Cecil Adams' input!

Presumably he's proposing this:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago...nt?oid=3473194

^ That's one part of the concept, but it sounds like he's also proposing some kind of downtown light rail.

Is the city (CDOT, IDOT, CTA) actually interested in doing anything soon or is this a fact finding mission?

I'd rather put dedicated transit on Carroll Street and cap it and put retail along the top level. It'd be a lot more welcoming to more pedestrians, and it'd be just as effective and tie into other streets a lot better. It might not have the mystery a lower level retail corridor would, but it would be better in almost every other way.

If you did that, and if Wolf Point actually became interesting, the Merchandise Mart could even conceivably create some outward-facing retail along Field Drive and continue the retail all the way from Wolf Point to State Street along Carroll.

I'm curious: has ridership dropped since the bullshit Ventra went into effect? I haven't used the train or busses since the CTA stopped using the normal fare cards. I refuse to pay extra for that dumbass shit, and there are many people I know who feel the same. I'd rather drive.

Anyway, I know a fair amount of people boycotting the Ventra shit, and I'm curious what ridership has been these last few months?

^ Ridership is what it has been - up on rail, down on most buses. There's no indication that Ventra has had much of an effect either way.

Also, you know you don't actually have to pay any extra, right?

?? It costs the same. There were big problems last November through January at the latest, but it's been perfectly fine and fast with ventra for the past 6 months.

You seem to be writing this from last fall.....or never take ventra.....or just read the headlines or had bad experiences last fall and never gave up that mindset.

As far as ridership, the latest I saw is bus rides are down 3% from last year and rail is up a very healthy 8% from last year.

Ventra is a huge improvement and actually sped up the buses a little.

Weird. I fucking hate Ventra. And no, it costs more. It's $3 now. And they took away transfers it seems. The two, and last, times I reluctantly used that bullshit my money vanished off my card. I took a train, tried to get on a bus, said I owed more. It's a bullshit scam. I no longer use the CTA until they get rid of that stupid shit and go back to the old way.

It used to be you could stretch $5 for a long time. And when you'd get on a bus and owed money, it'd only be like 50 cents... now that stupid Ventra scam just says you owe more without telling you how much.

Still cost $2 for a bus, $2.25 for a train.

I think you are just uninformed, yes Ventra had its problems at inception but most of those problems have been resolved and it is superior to the old Chicago Card.

you're wrong, as has been pointed out elsewhere. it is still $2.25 for train rides.

also, ventra has vastly improved to where i don't even think about it anymore and now think it is better than chicago card.

get a grip.

I'm not talking about the Chicago card, which I also never used. I'm pissed they stopped using regular fare cards.

Also, why did my $5 run out after one bus and one train? They clearly are charging full fare on transfers. Whatever. I've used that dumb shit Ventra twice. And you have to pay extra for the card, so it IS more than it was... never again. I'll drive until it goes back to the regular CTA fare cards that were just fine and used for years.

There's free parking on Addison and Ogden anyway, so I don't even need it for games anyway.

As in like the printed paper cards you get out of a machine. Those are $3 for a single fare. $2.25 + 25¢ for 2 transfers + 50¢ limited use fee = $3. They don't say so but that's probably to cover the added cost of the cards, which have complicated RFID circuits and antenna rather than inexpensive magnetic stripes like in the old tickets. Hold one up to the light, you can see the metal antenna coiled around inside the paper. However, it's effectively a sucker tax to deincentivize buying low-value cards frequently vs high value cards infrequently.

If you get a plastic ventra card there's no extra fee and you can reload it for free online or at the kiosks. Just don't opt-in to the service where you can use it as a regular debit card and you wont get any fees.

The rollout was botched and terrible, but now that it's here I haven't had any problems with it other than the fact that it should say "hold here" rather than "tap here" because it takes a second or two to register the card.

McCormick Place busway
 

I apologize that this has nothing to do with new transit development, but I'm trying to find information on how the McCormick busway works--where it's accessed, how often it runs, is it part of the CTA. I did a few google searches and I can't find any concrete information. Anybody in the know?

Transfers still exist, if you felt you had a problem using the card you probably should have called the hot line instead of assuming, give it a chance!

The north entrance is at ground level beneath Randolph St. just east of the NICTD platforms of the Millennium Park station. then it runs along the east side of the depressed Metra ROW to about 9th St. where it crosses under the MED tracks to the west side of the ROW. the south entrance is Under the Stevenson, just east of King Drive. You can follow it here: https://goo.gl/maps/s3gLE

Not to belabor the point but I really don't see how Ventra is better than the Chicago Plus card. They screwed me out of $60 when it first went online by nixing my pass half way through the month and blaming me. I will say that their equipment seems to function better now at the turnstiles but I still have issues with them reading my card slow or just not working at all sometimes. Mostly when I'm leaving the loop after work it seems like. Where as I never had an issue with my Chicago Plus card not reading or working.

I was just curious if folks had concrete examples as to how Ventra is better than the Chicago Card system?

Anybody have pics of the old corridor under the Trib and Trump. Not sure I have ever seen it.

concrete example, huh?

how about the fact that ventra simply and actually works. i had 4 different chicago card pluses crap out on me on an average of 6-8 months over two and a half years. after the 4th one stopped working for no fucking reason what-so-ever, i cancelled my chicago card account and went back to using the old fashioned magnetic dip cards until the CTA rolled out ventra last year.

the roll-out of ventra was totally FUBAR, nobody will deny that, but i have to say that i am impressed with ventra thus far for the fact that my ventra card has now lasted for longer than 8 months without crapping out for no reason, which is more than i can say of any of the shitty-ass chicago card pluses that i had.

oh how i hated the chicago card. :hell:

HA! Nice. I would say that is a good example. Looks like our roles are reversed with the different systems. I don't care for Ventra but I will be using it until I can simply pay wit ha pass on my phone. Assuming that isn't Ventra as well.

Never in my life did I own or use a "Chicago card"

Thought they were stupid when they were introduced too.

There was nothing wrong with the REGULAR ass fare cards. The MTA uses them just fine. Why does our system, which is 1/10 the size (at best) and only a fraction as busy as theirs, need some stupid private company 'fast pass' bullshit???

And I was fine when it was Ventra OR traditional fare cards.

Oh and I too was screwed out of about $15 total dollars dread across a handful of old cards. Fuck Ventra; that was my only point.

the MTA cards are swipe cards much faster then dip cards. Either way I bet they are looking to modernize their system as well. I think BART is the most antiquated.

my chicago card worked for years without issues and my ventra card is working just fine as well

not sure what all you people having problems are doing wrong

I don't take public transportation very often (public transit is for suckers anyways) but I recently picked up the Ventra card and found it works great. . . given the increased cost of parking downtown, I have used the bus a few times when heading from my place in the east Loop to my buddy's house in the south Loop. . .

. . .