I'm with you on the Moderne stations.... anything to slow the progression of Daniel Coffey's hideous 'skyline' tile...

That plan has been approved.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2...l#.VEfIMSi8Y10

Mr. D, why is GO electrifying at great expense as part of the headway reduction that you're talking about?

Yes, in a limited fashion. It may take a long time for NS to negotiate individually with the many property owners in the area, but they are rebuilding all the viaducts along 51st St and constructing a connection ("Echo") at 58th St between their two lines as a precursor to the eventual yard expansion.

http://www.nscorp.com/content/dam/in...day-slides.pdf (p. 54)

Also worth noting that Norfolk Southern's abandoned line along 58th St will be donated to the city in exchange for some city-owned parcels near 61st and State. Community organizers want to turn this into a trail like the Bloomingdale, although I'm guessing it will be more basic like the Weber Spur on the far North Side.

All they say in the executive summary is

• There are important journey time savings that come from electrification. Over the longest trips, journey time savings would be between 5 and 10 minutes per trip. This reduction in journey time will benefit existing riders and attract new ones.
• There are significant operating savings associated with electrification, up to $18 million per year for the recommended option.
• Electrification will be a significant step towards achieving the long term goals and objectives of The Big Move for a GO Express Rail service. Express Rail is a vision for even faster and more frequent service, with trains operating in the peak period as frequently as every five minutes.

Besides having their eye on headways that are unimaginable for the Chicago region, I suspect that Toronto has the advantage of hydroelectric resources that make electric power much cheaper than here.

Also, I believe Toronto and Ontario have Governments that are more oriented towards serving their public -- rather than the S I L L Y, Sibling-Rivalry, Feifdom oriented, Nepotism driven so-called "Transit Agencies" that we are cursed with here in NE Illinois!!

This is the first I've heard of this path. I always wondered what the point of that tiny little path that crosses over peterson was. It makes much more sense connected to a much larger bike path. We have got to keep tying all these paths together because we could really make something special out of it given all the surplus rail infrastructure we have in this city.

http://justyna.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8...7566970c-800wi

From here: http://justyna.typepad.com/bike_chic...ike-trail.html

I doubt that anyone who's watched the GTA's "subway wars" over the last 20 years would share your opinion.

Nor does your name-calling suggest how Illinois's agencies should be structured differently. "Throw the bums out" is not a philosophy of governance.

People from Chicago always assume problems are unique to them. I used to live in Northern California, and the transit agencies there make ours look absolutely impeccable. Google the Diridon family, for starters.

I believe there's only ~10 properties left, maybe less. They've already started doing some utility work.

Up north, it's tricky because of multiple jurisdictions (Skokie, Lincolnwood, Evanston, Chicago, etc - and each one has to negotiate individually with UP and ComEd to get the rights and apply for funding individually. CMAP is helping coordinate though.

In Chicago, the bulk of funding for ped/bike projects goes to dense neighborhoods near the core... these outer fringes just are a lower priority, especially because the rail-trails usually require expensive bridge rehab.

^^^ Chicago is adding so many awesome little projects like this. Ultimately these railroad trails through relatively urban suburbs offer a bit of "place making" for what was originally a fairly bland, but not particularly offensive from an urban planning perspective, postwar suburban district. It's nice to see projects like this in what I would call "salvageable suburbs" like Skokie, Lincolnwood, etc.. It's almost as if these areas are finally reaching maturity and beginning to adopt the more granular, layered, older, feel you find in the city. The reuse of obsolete infrastructure contributes greatly to this feel.

It should be, Congress would be a lot more functional if it were...

Why are the headways unimaginable? Have you seen Toronto's outlying GO stations? They don't have the constellation of railroad suburbs that Chicago does, so there is almost no existing transit-oriented development. Most of these stations are massive park-and-rides like Metra's Rte 59 stop in Aurora, surrounded by industrial parks and culdesac subdivisions. Multifamily development, if it exists, are suburban-style midrise complexes - not exactly transit oriented.

The only exception is Toronto's Lakefront Corridor, which does have a few downtowns along it (Port Credit, Hamilton, etc).

Some of their politicians are talking about running GO on five-minute headways. That hardly seems likely, even for Canada, so I wonder if these statements are more pandering to voters in suburban ridings than actual transit planning, much like Rob Ford's subway fantasies.

On the Weber Branch trail, it's important to note that a lot of the ROW is now gone, sold off to various private entities all around Lincolnwood Town Center and in southwest Evanston.

Wasn't the opinion of just about all of the Studies about our "governance" that the 4 "Agencies" should be combined into one?
(a version of "Throw the bums out")

Didn't we all witness the Alex Clifford debacle (I wonder if he's been able to wash all of that patented NE Illinois Cesspool Smell
off of himself yet) of all the rats (bums) abandoning ship before they got deservedly prosecuted? I'm name calling because they
embarrassed us (and me - I do PAY my Taxes) in front of the entire Nation.

BUT maybe things are getting better! (see next post)

RTA, Metra to Hold Joint 2015 Budget Hearings
 

http://www.rtachicago.com/index.php?...014&Itemid=128

The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and Metra will hold eight joint hearings to gather public input on their proposed 2015 budgets in November. In addition, the RTA will hold an individual budget hearing in December to offer the public a chance to learn about and provide input on the proposed RTA 2015 budget, two-year regional financial plan, and five-year regional capital program......


I guarantee you that I will be there lobbying!

Chicago’s Plan Commission Adopts RTA-Funded Study
 

http://www.rtachicago.com/index.php?...014&Itemid=128

The Regional Transportation Authority is pleased to announce the City of Chicago Plan Commission’s adoption of the RTA-funded Metra Typology study. A typology study is used to create systems for putting things into groups according to how they are similar; in essence, it is the study of how things can be divided into different types......

Thanks! That investor presentation has some great nerd/foamer images - slide 52 is the first time I can remember seeing a satellite or aerial photo with freight lines superimposed; I feel smarter just from looking at it. The slides after it are really interesting too.

Per schwerve's post and some Tribune articles I found from last year, it seems the property acquisitions have been moving along pretty well - the notable finding regarding timing seems to be that they apparently plan this as a phased 10-year expansion project, so there may be little visible progress for a while. And once they vacate all the relevant streets (will utilities have to be rerouted?) and close off the site, maybe we will have to rely solely on the occasional satellite photo update to keep tabs on how their buildout is going.

One very interesting question is how canyonization of Garfield Blvd will be mitigated - whether they will minimize the extent of viaducts over it (leaving essentially separate north and south yards, with one or two connecting/thru tracks), and whether there will be sheer walls along both sides or some kind of landscaping.

It's great they are reconstructing the 51st St mega-viaduct; that should be a kind of interesting little project to follow. There are so many decaying viaducts all across the city; one wonders what motivates a railroad to spend money on certain improvements, and one wonders whether some of them (and which ones) will sit forlorn well through this century. But streetscapes can look so much better when they are finally carried out as we see along Ravenswood (though the old stuff is often kinda sexy too).

The Englewood Flyover opened yesterday, at least ceremonially. Surprised there wasn't more hoopla about this. I'm looking forward to the next YouTube video from the admiring commuter's vantage point. (Dick Durbin's office has proudly posted a video of him speaking at yesterday's dedication ceremony.) Edit - found a pre ceremony video, but they didn't seem to be running at full speed yet.

The viaduct clearance there seems awfully tight - double stacked freight trains can run underneath Metra now, but what if specs or needs increase in the future?

The viaduct has a maximum 1.5% grade so every additional foot of clearance at the overpass requires 133 feet of extra viaduct.

I certainly hope requirements don't increase in the future. Containers have had the same dimensions for 50 years, standardization is the whole point. The cost of modifying bridges and overpasses across the U.S. would be colossal, in addition to the handling yards, massive container ships, etc.

Given the tunnels NS has between here and the East Coast, a floating-girder viaduct in Chicago would be the least of its problems.

The GO electrification study mentions a number of benefits but it also demonstrates that without them the case can still be made on an economic basis. Electric rates may be low in Ontario making the economic case strong than some areas but that just means we'd be looking at different time frames.

Chicago police to check CTA passengers for explosives
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...024-story.html

Starting next month, Chicago police officers will be swabbing the bags of some riders entering some CTA rail stations to make sure the bags don't have explosives, Chicago Police announced Friday.......

But what's the point if the time frame for recovery of the project cost is longer than the life of the asset? GO's own figures give a payback period of 100 years, even with cheap hydro and no cost overruns on construction.

If electrification costs billions and billions of dollars, reduces running times very little, and saves almost nothing in energy costs or emissions . . . why is it so necessary to the future of Metra?

New trains? That's not where your Metra fare hike will go
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/o...023-story.html

Let's set the record straight right up front: That 10.8 percent fare increase Metra wants for next year is not about buying new trains......

No CTA fare hike, 'slight' service bump in 2015
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...026-story.html

The CTA will freeze fares for the second straight year in 2015 and offer a slight increase in Blue and Orange line service aimed at easing crowding, under a proposed $1.44 billion budget that will be unveiled Monday......

According to Reddit they've started demolition at Wilson Red Line. Does anyone have any pics? I might head up that way myself in the next couple of days and snap a few if not.

^ I believe the Rokito's restaurant structure (or the one next to it) along Wilson has been reduced to rubble now, so it seems work has begun.


Call it my Panamax anxiety. The Panama Canal's allowed dimensions were going out of date after several decades, and this interesting NYT article outlines how shipping economics are driving evolution in sea cargo practically as fast as our smartphones are changing (nearly quadrupling the number of containers on the world's biggest ship in about 2 decades). Rail changes are orders of magnitude slower, given the hundreds or thousands of dimension-constrained points along a route to the coast, to be sure. But infrastructure we build now will still be operating in the 22nd Century.

Also I note how Indiana highways permit triple-tandem truck trailers, which must be rearranged into doubles just before entering Illinois (UPS does this at Hammond), and it makes me think that, analogously, intra-Chicago rail (like along the belt railway, or between classification yards, or something) could theoretically be built to different, superior specs to make more efficient use of space, if it were at all economical. It's a little fanciful, but a hundred years is a long time.

Well that gets into a bigger discussion about the responsiveness of our infrastructure investment. We are not building the infrastructure for today's need, let alone tomorrow's. You'd think the scarcity of money and political will would force governments to focus on the most urgent projects and those with the biggest return on investment, but instead it's a wedge for politicians to push their ill-conceived pet projects under the rubric of "something is better than nothing" (see the Illiana). Even the business community is starting to turn on that boondoggle.

There's an article in Crains today about how some of the original proponents of the Illiana are now against it. That highway is a very bad idea.

^ I think that's what ardecila was referring to.

Sigh.

Has anyone been here been to the Museum Campus transportation meetings?

I went to both, you can see my contribution here: http://www.civicartworks.com/project...opular&phase=1

Please register, and support the Idea!

my best museum campus suggestion is to finish block 37 superstation and route a shuttle from block 37 along the red line to the connector tracks south of roosevelt, thru a new subway tunnel to the museum campus. though in this town, this would probably never be seriously considered.

note: this does not negate the gray line proposal

I really like that super-streetcar idea. From Ogilvie, Canal to Roosevelt, then cut in front of the Field Museum to Museum Campus Drive and south to McCormick Place.

It doesn't have the usual problems of streetcar systems - confusing one-way couplets, mixed traffic, etc - and the route is a logical complement to existing rail lines with carefully-planned transfers. Unfortunately they call it a loop, which it should not be.

They call it a streetcar, but really it should be more like Houston's or SF's light rail systems, with widely placed stops, exclusive lanes, and sizable platforms with shelters/ticket machines. Something on par with the Parisian trams.

^To my surprise (I'm usually very skeptical about streetcars), a C-shaped route (Navy Pier-Ogilvie/Union-Museum Campus) makes a lot of sense to me, too. It seems the right use for the slightly higher capacity and the much higher visibility/attractiveness to visitors of streetcars.

One problem Jeff Sriver of CDOT noted, however, is the limited ROW on Roosevelt (State to Michigan). We already have trouble squeezing in the moving lanes, the bus zones, the pedestrian hordes, and bike lanes. Where will we find another 18 feet for dedicated streetcar lanes?

eminent domain the bustle on the apartment tower on the southwest corner of Roosevelt and Michigan, and part of the bp gas station as well as the two out buildings @ the jewels....

^Indeed, that was my immediate suggestion to him. Also that he'd have to stand firm in some PD meetings about the Crescent Heights property.

I do like those two outbuildings, they humanize what would otherwise be a soul-killing suburban strip mall right on top of the city's second-busiest rail hub. But yeah, that whole section of Roosevelt should be redeveloped. 18' of this is an acceptable sacrifice.

Red Line Extension
 

Does anyone know what the present working cost estimate is
for constructing the Red Line Extension from 95th to 130th?

I agree, however, the entire site should be redeveloped into a multi-use tower. There were rumors a few years ago that that was in the pipeline...

This doesn't seem to be the bottleneck here, but would completion of the Taylor Street bridge grease the decision at all? Then, head south on Wells-Wentworth. This might even be welcome by R Collection (e.g., elevator down to an adjoining grade level station), and could help avoid congestion or pedestrian issues at Delano. Figuring out how to rejoin Roosevelt is the trick, but you could instead continue under Roosevelt and use SCAL straight to the Lucas. This would even plant a seed for Riverside Park's development (and indeed the blank slate stage would be the best time to do such a thing). May the force be with this.

Speaking of which, is Taylor Street even going to happen any time this decade?

^ Possibly. CMK just bought the parcel south of River City, so if/when that gets developed, we may see what demands the city places on the project relative to the future Taylor bridge abutment. The city already worked with Southgate Market to construct the west abutment.

The more interesting question is whether the bridge needs to be operable. That would make sense, given the sailboat traffic on the South Branch, but would add millions to the price. CDOT has avoided operable bridges wherever possible - the new Division bridges will be fixed, and they have proposed a fixed bridge at Chicago in recent years.

Roosevelt is being put on a diet right there now isn't it? They're experimenting with elevated bike lanes and new types of lane configurations. It's been promising to me that it's getting attention from CDOT as its been a problematic traffic and pedestrian situation for a while.

I think a L (Train stations to Museum Campus) or C (same plus Navy Pier) would be pretty great for a number of reasons, one of them being that if they had a stop around Roosevelt and State/Wabash/Michigan it would make the South Loop a major dumping ground for tourists coming in by train or bus, because that would make it the "downtown" stop on such a line.

I've always wished there were an easy way for people coming into the two stations to get downtown. You're fresh off the amtrak or megabus, you want to get to your Loop hotel, what do you do? The L is useless to you, and nobody can figure out the buses. With an L-shaped streetcar track, that area of Roosevelt would be where you'd want to hop off, and with a C-shaped one it'd either be that or somewhere in River North (maybe they'd want it somewhere near Merchandise Mart to connect to the L there?).

Either way, it'd be a nice way to increase the foot population around Roosevelt and be a huge boon for the businesses that have been trickling in.

There's lots of political will behind some kind of big transit move in order to improve Museum Campus accessibility, so if we can get a bold move out of it that could improve the whole city I'm all for it.

The CMK parcel is way too small to trigger construction of a Taylor bridge, and the CMK parcel ends at the north edge of the Taylor ROW. It's the next parcel south that might trigger some movement.

A Taylor bridge will indeed have to be a moveable span, unless the Coast Guard is convinced that the South Branch should suddenly be downgraded like the North Branch (above North Avenue) was during the 20th Century.

Must an adjacent property really be the trigger? It would seem that booming development along Clark, as well as the British School and Roosevelt Collection, plus The Maxwell, etc, should be plenty adequate impetus for a bridge at Taylor. Alternatively, wouldn't a Wells extension (or rebuild down to Taylor) be a trigger?

Anyway, has the Coast Guard downgraded the North Branch anywhere south of North in the last or this century? Will the Division Street bridge along the North Branch (not the island canal) be fixed? There has been talk in these parts about the Chicago Ave bridge having aged as well. I'm not clear as to whether final decisions have been made about those. Developers now are wanting to replace the boat yard next to Kendall College with unrelated uses, so, for one, there may be no more recreational need to navigate with masts as far as Goose Island.

I was amazed at the traffic congestion headed east on Roosevelt through the S Loop yesterday. What a clusterfuck the city created, and for absolutely no good reason. Thanks a lot, Dearborn Park!

Yes, they are doing both Division Street bridges. Since people still need to access Goose Island they can only close one at a time. Both the Chicago Ave bridge over the river and the decrepit Halsted/Chicago viaduct are slated for replacement by 2017, IIRC.

^ By "fixed" I was referring to bridges being non-moveable, not to bridges being repaired (because they're to be replaced, not repaired). So the question in the second half of my post was whether any of those replacement bridges over the North Branch will be moveable in the light of any changes to government policy.

No. All three will be non-movable like the new Halsted bridge.