:cheers:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/sK...=w1312-h984-no


Last night at the under-renovation Garfield station. Notice some sparks flying in the background....

Has anyone on here ever ridden a bicycle to either of the major airports (MDW or ORD)? Either for fun or to actually catch a plane?

I feel like I read a streetsblog article on this, but I can't find it so it's possible I dreamed it up.

Anyway I doubt it's possible to easily bike to O'Hare. Midway would be easy but you'd probably end up locking your bike at the Orange Line station anyway...

Hey guys and gals out here in Sacramento we have Siemens they can build either electric or fast diesel-they built the sets for Florida's Brightline and they have the new contact with Illinois DOT, California's CalTrans and some other DOT's for new sets. Btw they build the new Charger locos-just something to think about..

No comments on the Red/Purple Line construction that is now officially announced?

It's good that it's finally starting. Hopefully the financing mechanism on the city end (transit TIF) proves successful and can be utilized more places.

The Belmont flyover is my personal favorite part of this since that was my old stop and not waiting for NB Brown line trains to clear Clark while my SB Red line train sits there is real good.

^ Yeah, I just hope that the lots demo'd for the Belmont Flyover don't sit vacant for decades.

It's hard to recreate urban fabric in our car-obsessed and NIMBY dominated world

One aspect I wasn’t aware of (though I’m guessing it’s always been part of the plan) is the construction of temporary stations. That way Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn, and Bryn Mawr can all be completely closed and rebuilt while major construction on the viaduct is underway. I just assumed they’d close Lawrence & Berwyn at the same time, forcing riders who use those stations to head north or south to the next station. Same for Argyle & Bryn Mawr. Since they’re constructing temporary stations, I’m wondering whether the entrances will be on the same streets as the current stations? Or perhaps a block further north or south since the mid point of 3 of those 4 stations is directly above the street they serve (excluding Berwyn where most of the platform is south of the street) and therefore a temporary station would need to be constructed above a different street to avoid overlap with the old station during reconstruction?

I’m looking forward to this overall project as I think the benefits are definitely worth it, though I’m most fearful the flyover will be a hulking concrete behemoth resembling a freeway overpass. I have near zero faith the CTA will succeed in creating something lighter/less over powering. Hopefully my concern is misplaced.

Garfield (Green line) is being rebuilt while kept mostly open (weekend/night closures, plus a few one-way closures). It's a bit of a pain to use (I used it this morning) but better than closing...

For reference. . .
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...211-story.html
https://wgntv.com/2018/12/12/cta-mov...econstruction/

. . .

The TOD zoning is supposed to expand to high ridership bus corridors, which has already been discussed before. But it looks like that number of corridors has expanded to 8. Nice to see

I wish the bus TOD expansion was pursued in concert with an actual plan to improve/speed up bus service. I know Western and Ashland have (or will soon) transit signal priority but what about the others. How about some all door boarding, physically separate bus lanes, improved dispatching and en route info to prevent bunching, and stop consolidation?

Indeed, the 55 could use some love to improve on-time performance for example. Plenty of room on Garfield Blvd for a bus lane or something...

Great, happy to hear it. Walsh and Fluor are both happy about it, too.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...ple-Rail-Lines

It's like a quarter or less of the width of an expressway overpass, I really don't understand the concern.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...212-story.html

Elon Musk's tunnel to O'Hare moves just a bit closer to reality


Elon Musk's planned tunneling project in Chicago, seemingly jeopardized when its biggest champion said he would not run for re-election, has taken an important step closer to building its promised transit route connecting downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport.


The Boring Co. is now midway through an environmental assessment, according to Tom Budescu, managing director of finance at the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, the organization charged with negotiating the contract on behalf of the city. Boring Co. was selected for the job this summer, an announcement that came with much fanfare, including a joint press conference with Musk and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. After the assessment is completed, the tunneling project will go to Chicago's City Council for review.


"We're feeling very confident that the project agreement is getting to the point of refinement," Budescu said at an Infrastructure Trust meeting on Tuesday.

"We're getting pretty far along in that process."

He said that Boring Co. was working with federal and local officials, including the Federal Highway Administration and the Chicago Department of Transportation, on the environmental review mandated by U.S. law.

Because the tunnel is likely to go under an interstate roadway, the Federal Highway Administration is overseeing the review.



The project's advancement through the early stages of environmental review signals brisk momentum for a company that launched only two years ago, ...



The progression may also be a sign of Emanuel's determination to advance the project before he leaves office this coming May. Three months after he announced that Chicago had selected Boring Co. to build the tunnel, Emanuel said he wouldn't run for a third term as mayor, casting doubts on the future of the express service to O'Hare, which has been under discussion for years.

The proposed venture would whisk Chicago passengers from the city's downtown Loop district to the airport in about 12 minutes using Boring Co.'s "Loop" technology: wheeled carriages the company calls autonomous electric skates. The skates would run at up to 150 miles per hour in ...


It isn't the only Boring Co. project undergoing environmental assessment. A project to build a tunnel connecting Baltimore to Washington is quietly moving ahead, with Boring Co. staff and the Maryland Department of Transportation currently working on an environmental assessment, a spokesman for the department told Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, ….fMusk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. rocket company. A delegation from Chicago is expected to attend the opening next week.



If Emanuel can steer the project through City Council before he leaves office, it could significantly increase the odds that the transit system, called X Line, will eventually get built. "It's a very quick timetable that they're under," said Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. "But not impossible."


...

According to the EA, the first phase (18 mos) will have Lawrence and Berwyn closed, with Bryn Mawr and Argyle open. The second phase (18-24 mos) will have Bryn Mawr open southbound only and a temporary Foster-Winona station.

The CTA rendering has it looking like part of an auto spaghetti bowl. (See this video starting at 0:49) Luckily they're just the showing what could happen not the actual design. Walsh-Fluor got awarded the contract to actually design and build it. So I guess we'll see what they come up with.

Ever wonder where certain buses go? This YouTube channel has you covered... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpY...2Fxv_Kw/videos

You’re not wrong, it probably will look like a highway structure but a bit narrower. There is a similar structure on the Orange Line at 18th St. The only realistic way (cost-wise) to avoid that appearance is to build an open deck structure like the old-school L structures or like the new Pink Line structure. Unfortunately this would probably create too much noise in the surrounding area, both low frequency vibrations and high frequency screeching, so it would fail Environmental Impact.

I’m not too concerned about it honestly. CTA can still do a decorative treatment on the concrete supports so they look fine from a pedestrian level, and most of the structure will be hidden from view once the Clark St sites get infilled.

Yeah there's no reason they can't paint a mural on the overpass or put some sculptures on it if they want it to look nice

I can't believe that's the first time I've seen that video. Terrific render quality and attention to detail!

My only beef with it is that they put too much emphasis on the redevelopment. Something tells me some of those awkward lots may find it hard for development. But If it's all built out it will probably look pretty clean. And a cool shot looking down Sheffield with the two levels of Brown Line tracks.

The Orange Line at 18th isn't a terrible comparison, but let's not forget that the Orange Line is dual tracks, while the Brown Line bypass is for a single track. So, taking the sides into consideration, the Brown Line bypass should be about 1/3 narrower. There have also been advancements in concrete and steel since 1993, so it's possible it's even more improved than just being half as many tracks.

EDIT: Actually, here you can see each if the two halves of the Orange Line before they're joined - I'd say that the scale of one of these is the absolute worst case for the Brown Line bypass.

Orange Line @ 18th Street

The lawrence - bryn mawr portion of the redline project is going to do a lot to improve the immediate neighborhoods, those tracks and bridges are decrepit eyesores and the lack of ADA compliance in a neighborhood with so many seniors and people with disabilities has long been unacceptable.

Illinois mayors: Up tax on fuel to fund transportation needs
I guess no one's paying attention to what's happening in France...

In 1990 CTA fares were $1. Sounds like the gas tax should go to 50 cents to match the increase.

yup, long overdue hike

This is very tidy. There are three countries with gas prices higher than France: Italy, Norway and The Netherlands. The three countries with gas prices lower than ours are Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

I hope we're paying attention to indicators like that.

Well yea but gas prices in France were already over $6 a gallon from taxes! We are nowhere close to that level in the US, and France has very high taxes in general. Plus, you have to pay high tolls on every expressway in France every 30 miles or so.

Haha...you're hilarious.

This completely appropriate and needed gas tax increase will reduce a good bit more nothing from our something for nothing culture.

The fuel taxes should be indexed to inflation but limited by how much it can rise in a year to get there (say 5 or 7.5 cents a year) to soften the blow.

I'd also support congestion pricing the city and overhauling the tollway system so that it could provide funding to Metra/Pace along with implementation of demand pricing.

Thought I saw this somewhere, but can't remember...

https://www.cityofchicago.org/conten...sCorridors.pdf

Did anyone go to that South Loop 15th Street subway station meeting tonight?

^ I would have, had I known about it!

There's already an FB group against the project, but only 36 people in it thankfully (so far).

Apparently Related has already reached deals with four of the homeowners along 15th to tear the houses down (or keep them vacant during construction).



EDIT: see better quality picture of station below

Yes, I was there, and it was about the shitshow you’d expect. The Dearborn Park II soccer moms came loaded for bear. Much as I cringed when they talked about this new station headhouse “looming” over their homes, or that there was no need for restrooms in Cottontail Park because users can “just go back to their houses”—they’re not entirely crazy to be concerned about the crime and scary guys currently found at the Roosevelt station coming to invade the quiet child-centered world of DPII and the park. I was a little surprised that everyone seemed to accept the development of the 62 acres as a fait accompli; no one stood up to suggest that it all should become a park.

At my first meeting with Related, months ago, I had pressed them on what exactly is under Clark Street that makes it impossible for the station entry to be on the west side. It seems that there’s a big water main, a big MWRD interceptor, and ComEd and fiber in the old freight tunnel, so that blocks you all the way down to -50 or -60. I was astonished that they were throwing around a $300m figure for just this simple headhouse and the two platforms. Because the platforms are so close to the surface, the design Carol Ross Barney showed has daylight permeating the headhouse and reaching down to the platforms.

https://i.imgur.com/CTWzwG8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XavRTp2.jpg

Ald. Dowell was circumspect in her statements, and this still could get rammed through in the final days of the Emanuel Administration, but I think last night’s meeting made it clear that the best way forward is to spend the extra money to put at least the entry, if not the platforms, west of Clark.

The meeting began with the smell of distrust, as Related admitted that it had in fact bought those four townhouses using a blind trust. But why, exactly? They’d be the ones most affected by construction, true, but they’re only reachable by an easement through the HOA to the north, which naturally felt they should have been consulted. Maybe Related should buy all the houses within 200 feet and go all Disney World, having employee-residents show up at future meetings to beg for the new station.

I watched a video someone kindly posted on Facebook. I thought it was clear that Curt Bailey was referring to the single-family detached houses fronting directly on 15th. Excavation for the station box would cut off front-door access for these homes even if the auto court remains unscathed, and the noise/vibration could be an issue so close to the work site. Plus if Related can tear them down, they don’t need to worry about shoring up these homes or preventing settlement issues. If they have reached deals for four of those homes, then that only leaves two remaining. It’s not even clear where the tunnel sits exactly, it may pass beneath some of those homes directly, assuming they sit on shallow foundations.

Interesting to note the congested conditions under Clark St. Presumably there has to be some path through the underground thicket, or the existing Red Line tunnel would not be able to traverse Clark either, so there must be a way to thread the needle for a pedestrian tunnel even if it is costly. After Wells-Wentworth opens, it may be possible to close off Clark in order to dig up the road and build such a connection without traffic.

I do agree with Carol Ross Barney, though, that placing the head house directly over the platforms (east of Clark) allows for more natural light, crime deterrent, and just a more pleasant design overall. However, if Clark is not tamed from its auto sewer nature, people will be reluctant to walk across it even to reach the Red Line.

Thanks for the updates, guys. Glad to see that this subway station is still in the plans

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=1...6214/-87.63067

This is the tunnel, if you trust the outline.

This is the most accurate map I have of where the tunnel actually is.

https://i.imgur.com/98lMH8P.jpg


Those houses "fronting on 15th" don't actually; they have their backs to 15th. Apparently the developer didn't think they'd sell if they fronted on 15th, so he flipped them around and then had to arrange an easement for them to be accessed from the private street to the north. I'll have to go look up whether they're a condo association or have fee ownership. EDIT: They have fee-simple ownership of their lots.

Well there you go, at least one house sits on top of the tunnel. Hit the “offset” button on that tunnel wall about 15’ for the southbound platform and that wipes out those first four houses, or at least comes close enough to require expensive shoring.

The remaining two houses on the Clark corner could probably be left intact, but if Related can buy them then they get a more useful site for Cottontail Park expansion or a small mixed-use building in the future. Maybe it could be both, with a little cafe pavilion ala Connors Park.

Not to start any rumors or anything, but if they bought all six of those houses, they've now got an 80x190 site that's just about perfect for a modest highrise, steps from a new Red Line station (not that Related Midwest needs any more dirt). I'm pretty sure the PD for DPII still has a bunch of unclaimed units—due to being built out as nearly all townhouses—that they could use.

^Which would be prescient considering these South Loop haciendas will eventually bite the dust even if it takes 40-50 years.

Good point, they could park a lot of their mandated affordable units there as well.

Ahhhhhh how much I'd love to see the look on the faces of those entitled DPII brats if they were told that 500 low income apartments were going up next door in a highrise that would serve double duty by casting a shadow over little Billy's playpit, while also being adjacent to the brand new Red line subway stop bringing in all those scary folks from the south side!!

:haha::lmao:

Regardless of where the headhouse is and the elevators are, I hope they at least put stairway entrances on both sides of Clark. I would imagine they will, but sometimes you never know. In a perfect world, I'd want at least stairway entrances on both sides of Clark and on 15th, but I can only imagine the pushback that might get. Actually, why does it need a headhouse at all? This seems like one of the few places Chicago might be able to implement entrances much closer to New York-style, which seems much preferable to me.

On an unrelated note, is there ever talk of putting a new Red Line station in at Cleveland and Clybourn? By even the most conservative estimate, it's exactly a mile between Clark/Division and North/Clybourn, with Cleveland being slightly closer to Clark/Division, but the way the streets are there it looks like Cleveland would result in the most functional location. It definitely wouldn't be cheap, but, especially if combined with a redevelopment of that Jewel-anchored shopping center and the vacant lots along Scott, it could easily become one of the most-used stations in the network over the decade following its completion. Was such an addition even slightly planned for during construction? Anyone else think it'd be useful, or would you rather just see any bucket of money big enough to build that station go toward a Clinton Street subway, with a station on Division at Larrabee or Harlsted or whereever it crossed Division?

^

Why not both ;)

I’d rather see the Clinton St subway brought to life before adding another stop to the red line. A red line stop at Division and Clybourn does make sense though. Same with a brown line stop on a Division and maybe even Halsted. The Halsted stop would make most sense if the Clinton St subway were actually built.

New York style (or State St, Dearborn Subway) stations require fare control to be underground, which means a bigger excavation and higher costs. Depending on the station and the depth of the tunnel, there is either a mezzanine squeezed between the street and the platform level, or there are separate fare controls for each platform and riders cannot cross between platforms without exiting the station and paying again.

At 15th St, the Red Line tunnel is pretty shallow, so I'm not sure there is room to build a mezzanine between grade level and the roof of the tunnel. That means two separate fare control areas underground, with two station attendants, twice as many farecard machines and turnstiles, etc plus a bigger excavation and no way to cross between platforms.

Really the head house is the better solution, and there's no reason NOT to do it since CTA already owns the land. A mixed use building atop the headhouse would be nice - it's a non-starter today, but CTA could certainly add this in 20-30 years once the grant money is paid back.

No talk of this. The 15th St station is only being pushed because Related as a single landowner will benefit tremendously and is willing to take on all that grief. Cabrini Green is split between many different developers with CHA and Holsten being the biggest ones. Nobody is proposing the level of density that the 78 will have, because CHA's staff has basically internalized the 1990s critiques of high density public housing. Cabrini Green when built-out will have a lower average density than most old-school Chicago neighborhoods, even the gentrified ones.

I still think the Clinton St subway is a good idea, but never really had political support. IN that scenario, the Red Line would shift to the new Clinton alignment for an easy connection to Union/Ogilvie, and would have a station at Division by the Target. The rest of the State Street subway would probably become a full-time Purple Line service.

The CHA was planning mid-density, but I think Rahm and others have pushed them to be more open to higher densities. Some updated plans have shown some of that, so I'm hopeful that as things actually get built, there will be a higher end result than the original plans showed. Certainly if the City decided to push for a Clinton Street subway, it would probably also push for higher density near the stations.

As far as routing, I always thought that dining both Purple and Yellow line trains as expresses South of Howard, at least during Rush Hour, would be good, so they could both use the State Street tunnels. Something like running the Orange Line through it to Belmont or Kimball might be useful but that's a different discussion.

The O'Hare people mover will be temporarily shut down starting next week to be upgraded, increased in capacity, and extended to the intermodal center. There will be busses filling in in the mean time. All the better reason to take the Blue Line out there.

Metra Dreams Big
 

From an article in Trains Magazine-

In other Metra news, the commuter rail service introduced the repainted Metra locomotive 405 in the colors of the former Milwaukee Road.
https://i.imgur.com/GF0T6A4.jpg
img src - metrarail insta

405 joins loco 425, painted in the yellow and Rocket Red of the former Rock Island, introduced in December, 2017.
https://i.imgur.com/G20ZeYp.jpg
img src - metrarail insta

At a bare absolute minimum they have got to get all the rolling stock. They are so short on spares for both locomotives and coaches plus the old power constantly breaks down. Fortunately since only one company bid on their gallery car RFP and they've had to go back and look at modern bilevels.

Seems they're going straight to the state for the RI connection at 75th Street which appears to be a change.