cool my only suggestio would be to continue that extended blue line further north to run into yellow line..effectively creating a tertiary super loop

I wanted to do that actually, but I was tending to keep my new lines within city limits (yes, I know several CTA lines actually do leave city limits). I'm not sure what would be the political ramifications of extending that line further up the Edens and more importantly, how and where to connect it with to the Yellow Line.

I'll re-post the link since what we're talking about is on the previous page.

My only suggestion would be to completely eliminate the East 63rd Branch of the Green Line. The neighborhood hates the thing anyway. Instead, run the Green Line southeast along South Chicago Avenue to 71st. Then cut east and run the Green Line along the South Chicago branch of the Silver Line.

That way, the community around the East 63rd branch is happier, and you can run higher train frequencies on the Main Branch of the Silver Line. Basically, it just simplifies operations.

I'm pretty sure the Silver Line Proposal (or some form of it) will be the cornerstone of the city's Olympic transit plan. The secondary components would probably be Airport Express and either the Cicero Line or the Circle Line. The city may also attempt to link the Silver Line to the Red/Green Lines by using the St. Charles Air Line after it is vacated, which is a bit more feasible than your Roosevelt Road alignment.

Also - the Kenwood branch cannot easily be connected to the Metra lines on the lakeshore - Lake Park Crescent was built where the end of the Kenwood branch used to be.

Thanks for the suggestions, Ardecila. I've never been a big fan of the East 63rd branch either, but I was trying to build upon what exists as much as I could. However, should the stretch of new Green line on 71st between South Chicago and the Silver line be subway or 'L'? Subway would be more expensive to build, but I can't see the community there being any more receptive to new over-the-street L, or worse, demolishing homes along 71st. It's a short stretch, but it's a problem.

I too feel the Silver Line will be central to the Olympic proposal. It would provide service to most of the south side venues.

Forgive me, but is the St. Charles Air Line the stretch of rail that runs just north of 16th street? I wanted to use that, and I would have had I known it was going to be vacated. I'll make that change.

Finally, by "Kenwood Branch", you mean my Gold Line run between King Drive and LSD? Most of that used what I thought was an old ROW, but I thought there might be an issue crossing Drexel Blvd due to new developments. Google really needs some new pics!

Thanks again!

It would be a quick and dirty, cut and cover subway, like the one they built on the Blue Line under Kimball to connect the Milwaukee L to the Kennedy Line. There's even a convenient vacant lot at South Chicago & 71st for a tunnel portal.

Yes it is. It is currently used by mostly Amtrak and some freight trains to access the IL Central lakefront tracks. A new connection is planned at Grand Crossing that will allow Amtrak and freight trains to bypass those lakefront tracks, so they won't need the St. Charles Air Line anymore. If Google Earth is to be believed, that connection already existed, but was torn out. All they need to do is rebuild some existing bridges and lay track.

Agreed on the pics. After checking in Google Earth, I found that Jazz on The Boulevard AND Lake Park Crescent stand in the way of the Kenwood branch. The upside is that those developments are all small-scale houses, so not too much has to be torn down to build 3 blocks more of elevated tracks.

Canadian National to buy EJ&E
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...0,750826.story


$300 million deal eases urban routes
By James P. Miller | Tribune staff reporter
September 27, 2007

What will this do to the planned STAR line?

^^^

Can someone refresh me about this STAR line proposal or send me a link or something?

Somebody mentioned the Mandarin Hotel project preserving a ROW for a transit line. Does anyone know any more about this?

When are the new CTA rail cars scheduled to arrive?

^ Interesting. I'd love to know when the city plans to implement this. Isn't the Central Area TIF supposed to pay for this?

Last I heard the Blue Line was scheduled to start putting the new cars into use in late 2008 - early 2009.

Great! I am very hopeful this thing moves forward and is executed well, as the pace of development along the river is obviously roaring right now. This transitway will help buildings like Waldorf-Astoria become a reality, among other obvious benefits.

I really hope a forumer or two can make it to this meeting and report back to us with the good news!

Thanks, Looks neat, I hope they actually do this. If they did this, got rid of the slow zones in the El, built a circle line on the El, and actually passed an adequte funding bill, then Chicago's light rail would be awesome.

I'm going to plead ignorance, but where is Carroll Ave. and what exactly is being proposed? Some kind of light rail? BRT? Is this a CTA project? Metra?

Carroll Avenue is a wide alley that runs just north of the main branch of the river. It starts underneath the Merchandise Mart, and runs behind 300 North LaSalle, Quaker Oats, Marina City, IBM, and Trump. It ends on Lower Michigan. The Transitway would continue from the Mart across the river and then south to Union Station and Northwestern Station. On the east end, it would fork into three, and continue down Illinois to Navy Pier, up Michigan Avenue to Water Tower, and up Fairbanks to Northwestern Hospital.

The Transitway proposal is just that, a transitway. It's still conceptual, so they have not yet chosen a transit format. Given the low cost, however, most people have assumed that BRT will eventually be chosen. However, light rail and heavy rail are in consideration.

Has there ever been talk of putting a Red Line station in at Kinzie Street? Kinda redundant given that there's already a station 1/4 mile both north and south from there, but it would make transfers to / from Carroll Avenue a lot easier.

No. The Red Line is on a steep incline at Kinzie to get under the river.

No. Infill subway stations are absurdly expensive. There would be a transfer facility to Brown/Purple at Merchandise Mart, and a branch of the transit way might link up to the Grand/Red Line stop depending on the technology chosen.