I agree that enclosing the platform would be a big improvement from a noise perspective, but what about the perception of safety? Although there certainly are other median running transit systems in the US that have enclosed platforms, like WMATA or MARTA.

Enclosing the platforms will allow CTA to remove windbreaks, columns, and other visual obstructions from the platform, opening up sight lines. People will feel more safe, not less. The station attendant will be able to monitor the entire platform with just 2-3 cameras.

That train station is sick, I don't care what anyone says. Hopefully they will build it as is. Nice to see the CTA with a renewed commitment to good design between this, Cermak, and Morgan.

Any idea who the architect is?

exactly. enclosing expressway median stations, thus allowing the removal of a good deal of the typical platform clutter would greatly increase safety, both perceived and real, not detract from it.

Amen.

I think this is an underappreciated aspect which doesn't get priority enough and should be one of the highest priorities of the CTA.

Transit trackers have made this is a bit less of necessity given that riders can wait in the headhouses longer and make their way up/down the platforms close to approach. Still MANY riders are either lazy or too uncomfortable with heading towards the train only on approach. And yet I think many potential riders recoil at the thought of standing out on cold windswept platforms everyday ingesting a fair amount of auto fumes.

If there was enclosed stations it would also make whatever heat lamps a good deal more effective and efficient I would think. It would be too expensive to keep the platforms climate controlled but they would be noticeable warmer then they often are now.

Wells street Bridge finally opens back up to traffic today

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#sectio.../p2p-78274051/

Indeed! Very happy about this!
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...FAC5BB9C98.jpg

You're totally right. It's frivolous and silly.

I think the design is decent but has the potential to be much better. The grid is the best part but it should have informed more of the design decisions for the rest of the building.

Interesting tidbit I picked up about the new 95th Street station, apparently the platform is being rebuilt to handle (2) Eight car trainsets per side.

Ease of staging perhaps? Also, wouldnt it make sense for the platform to handle (2) Ten car trainsets since we will likely be seeing the longer trains once RPM is completed?

Interesting. This helps with construction staging... build the portion south of 95th, complete with its own 8-car platform, then activate it while the original station is torn down to build the north half. Kinda like the strategy at Clark/Division on a much larger scale.

It's messed up (but kinda cool) that it's cheaper to build a whole redundant set of station accesses than it is to try and work construction around passenger flows.

Radio Ads
 

Here is a link to the Ad audio, it will start Monday Dec. 9th -- And run for three Months: http://picosong.com/qWjz/

Mike Payne

Ridgeland on the Green line
 

Kooky. Props to the designer, though... he really committed to using those circles.

Random question guys but other than large financial costs, what are the reasons there aren't more subway lines and ramps in River North/Streeterville? I've always wondered this

^ To make it easier for me, I rearranged a few words in your post and requoted it to answer your question:

1. In the early 20th century era when most of the RRs were built (RRs were cheap to build then), these weren't high-density residential areas:
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/collec...1933-U5-e.html
As late as 1990, population density south of Chicago Ave. was far lower than in the Gold Coast tracts to the north:
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/collec...s/chidense.gif

Instead, they were medium-density industrial areas, and were well into the 1980s-1990s. Many of these industrial buildings still stand, from the River East Arts Center (Pugh Terminal) to 600 W Chicago (Montgomery Ward Catalog House).

2. How did people get to these industrial areas? Most rail transit in Chicago historically was streetcar, not "L." The "L" primarily served the highest-density routes, i.e., those serving Loop offices. Note the surface lines' particularly high route density through what's now River North:
http://chicagoinmaps.com/cimimages/CSL1938mapMR.jpg

3. Lots of plans were made for transit expansion through the Near North Side in the postwar years, notably subways through Streeterville, but not much was ever accomplished due to cost.
http://www.chicago-l.org/plans/

Cost has never been the main factor. Rail transit is expensive but Federal funding has been available since the 1960s - Boston took incredible advantage of this to modernize their system and replace els with subways.

The big reason is political will. For most of the 20th-century, population shifted to the suburbs while the city declined, and investments in highways were prioritized over transit systems. Note that Boston rejected a lot of highway plans and so they had more money to spend on transit, while Chicago built a full highway network. In fact, the only major transit expansions in Chicago post-WW2 were built because they could be bundled with expressway construction - both ends of the Blue Line and the Dan Ryan branch of Red (with the exception of Orange). The grand plans for downtown investment in rail, like the 1968 plan or Daley's Central Area Circulator, always fizzled because they seemed extravagant in the face of downtown decline. Later, they seemed extravagant because the existing lines out in the neighborhoods were crumbling.

The resurgence of downtown in the last 15-20 years as a major population center and employment center is great, and really bolsters the case for big investment downtown. Adding to that, most of the L network is now in decent shape. Since Rahm seems to understand the value of transit and the need to invest downtown, I am waiting to see what his grand transit dream will be.

Has CDOT completely forgotten they resurfaced Grand Ave several months ago around LaSalle-Orleans? The street striping still has not been done (just temporary dots and dashes here and there, resulting in a lot of confusion because of an apparent re-think on lane allocations), resulting in near crashes -- and there is also still a giant rollaway electronic billboard flashing messages to the effect of "Wells Bridge under construction - bikes use Clark". Anyone here from (or know anyone from) CDOT?

I wonder if Rahm has any plans for improving Transit on the South Lakefront/SE Side? (Michael Reese, Hyde Park, UoC, South Shore, Lakeside, South Chicago, etc.)

There is no CTA Rail Transit to these areas, unlike most other parts of the City; and so they do not recieve the same Economic Benefits, and generally experience much longer Travel times.

Re: Radio Ad
 

Here is a link to the Ad audio, it will start on Monday Dec. 9th -- And run for three Months: http://picosong.com/qWjz

^ Don't you think he would have unveiled one by now?

Anyone notice that the CTA website is not releasing ridership reports on a timely basis anymore? They just released August. Also, when do you think we will start seeing statistics for Divvy? I am interested in seeing how quickly membership grows.

No, I don't. As I pointed out, the money isn't there right now. These large projects have very long lead times, and right now both the RPM project and the Red Line extension are first in line for funding when it becomes available. Right now, it looks like RPM will move forward (in line with Rahm's focus on the wealthy north side) and Red Line extension will be canceled (replaced by the 95th St terminal replacement).

I think eventually Rahm will release a vision for downtown that includes Union Station upgrades and CTA investment. So far, he's just done small-ball stuff. I don't claim to know what the big plan will look like, or whether it's even been decided on. Previous planning work like the Central Area Plan is probably a good guide, though. There's also the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, which could potentially fund transit projects that promise a good ROI.

Of course, the biggest benefits to the city and region would come from major improvements to Metra like the Gray Line or CrossRail Chicago, but I sadly don't see that happening anytime soon because of the institutional conflicts between Metra, CTA, RTA, etc. and resistance from freight railroads. Pressure would have to come from several levels of government - city, suburban, county, state.

That is why I am running the streaming Radio Ads, over three Months they will garner some attention from the Public -- and hopefully the Media also.

Even though I like the design of the 95th street terminal and the station definitely needs a facelift I feel like the cost is a little over the top considering that this station is only used by a single rail line. I understand it is also a major bus terminal but it is hard to justify the cost. There are no future plans to have rail connections to this station (to my knowledge) and even if the extension were to ever happen there isn't the possibility of having express trains from this terminal. If either of were possible then I could justify the cost of future proofing the station.

Which brings me to the question, was there ever the possibility or was there ever a proposal of adding a third rail line in the median of the Dan Ryan. The planning would have had to of been there when the Dan Ryan was completely reconstructed in 2006, currently the median doesn't seem wide enough to accommodate another line even if they wanted to during the Red line reconstruction.


(Had to go back a few pages for this photo, definitely no room for a third line)

New Cline Avenue Bridge
privately funded, tolls estimated at $3-4
constructions begins Spring 2014

This is a unique design for Chicagoland... thus far, the concrete box girder design has been rare in this area. A few were built in the 1980s, but that's about it. A handful of examples have been built in other Midwestern states in recent years, so I hope it catches on in Chicago. They are very common in the Sunbelt, and I've always been fond of them as pure sculptural expressions of speed and dynamism.

I'm not sure I like the green paint or the fussy inset panels on the piers, but hey, I'll take it.

http://imageshack.us/a/img811/7190/2bgd.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img31/9374/5nkw.jpg

I'm very curious to see the drop in ridership on the L but morso on the buses because of Ventra. I know there was at least one case of people just being herded into teh stations because the system went down, and the buses are an entirely different situation.

I was in a large group of people last weekend talking about Ventra and 4-5 people take the bus every day to work. One of them said he gets on at a very busy stop along the lakefront and maybe 1 day out of the week does he actually use his pass to enter, the rest of the time ventra is so slow and the readers so awkward that the driver just waves everyone on and doesn't do any sort of count. The other 4 people in the group all immediately said they only have to use their ventra about 50%-60% of the time and the rest of the time the driver shoos them on the bus to keep things moving. I bet official bus ridership goes down a great deal.

I experienced similar Ventra issues a month ago. The system was down at a redline station and a CTA employee allowed everyone to walk through. I ride an express bus downtown in my morning commute. It appears the system is working properly now, so hopefully the problems are behind us.

I wonder who will sponsor the Divvy bicycle sharing system. It will likely be a local bank (Chase, BMO) similar to NYC. The station outside my high rise still gets plenty of use, despite the cold weather.

I wonder about that in the winter for the Divvy bikes... Will they be removed? I worry the snow plows will destroy them in the first big snow fall. I have to assume they have something planned for winter to protect the bikes, right?

I wholeheartedly agree. There's a real elegance there.

The bicycles are staying. Divvy is just decreasing the fleet to match the expected decline in ridership. A press release said the following:

"Alta Bicycle Share, which operates Divvy, will handle snow removal at the city's nearly 300 stations — which cropped up this summer and stretch from Hyde Park to Edgewater. A team of rebalancers, technicians and street cleaners already are responsible for daily upkeep, Greenberger said. Come winter, they'll load their vans with shovels, brooms and salt."

Cool. I was starting to assume Indiana was never going to fix this bridge and do away with the grade separated highway altogether. Cline Ave never had that much traffic anyway, although perhaps years ago there was a bigger need for it. On the rare occasions when I do drive eastward, Cline was always my favorite detour. I love all the industrial scenery as it passes the refinery, runs through the outlying oil tank farms, twists alongside the old inland steel plant and drops you beside the Gary Airport upon rejoining I-90. Always worth the extra toll at Gary.

I do wonder if they have enough traffic to pay off construction costs, debt service and still make a profit. Traffic was light to begin with, and I can't imagine truckers will volunteer to pay the extra tolls to save a few minutes on a local delivery. They must be confident the numbers will work to start construction in the spring.

I agree on the box girders, they are almost sculptural.

How high was the old bridge above the water, the image of the new bridge seems to look much lower? I have many times used it to return to Chicago from delivering Copiers in Indiana, because to me it was like the thrill of Skydiving or Base jumping (I could feel my heart pounding at the crest).

I think it is a needed connection, and not a bad Toll fee. For I-355 to/from I-88 to I-80 -- you have to get a Payday Loan!

Kind of reminds me of the Zilwaukee bridge outside my old hometown. The bridge was built in the 80's with many construction problems. But after those were fixed it has a guaranteed lifespan of 120 years. It's got nearly the same proximity to great lakes waters, climate like Chicago, and the deck has never been replaced since it was built.

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1307/1...989dab46_b.jpg

A friend and I rented them during a snowfall to test them out on clear, but icy surfaces. They handle well with those big tires. Their bulkiness gives them enough inertia not to slip out of direction of travel when going across ice. Braking could be better, but overall a good winter bike.

Snow plows on the other hand are something I hadn't thought about. The ones placed in the street are especially concerning.

Yeah, there was a brief time in the 80s when several box girders were built around the Midwest on high-profile projects. Many of them had problems, especially the various structures along Cline Avenue. There was a deadly accident during the original construction and of course the more recent failure of the bridge over the Indiana Ship Canal.

With the development of epoxy-coated rebar and better protection for post-tensioning tendons, a lot of these design issues have been solved. There might be issues with the financing arrangement but most road deals these days shift the risk onto the government (the state is required to pay the difference if the tolls can't cover debt service).

What the f*ck?

Where's all this money coming from? Maybe this is Rahm's famous PR machine at work again... bundling a bunch of existing smaller projects. If this is all new spending, though, then why the hell is he spending it on the Blue Line instead of the local match for RPM?

CTA Blue Line to receive $492M investment, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office
 

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...ews&id=9349462

December 5, 2013 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the CTA will announce a $492 million investment in the Blue Line's O'Hare branch.
The mayor's office says it will be the largest comprehensive investment for the Blue Line since it was extended from Jefferson Park to O'Hare 30 years ago.
The four-year program will include track and infrastructure improvements, station house upgrades, subway improvements, signal upgrades and power upgrades.

The mayor's office also says the plan will improve reliability and reduce commute times between downtown and O'Hare by up to 10 minutes.

http://www.transitchicago.com/news/d...ArticleId=3242

Blue Line Improvements
 

[QUOTE=ardecila;6363907]What the f*ck?



Where's all this money coming from? Maybe this is Rahm's famous PR machine at work again... bundling a bunch of existing smaller projects. If this is all new spending, though, then why the hell is he spending it on the Blue Line instead of the local match for RPM?[/QUOTE

The PR machine joke made me laugh. Then consider the press release where it says that $4b in transit improvements have been announced since he took office, yet only $1b is accounted for in the same release. Rahm may be a c%$# sucker, but you almost have to be get stuff done in a broken parochial political system like Chicago's. And he does get stuff done. Just ask an urban minded person from Toronto if they would trade Rob Ford for Rahm... even well before crackgate.

Requoted for truth

Only one new elevator? That's unfortunate. I was hoping for more. We're on pace to be fully ADA-compliant in 15-20 years...

Elevators might be included in "extensive station renovations" but who knows.

I saw this clarified, though, and they're saying it takes 50 minutes currently. I've been on trains that took as little as 40 minutes, so I was really hoping they were basing that 10 minutes off of, say, 45 minutes, so we might see times as low as 35 minutes, which would be cool. If it could do Loop->ORD in 35 minutes consistently, you don't even really need an express train and a lot more people would ride the train to O'Hare because taxis don't usually take 45 minutes, but they frequently do take 35 minutes, which swings strongly in favor of the train.

I don't think the O'Hare branch has ever had 35 minute service (I assume the reference point is Clark/Lake) but with the new AC railcars providing better acceleration, it might be possible.

Take it with a grain of salt, though - this is a Rahm Emanuel announcement. 35 minutes is probably the best case scenario, assuming minimal dwell times in each station and no delays whatsoever.

Does anyone know if it's possible to run ten-car trains on the Blue Line? I would assume no (Logan Square and Belmont have shorter platforms I think) but it could be possible.

I remember the drawbridge that used to be there :)

When I was a kid.

The opposite is true. Logan and Belmont Blue have some of the longer platforms in the city. Logan could probably handle a 16 car train with ease as it is more than twice as long as an 8 car train. Belmont is not as long, but could handle at least 10 cars in my estimation.

Is being a cock sucker a bad thing?

In a "broken parochial political system" it is ... but otherwise, no.

Kristen Maddox kindly took a bunch of photos at Rahm's Blue Line press conference.

Jefferson Park will see a big reconstruction (I'm already getting tired of this wavy design motif) while most other stations will see a "safe and dry" station renovation that is probably similar to the work performed on the North Red Line stations. The cost figures at Damen and California ($12-$20M) are similar to the figures in the Brown Line project for complete station reconstructions, and those were also side-platform elevated stations on a steel viaduct so it's a decent comparison.

Also: Logan Square Mixed-Use TOD? Are they planning to sell off the station plaza to a developer?

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2890/1...edc946f6_h.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5499/1...c55b33e0_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7423/1...4bc33684_h.jpg