Oh the lovely trash we have in this city...

Why would city employees be stationed round the clock at a CTA station?

Quinn wants $25 billion for construction, won't talk taxes
March 9, 2009 1:07 PM |

Gov. Patrick Quinn today said he wants to spend $25 billion on a statewide construction program to improve schools, roads and bridges and create jobs, Clout Street reports.

Quinn offered few details about the plan, which he will likely formally unveil during his March 18th budget address, but said he would like the measure implemented quickly in order to spur the state's economy.

"We hope to have a $25 billion... Illinois economic recovery investment program that invests in rail as well as highway and bridges and water and everything else," Quinn said. "I think it's imperative... but we have to get it passed. I'd like to see it passed by April 3, and we're going to work very hard in that direction."

^^Well okay

Wait, i thought we wasted all the money we had on flu vaccines?

Well I've never been in a station where it wasn't the case. There is always at least one attendant stationed at every open station isn't there?

Granted its the Green line so there might not be anyone there for 2 or 3 hours early in the morning, but if you are out lurking at that time of the night in a semi-industrial area of the city you are asking to be attacked.

There's either a CTA customer assistant or a private security guard at any open station. But in 30 years of riding, I've never seen any city employees hanging around. What station are you going to where you see city employees? Are they just standing around drinking coffee, or sitting outside in cars or trucks?

Wow. That's so awesome.
"..invests in rail as well as highway and bridges..

I saw a news piece last night that said Quinn's plan for HSR in Illinois would only decrease the time between Chicago and St. Louis by an hour. :shrug:

That makes a ton of sense, spend a billion, gain an hour. Does anyone else find that completely unimpressive and disappointing?

I'm sorry, I would really love to see more HSR in our area, but 4 hours between Chi and STL is still too much, I'll fly if that is the case.

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Co...?audioID=32736

OK, I have to say it...

A few posters here have asserted that the only people at the CTA who thought the Circle Line was a good idea are now gone (Frank Kruesi usually being fingered as chief among its supporters). So now I ask: what proof have you?

Clearly SOME people in IL still believe in this project if Durbin and crew are requesting money for the project. And I would be shocked if they were doing this without at least some support from city hall and the CTA.

CTA employees and city employees are separate, I agree with Mr D I generally do not or even rarely see city employees lurking around CTA stations.

Your second point is nonsense.....so I went for a bike ride down ashland from Rogers Park to 57 th steet and back Fri night at 1 AM.....does that mean I jumped on my bike asking to be jumped or otherwise accosted? No

However it is surprising how prevalent this idea is, my wife said before I left..."you are going to get shot". She grew up in the suburbs and has a much different perspective on the city than I do

8 million for the circle line.....not that I am a huge fan, but it better than nothing...

but 8 million seems like dribble piss in a bucket....sheesh

I agree this needs to get down to as close to 2 hours as possible....certainly less than 3 hours to be competitve

certainly nice to see mass transit continuing to become a talking point for politicians in tough economic times, coupled with lower fuel prices.

You know what I am talking about, I meant CTA employees not random city employees, thats why I said I was talking about the "attendants" at the stations, is it really worth 3 posts of questions just to point out that CTA employees are not city employees? I don't understand why you are still going on about it even after specified who I am talking about...


No, actually its not non-sense. I have lived in Edgewater and Roger's Park for the past 3 or so years. One of my best friends grew up as a street rat in East Rogers Park. Whenever I go on bike rides with him on nice summer evenings he refuses to ride down side streets near and west of the Metra tracks. He knows all of the people his age in the neighborhood subsequently most of the gang leaders in the area, he says the area west of the Metra tracks is crawling with gangsters and doesn't want to go near it. That said, I'm sure Ashland is safe, only because its a major thoroughfare with lots of traffic, but stray off Ashland its its very possible you'll get mugged.

Why would you ride around in Back of the Yards at night? I know its improved at ton, but its not a place I'd go alone after dark, again, you are probably safe on Ashland, but stray off into the side streets and you are risking it...

Believe it or not, there are places in this city that are not great places to hang out after dark...

Agreed. We shouldn't get a "high speed" rail line just to have one. It has to be able to fill that gap between too far for a car and to close for a plane, and the only way to fulfill that is to get the speeds up around 200 mph. True HSR. The only way to get that is to eliminate slow zones, not share lines with freight, and by all means, avoid going through populated areas.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2...officials.html

The combined two-year expected sales tax shortfall is $242 million, almost exactly the size of the stimulus funding. Doesn't it seem like it would make a lot more sense if they could just use the stimulus money to patch the budget shortfall? This is a cyclical, not structural, revenue shortfall, so the use of a one-time cash infusion isn't just putting off long-run problems in this case. I'm sure the stimulus package doesn't allow for this, which is just another sign that we need some direct and explicit aid to government agencies facing massive shortfalls like this.

That is because the Circle Line study area has been expanded westward to Cicero Avenue. My guess, is that this money will be used to fund phase 3 of the study. The Circle Line, as initally proposed is pretty much dead, however Mid-City Transit way and the Clinton-Larrabee Subway are still on. These, if built will fulfill some of the goals that the Circle Line strived for, but provide some even better benifits. The money in the Omnibus Spending Bill, might also be used as seed money for the construction of a station at Madison Street to service the United Center, a Olympic Venue. That is just my speculation, perhaps someone with better CTA knowledge could opine on the subject.

The Alternatives Analysis study is still in progress at the CTA. That study has NOT limited the options down to a rail line yet, meaning that a BRT option is still on the table. This is, in fact, a far cheaper and more likely outcome. The BRT alignment, the last I heard, would run along Ashland and Ogden and it would involve a reconstruction of the Ogden Ave Bridge in some capacity in order to bring buses to the North/Clybourn area.

Also, $8 million is very high for a mere study - you'll note that similar studies for the Red and Orange Lines are only getting $250,000 each. This amount almost seems like the cost of early engineering - actually nailing down a specific alignment, which buildings need to come down, where streets need to be reconfigured, etc.

Well, ok. I was born and raised in Rogers Park. And have walked all over it probably from before you were born, I am 38, some of my relatives and several of my friends, who I grew with who are cops in 24, that would be district. I think I have an idea about what I am talking about when it comes to RP.

I spent an awful lot of time with people in Ignatius, and Gertrudes, and MArgaret MAry's and Jerome's ...those are parishes...its one way we distinguished who was from where.

I have lived in several areas of the city, all on the north side though. I currently own a house west of those cursed metra tracks your friend speaks about in horror....and I can assure you it is not crawling with gangbangers......there are some seedier areas near granville across from emerson park (I was born in that area)....and also in north rogers park..north of potawattamie (sp??). I walk in those areas on a nearly daily basis and have never had a problem. In fact the only problem I ever had in RP was closer to Loyola, right outside my apartment when I was a junior at Loyola, and I was stuck up a gunpoint at my front door.

Anyhow....I was objecting to your statement that by traveling in a certain areas that one is asking to be attacked. That statement is nonsense. Whether it is wise or not is open to discusion.


To answer your question...I felt like going for a nice long ride, it was warm....and it has been a long, cold winter & I ride down ashland all the time to go downtown

I don't know why anyone would be worried about crime on that route, I'd be a lot more worried about getting hit by a damn truck.

^ I hope it's not BRT

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,6499767.story

'Monster train' fears rising in suburbs

First 2 Canadian National trains roll down suburban line on Tuesday

By Richard Wronski | Tribune reporter
March 11, 2009

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/...3/45512748.jpgTraffic backs up on Illinois Highway 59 in Barrington as the second Canadian National Railway train of the day passes through the suburb Tuesday. The railroad plans to add four more trains per day on the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway over the coming weeks. (Tribune photo by Stacey Wescott / March 10, 2009)

Amid fears of monster trains running through their communities, residents saw the first two Canadian National Railway trains roll down a suburban line Tuesday, one of them a nearly mile-long freight that will be the first of many.

Although opponents of the CN's purchase of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway have raised concerns about supersized trains up to 2 miles long, CN described the new arrivals Tuesday as "normal" freight trains.

The trains were "typical for the hundreds of freight trains that move through Chicago every day," said CN spokesman Patrick Waldron.

The railroad would not discuss the lengths, but one of the trains was 130 cars, about one-mile long by the Tribune's count. That is more than twice the average length of trains that ran on the lightly used EJ&E.

Suburban officials have feared trains 1.5 miles in length or longer, enough to close all of the crossings simultaneously in a village such as Barrington. The railroad has said that some communities will see more than 40 trains a day on the EJ&E.

Village President Karen Darch said the three to five EJ&E trains that formerly ran through Barrington often traveled at night. They were not considered a safety hazard and did not pose significant traffic delays, she said.

Now, Darch says, she worries about people who may have become complacent with the rail crossings.

"I have this vision of kids walking to school, not paying attention, not having seen a lot of trains," Darch said. "Now they may be taking risks they shouldn't. That's a huge fear."

The CN trains Tuesday ran between Mundelein and Matteson. The railroad plans to add four more trains per day on the EJ&E over the next three weeks, Waldron said.

Thirty-three Illinois and Indiana communities along the line face a tripling or quadrupling of freight traffic as the CN reroutes its freights around Chicago's congested rail corridor.

The EJ&E line runs 198 miles from Waukegan to Joliet to Gary.

As the trains rolled Tuesday, other suburban officials questioned when CN would begin implementing mandated safety measures, such as cameras to monitor rail-highway crossings.

CN said those plans are in the works and are part of the railroad's three-year process to carry out the federal Surface Transportation Board's decision giving CN approval to buy the EJ&E for $300 million.

More trains mean emergency responders could face more delays, Barrington Fire Chief James Arie said. Every additional minute that cardiac patients experience waiting for treatment cuts their survivability by 10 percent, he said.

"It's the frequency of the trains that's the issue for Barrington," Arie said. "When you have lots of trains and lots of long trains, those are going to pose a challenge for us that affects our operations."

Aurora residents on Tuesday began phoning the city to complain about the additional trains, Mayor Tom Weisner said.

"It's the beginning over a two- or three-year period in which we'll see [rail] traffic quadruple," Weisner said. "So we're just in the early stages of this. … It's the start of some serious problems for our community."

Weisner and Darch are co-chairs of a coalition of suburbs that has been fighting the CN's plans to reroute freights. They have challenged the transportation board's decision in federal court.

So has the CN, which objects to the board's order that it pay the bulk of the cost of constructing two rail overpasses, one in Lynwood and the other in Aurora, which could run $70 million.

CN has reached agreements with 11 communities to create quiet zones, install safety fencing, implement noise mitigation and take other steps.

The Montreal-based railroad said the acquisition will streamline rail operations, reduce congestion and bolster the Chicago region's economy.

Tribune reporter Russell Working contributed to this report.

rwronski@tribune.com

^^
Too bad. The railroads were there first. They mean commerce. They mean jobs. Time for those people to pay for the under and over passes if they want to avoid the train delays. For some reason car owners always think they are gods or something and deserve special treatment and consideration. Just by cutting down their 12 trips to 7-11 down to 6 trips a day they would reduce their chances of being delayed by 50%.

True - Aurora wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for the railroad.

Are they going to do a story on the people in Blue Island whose lives have been made easier by the re-routing of the trains on the EJ&E?

A lot of the current work is things like line straightening and grade separation, which would be useful in setting up a true HSR system on that alignment later.

How do you figure? Aurora was a mill town and industrial center 20 years before the railroad came through.

might have been referring to it's growth as a suburb. The commuter line hasn't done nearly as much as highways to sprawl out aurora, but I agree with the general argument. Complaining to your town about congestion from trains that are only out where you are because they too are avoiding congestion is just wonderful.

Move to the city where flyovers are being added and at grade crossings are being eliminated. Either way there will be congestion if you're driving unless you choose to not live or work in a metropolitan area. Or if you use grade separated public transit. Boo yah.

That's exactly what I tell everyone out here. You can't sprawl across all the farm and industrial land, then choke off Chicago from the frieght lines.
And that "horrible" traffic is nothing. That's Palatine every day, deal with it Barrington.

#1, How damn stupid are these kids, and where are the parrents?
#2, Barrington has 30 Metra trains a day. What kid out there doesn't understand how a railroad works?

You're right - what I meant to say is that Aurora wouldn't have stayed a decent-sized city with an independent existence from Chicago without any railroad access.

You took that a bit literally, don't you think?

From wikipedia:

Seems to me that the "railroads" were a pretty integral part of Aurora's economic development and a huge part of their historical employment. But yes, you are correct that Aurora existed before the railroads. :rolleyes:

Yeah, but....in the 1870's aurora's population was 10,000 give or take...it is now probably approaching 180K

The vast, vast majority of Aurora is post RR...approx 95%. I think that is what he meant

No excuse not to build an over/underpass now though. Having traffic of all kinds (mass, cars, trains, freight, air, etc.) moving efficiently should be a top priority, especially to a region like this one. Glad the big freight trains are coming through but now it is time to move the cars through efficiently. I am shocked at how many at-grade crossings are in this region where traffic just sits and waits--there is no excuse it's not like underpasses are hugely expensive.

Eh?

[QUOTE Are they going to do a story on the people in Blue Island whose lives have been made easier by the re-routing of the trains on the EJ&E?[/QUOTE]

Yeah and up in Central & Northern Lake County where the CN line continues the same heavy load as before the EJE purchase. The railroad has made no promises to build overpasses etc. Those babys' in Barrington fought over the STAR line with the same argument.

Does anybody know how close we are to finally getting the Englewood Overpass built?

what do people think of extending orange line not only to Ford City Mall, but west from there to the Toyota center, along the corridor between the neighborhoods to the south and industrial warehouses to the north?

just came to mind while trying to figure out fastest transit to and from fire games

AFAIK, usually it's adults that get hit by trains, not kids. Adults think they can hit the gas or run across the tracks before the train gets there, and sometimes their timing is a bit off. Kids usually know to stand back when they hear something loud.

No kidding. Remember this accident from a few years ago? The woman tried to beat the train and ended up killing herself and 2 of her kids.

Dear uptight Barrington Residents,

http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...g?t=1236963014


Hope the train horn is nice and loud.

My only sympathies are with emergency vehicles and increased response time. Of course, a responsible community long spit by two railways would build fire stations and the like, in different areas of the community over the last 100 years.

Its been talked about on here before. There is a Com-Ed ROW that could take the Orange Line from Ford City to Bridgeview, but the cheapest way to go, would probably be along the Bedford Park railyard, as there are no grade crossings to deal with and the tracks can be laid right on the ground. I pitched the idea that the Toyota Park parking lots can be used as very cheap remote airport parking in the off-season.

I think it would be a worthwhile venture, there is not any competing service to downtown in that area, and the train would greatly shorten commutes to both the Loop and Midway. Plus we could then shorten many PACE and CTA bus routes, which would bring down the travel time and operating costs of those routes.

That said, I do believe the Red Line extension, Mid-City Transitway and Clinton-Larabee subway should get priority over this. Ah, one can dream, right?

as a huge fire fan I'm constantly trying to figure out ways where this would work. basically that intersection needs to develop with some retail, restaurants, bars etc because TP alone can't support that stop. a combination of toyota park, future water park, retail, airport parking, and park-n-ride capabilities could probably warrant an extension since the ROW exists intact. but yeah, there are more important things on the CTA drawing board than this, even the extension to ford city can streamline transit to the area.

I am unfamiliar with the aforementioned clinton-larabee subway....is this an acitve proposal? can you provide a link , details

its a CDOT proposal which would run a subway down larabee and clinton and meet up with the red line at around 15th. its pretty difficult to find any details on it online, I've only learned about it through this board.

Barrington does have fire stations on both sides of the EJ&E. The article mentioned ambulances specifically, since the closest hospital is on one side of the tracks (Good Shepherd) and there is no close hospital on the other side. The nearest o.ne would be Alexian Brothers.

Hopefully the traffic on these rails will rapidly increase until there is a continuous line of train cars completely circling Chicago and cutting off all of the outer suburbs from the source of their wealth, the City. Then hopefully the disincentives caused by train noise and traffic will cause them to dry up and shrivel like plants with too little water in the hot sun...

Funny how train horns oversees aren't an issue at all.They don't even sound the same. Is the audibility and frequancy of NA train horns something the NTSB insists on or is obnoxiously blaring your locomotive horn an American engineer tradition?

I'm pretty sure that a lot of the excessive horn-blaring is done at the engineer's discretion, because towns and cities are able to establish "quiet zones" where the use of horn is prohibited. If it were an FRA regulation, then those quiet zones wouldn't be able to exist legally.

It's an FRA regulation that trains must sound their horns at every grade crossing. The regulations also specify that if certain steps are followed exactly, with certain types of signals and gates at every crossing, a municipality can request a "quiet zone" exemption.

I stand corrected.