Quote:
Originally Posted by jpIllInoIs
Good to know that the physical access from the street wont be too bad. That bridge over 78th st looks wrecked. Over all the access points will be well north of 79th bus. It is a long walk for transfer and will no doubt be a factor in the ridership.
Surrounding neighborhood is precarious. Abandoned and rundown and empty lots north of 78 st but some newer homes around 79 st.
Metra stop will be a an asset.
But the Metra Rock Island line has some stops just south that are under consideration for closure.
Long term it will be interesting if the "78" development will have a concentration of commercial and office. Then will it have a RI station at 15th street? The addition of a downtown destination for jobs is a boost for the entire southside and especially RI riders.
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The concrete structure at 78th does
look bad, but so do lots of concrete structures from that era like the Bloomingdale Line or the Red Line's North Main. It may indicate structural issues, or it may just be cosmetic. Basically just gotta get the drainage under control, so you strip the ballast down to the concrete deck and
apply dampproofing. Then you can chip away any loose concrete and either
patch the damaged areas or clearcoat them like on the Bloomingdale Line. If there are more serious issues, probably Metra will saw cut the damaged portions and replace them with precast panels, then proceed with the dampproofing. It's possible to do this all at reasonable cost as CTA demonstrated.
As for bus transfers, I'm not sure anyone is looking to transfer from a bus to Metra. The concept released by a neighborhood CDC years ago showed plenty of parking; backers probably imagine most users will drive to the station for an express trip downtown, and somehow this new option will lure the kind of people who would otherwise look in Beverly or the suburbs. People in Auburn can already ride the 79th St bus to the Red Line, but the 79th bus is CTA's busiest route and I have to imagine it's got cattle-car conditions. At least it's getting some improvements to speed it up, per the previous post.
To be honest I kind of agree that this will end up underperforming like Gresham or the various stations on the Metra Electric. The Red Line already offers a quicker alternative for transit riders from Auburn, and I don't think the addition of Metra service will improve the perception of the neighborhood much among homebuyers. I hope I'm wrong. If you drill down it really just seems like people in this neighborhood are demanding the station on equity grounds even if there's no transit planning case for the station.