Quote:
Originally Posted by bcp
It's just plain nuts that there is no stop at UC... is that the parking lot lobby keeping it away?
Curious what is taking the Green line Damen stop so darn long..
|
CTA studied the Near West area about 15 years ago and looked at the pros and cons of various station sites around the UC. Given the realities today, the Green Line at Damen makes more sense than Pink at Madison because:
1) Green Line covers more of the city, out to Oak Park and the South Side
2) there is a major bus transfer to the #50
3) the combination of #50 bus + Green Line is a reliever for the overcrowded Blue Line esp. for Fulton Market workers.
Providing the best service to the United Center is like the 4th-level priority here, it really is an investment in restoring a missing link in the citywide network. The United Center just explains why they are building a new stop at Damen and not Western, which would also serve goals #1-3 equally well.
If they built a Pink Line stop at Madison, it would serve the UC very well but wouldn't add much to the overall CTA network. There would be a transfer to the #20 bus, but that wouldn't be a busy transfer because both the #20 and the Pink Line go to the Loop. There isn't much residential development in that area either; outside of game days, the station would be very poorly used unless the UC parking lots ever fill in with dense residential. Lastly, the Pink Line isn't really set up for gameday crowds. It only runs 4-car trains and the headways aren't that great. The Green Line runs 6-car trains, so there's a lot more capacity to hold sports fans and concert-goers.