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Originally Posted by emathias
Apparently you've never tried to get from Clinton and Adams to Chicago and Fairbanks in anything resembling a reasonable amount of time.
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Actually that is extremely easy. Walk one block east from Clinton and Adams, hop on the 151 and ride to Chicago and Michigan the walk one more block east and you are there... I take the train from Union all the time to go back to Milwaukee and I lived at Pearson and State all last year, the 151 is really a breeze on that route except during rush hour when using all busses (and most trains) in downtown sucks...
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As for the North Lakefront, it's probably the ONLY place in Chicago that could really justify added rail right now based on density and existing transit usage. Yellow Line extension might be cheaper, but how many more riders would it get? 2-3,000? Not until you got to Irving Park would a North Lakefront Line get within 3/4 of a mile of the existing Red Line, and if that were really a bad thing you could join the Red Line by the Sheridan stop. A north Lakefront Line would probably have more riders than the Circle Line.
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Yes, if ran it along the lakefront it would not get within 3/4 of a mile of the Red line, but that would also be the least efficient place to put it. You don't run transit lines along the edges of density, you run them through the middle of it. If you put it under the park or LSD for example, the you are only using 50% of the potential area that could be served by such a line since there are only buildings on one side of it. That would be a complete waste of money and capacity. Adding to that, we already have a perfectly fine and efficiant (and cheaper) express bus system that serves the highest density along the lake and is MUCH faster than any train...
So putting it along LSD or through the park would be a waste. What if you were to try and put it in the dense areas like I suggest instead. Let me ask you where exactly you would plan to run it through the north neighborhoods. The street grid is completely messed up until you reach about Irving park where the constancy returns. This would only magnify the costs of putting in a train line and make it run slower due to more curves...
@ Honte, where on the northside would this create new density? Streeterville? That's completely built out. Gold Coast? Completely built out within 4 blocks of the lake. Lincoln Park? Also built out between the Red Line and the lake not to mention crawling with anti-density NIMBYs. Lakeview? Also built out, though less so than LP and GC. I think the best shot for more density would be Uptown which is already rapidly filling in and is much better served by the Red Line than LP and GC...
I really don't understand where you guys are seeing any benefits or practicality here... We shouldn't be running a train line along the freest flowing bus routes in the city, we should put it somewhere that busses get snarled in traffic all the time... I'm thinking a line that uses the pink line and heads N/S along the West side would be far more likely to jumpstart growth...
For example, the Northside would gain a lot more benefit from an El that ran roughly along Ashland. Have it start and Howard with the Redline, but go along the existing Metra ROW. Then it would meet up with the Brown line where the Brownline goes N-S allowing for E-W transfers, then continue along the Metra south until it hits the river/Kennedy where it would go along ashland south to the pinkline and then maybe extend it to end at the Orange line or something. Then place Superstations at the intersections between it and other lines like at Ashland and Lake. It would actually be useful to people who don't have express buses or the Red Line right at their door and would service the already dense Ashland/Clark Corridor in RP and Andersonville as well as encouraging density and growth between it and the Red line... And, gasp, you could actually go somewhere in the more western neighborhoods of Chicago without wasting time going all the way downtown and then back out again...