CHICAGO: Transit Developments

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

No. The Red Line is on a steep incline at Kinzie to get under the river.

While I agree its unnecessary, expensive and would never happen, subway stations on inclines do exist and are pretty interesting. The Rector Street station on the R line in New York is my favorite of any I've encountered. Because of the incline caused by the tunnels' decent under the East River, the station serves as a geographical marker much more than other stations do. I find that interesting:


nycsubway.org

[Mr Downtown]

New York subway cars have air brakes. Chicago rapid transit cars only have dynamic and track brakes.

[jpIllInoIs]

Perfect price for College students!!!

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=50741&src=143

Megabus is expanding its offerings of bright blue bus rides from Chicago to include Bloomington-Normal. The express bus service launched in Chicago last year will begin offering daily service to and from Bloomington-Normal on Monday. Megabus officials say tickets can be had for as little as $1. All booking for Megabus must be done online at www.megabus.com Megabus operates daily rides to 13 cities in the Midwest, including Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.

[Chicago3rd]

Brownline "L" platform mistake? Handicapped Accessibility?

First does anyone know if the floor height on the "L" trains is a set height throught the system?

Today at the new Belmont "L" station the operator had to come out of the cab to get a ramp (which doesn't fit the train door and had to be used backwards) because the train is about 2-3 inches too high for the wheelchair to get over.

Will they be putting one more layer of floor on the new platform to make it so the trains are really accessible?

How could CTA make such a design blunder?

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by Chicago3rd

Brownline "L" platform mistake? Handicapped Accessibility?

First does anyone know if the floor height on the "L" trains is a set height throught the system?

Today at the new Belmont "L" station the operator had to come out of the cab to get a ramp (which doesn't fit the train door and had to be used backwards) because the train is about 2-3 inches too high for the wheelchair to get over.

Will they be putting one more layer of floor on the new platform to make it so the trains are really accessible?

How could CTA make such a design blunder?

It's no design blunder, it's the joys of full handicap-accessibility on the rail system. There is of course a design height for platforms, but over the centuries the structures have settled somewhat so its not always precise (the old platforms at Sedgwick were probably a good 4 inches lower than the railcar floor), and further the height of the floor varies depending on the load on the car (it's supported by air shocks, just like an auto). The protocol is that when a handicapped passenger boards, the operator asks where they are getting off to radio ahead so the customer assistant at that station can be ready with the gap-filler. You'll notice every station has a narrow, upright square shaped metal box where the gap-filler is stored. The 1-3 minute delays everytime a wheelchair-bound passenger boards/alights is an oft-ignored factor that affects service reliability (imagine what this does your schedule, cumulatively).

The new railcars on order are supposed to have an active suspension that raises/lowers the floor height upon berthing at a station, but I'm not sure if that will reduce the requirement for the gap-filler.

[Chicago3rd]

Originally Posted by VivaLFuego

It's no design blunder, it's the joys of full handicap-accessibility on the rail system. There is of course a design height for platforms, but over the centuries the structures have settled somewhat so its not always precise (the old platforms at Sedgwick were probably a good 4 inches lower than the railcar floor)......

But this is Belmont which is totally "NEW". And other rails I have been on have a lip that drops down each time the door opens...covering the hole and drop.

[Chicago3rd]

Please discard - Double Posting

Thanks!

[j korzeniowski]

i swear to god i hate this state's democratic leadership.

CTA to detail severe cuts
New changes would take effect Jan. 1

Jon Hilkevitch | Getting Around
October 8, 2007

The Chicago Transit Authority this week will unveil a new and more severe round of service cuts and fare hikes to take place Jan. 1 unless the stalemate over state transit funding is broken.

Link, Chicago Tribune

[j korzeniowski]

The realities of transit

By Richard F. Harnish
October 7, 2007

Why have Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the Illinois General Assembly had such a difficult time agreeing on a transit budget?

When a dispute turns deep, bitter, personal and prolonged, something more than just disagreement over ways and means and outcomes is going on. Mere negotiation -- "You give me a little more of this and I'll demand less of that" -- doesn't work anymore. The parties are out of touch with reality -- probably because it changed while they weren't looking. To help get our leaders back in touch, here's the transit reality check they've been missing.

Link, Chicago Tribune

[DHamp]

^^ Words to live by.

I've been thinking, where's the pro-transit rally? Us Chicagoans on this forum all seem to really care about transit. We need to take this message out there and make it be known that people who vote these clowns into office actually DO care about transit funding. They have no problem throwing gobs money at highway construction so we know they aren't strapped for cash. And it's OUR money they refuse to spend on US they way WE want. Where's the outrage?

[dboggie]

LSD Construction?

Saw signs this weekend that the Belmont ramps to LSD will be closed from mid-Oct until the end of Nov. Does anyone know what is going on, I could not find any information? Thanks!

[j korzeniowski]

Originally Posted by dboggie

LSD Construction?

Saw signs this weekend that the Belmont ramps to LSD will be closed from mid-Oct until the end of Nov. Does anyone know what is going on, I could not find any information? Thanks!

oh yeah, i saw that, too. (at first i thought about the spire work vis-a-vis lane closures, but ... erm ... that wouldn't really affect belmont, would it?)

saw the same signs, but i can't help you.

despite my transit rantings and ravings, i do love driving lsd, especially in the summer with new visitors to chicago. still, lsd is in pretty poor shape, so maybe the belmont closing has to do something with that? also, it gets kind of hairy with the exit/on ramp near melrose, so maybe they are addressing that.

maybe they are beginning work on a brt lane ...

... a boy can dream, eh?

[orulz]

Originally Posted by DHamp

Silver Line:

I borrowed this idea largely from this website: http://www.grayline.20m.com/ I renamed it the Silver line to coincide with the 2016 Olympics. It uses the Metra Electric ROWs to provide more frequent CTA service to the south lakefront and free up the Metra from making inner-city stops other than a few transfers -- speeding up Metra service as well. I only removed the Blue Island branch because the extended Red Line services the same area. The 99th/Ewing Branch (revamp of Metra's South Chicago branch) needs to be subway since frequent CTA service on the surface would be dangerous and create traffic havoc.

Originally Posted by ardecila

I'm pretty sure the Silver Line Proposal (or some form of it) will be the cornerstone of the city's Olympic transit plan. The secondary components would probably be Airport Express and either the Cicero Line or the Circle Line. The city may also attempt to link the Silver Line to the Red/Green Lines by using the St. Charles Air Line after it is vacated, which is a bit more feasible than your Roosevelt Road alignment.

Since CN is going to vacate the entire Saint Charles Air Line north of 95th street, how about this: take the SCAL right-of-way, and just turn it into the Silver Line.

There's a plan actually on the books - the West Loop Transportation Center and the Clinton-Larrabee subway - that your map leaves out. Well, if those plans were to happen, do this:

-Move the Brown Line to the Clinton/Larrabee subway
-Run it underground to Clinton and 14th, and then over the old SCAL bridge (or the B&O but that's probably hopeless) onto the SCAL. Transfer to Metra and Red Line at 16th & Clark; Green and Orange at 16th & Wabash.
-Connect the new Brown Line into the cut-and-cover subway at 71st.

That's all transit geek fantasy, though; more likely, the SCAL will be turned into light rail, or a busway, or a trail.

[Mr Downtown]

Originally Posted by orulz

Since CN is going to vacate the entire Saint Charles Air Line north of 95th street

The St Charles Air Line is only the east-west link along 16th Street, between Y Junction (with the CN/IC) and the Panhandle west of Western.

The Grey Line is a proposal to run the Metra Electric (not the CN/IC) on CTA-style headways with fare integration.

[orulz]

^^^ you're right about the St Charles Air Line and the Gray Line.

The Gray Line is a simple, very pragmatic approach grounded in reality to increasing transit service. It would use Highliner equipment on the existing tracks, but with shorter headways and with CTA fare controls.

The original poster of the Fantasy Map, Dhamp instead suggested building the Gray Line as a CTA heavy rail line, mostly replacing the Metra Electric.

My suggestion was to leave the Metra Electric University Park and Blue Island branches intact, and rebuild the Saint Charles Air Line, the freight tracks in the IC Right-of-way, and the ME South Chicago branch into a CTA heavy rail line. This would be possible as CN will no longer need the IC freight tracks or the SCAL once the Grand Crossing connection is built and the EJ&E is integrated into its operations. Finally, The South Chicago CTA line could then be connected to the southern end of the Clinton-Larrabee subway.

This is just as expensive and just as disconnected from reality as most fantasy maps are. These fantasies probably drive realists and people in the industry crazy. If anyone finds this talk annoying maybe we could start a new thread. Anyway, I'm not even from Chicago and its rail infrastructure fascinates me.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by orulz

-Move the Brown Line to the Clinton/Larrabee subway

What then takes the old Brown Line elevated tracks through Old Town and River North?

I thought the idea was to move the Red Line into the Clinton/Larrabee Subway, to serve the reverse commuters heading to Metra, and then run the Circle Line through the State Street Subway.

The Brown Line wouldn't change, although I like the idea of combining it with the Pink Line. That way, ridership numbers for the combined line wouldn't seem so bad, it would reduce workforce, and it would simplify operations.

[jjk1103]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

The St Charles Air Line is only the east-west link along 16th Street, between Y Junction (with the CN/IC) and the Panhandle west of Western.

The Grey Line is a proposal to run the Metra Electric (not the CN/IC) on CTA-style headways with fare integration.

...."CTA-style headways" ?? what does this mean ?

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by jjk1103

...."CTA-style headways" ?? what does this mean ?

Every 10-15 minutes even in the off-peak, as opposed to every 1-2 hours.

[VivaLFuego]

So Daley wants to raise property tax revenue by $100 million per year to pay for libraries.

How many people, how many businesses, depend on libraries?

How many depend on the CTA?

This is getting so absurd.

[Marcu]

Libraries? It all just goes to the general city slush fund. Libraries just sound good on tv.