CHICAGO: Transit Developments

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

There were a lot of tidbits Derwinski shared at the meeting during the Q&A portion. He mentioned the CTA is looking at a station near Ogden/Lake, which Metra has to account for when considering transfers to their potential Fulton Market station

This is a perfect argument for consolidating the RTA.

[Mister Uptempo]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Metra CEO Derwinski announced yesterday they are looking to boost speeds on Metra Electric from 65mph up to 79mph, and maybe even 90mph. Apparently it just requires some minor upgrades to the signaling and OCS power systems.

At 65mph, the express trains on the Main Line do Homewood-Hyde Park in 20 minutes, and Homewood-Millennium in 37 minutes. Per my back-of-envelope math, boosting speeds to 90mph would reduce this to about 16 minutes and 32 minutes respectively. There's not as much benefit for local trains, since they won't have time to get up to 90mph between stops.

I believe the work is being done in conjunction with the South Shore. I read somewhere Metra and NICTD will be jointly applying for federal money to make the improvements (track improvements, bi-directional signalling, constant tension catenary). For the South Shore, the goal is to get South Bend-Millenium Station times down to 90 minutes or less.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

There were a lot of tidbits Derwinski shared at the meeting during the Q&A portion. He mentioned the CTA is looking at a station near Ogden/Lake, which Metra has to account for when considering transfers to their potential Fulton Market station

That's interesting, but it's still a 2 block walk... less than ideal. The Fulton Market station would have entrances at Ashland and Ogden, so Metra riders would already have a CTA transfer at Ashland/Lake.

If CTA is doing an infill station it should be at Elizabeth, exactly halfway between Morgan and Ashland. Ogden doesn't have a bus, there's no reason to put a station there (although a new bus route could be useful).

[Chi-Sky21]

I am with ardecila on this Ogden and Lake makes no sense. Ashland stop is right there.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

I am with ardecila on this Ogden and Lake makes no sense. Ashland stop is right there.

The Ashland stop is in pretty rough shape. Maybe the plan is to finish the Damen stop, build an Ogden stop, and remove the Ashland stop altogether?

Doesn't make much sense considering the high ridership on the Ashland bus, but I can't think of another reason you would build another stop so close.

[Chi-Sky21]

I suppose you could make it one really long canopy from Ogden to Ashland and have the stop right in the middle with entrances at both streets.

[ardecila]

I wouldn’t say Ashland is in rough shape. It was rebuilt completely in the late 90s. It just needs a deep clean, a paint job and maybe an elevator overhaul.

Also I forgot the auxiliary stairs at Justine have high barrier gates, so you can already enter there, just 700 feet from Ogden.

[bnk]

Not personally transit of people on rail but rail traffic that has do deal with Metra and Amtrack.
I like of the investments in the video but felt like there was more to explain about the future expansion in this video. Who here follow CREATE and how many more years and dollars are still in the pipeline too flush it out the best we can get from the Feds? I hope none of their original goals got scaled back because the timeline and the money is like a little Deep Tunnel. So that said Scaling back the new O'Hare terminal is worrisome.

• Video Link

[ardecila]

No local announcements yet, but CTA was awarded $111M from the USDOT Reconnecting Communities program, for reconstruction of the Blue Line Congress Branch from Kedzie to Pulaski. (A previous grant awarded in 2022 also included funding to rebuild the Pulaski station for accessibility.)

The Reconnecting Communities program also awarded $2M to the city for a study about how to better link West Side neighborhoods that were split by the Eisenhower. This is good timing, since IDOT will be rebuilding many of the bridges over the Eisenhower in the next 10-15 years, so now is the time to plan for pedestrian bridges, widened sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and even maybe deck parks. Oak Park has already launched a planning effort for that stuff, so this will cover the city side from Austin to Damen.

[left of center]

Will this also coincide with the widening of the Eisenhower to 4 lanes between Austin and Hillside? I'm normally not an advocate for widening expressways, but having 290 go from 4 lanes down to 3 makes for some traffic headaches. Inbound is currently poorly configured as well, with the merging of the north leg of 290 and I-88.

[Tcmetro]

IDOT still hasn't found funding for the Eisenhower reconstruction from Austin to 88/294. With this news CTA still needs to figure out:

• IMD to Kedzie including Western Station
• Pulaski to Forest Park including Cicero, Austin, Oak Park, Harlem stations
• Forest Park terminal and yard

CTA previously applied for a MEGA grant for Cicero to Austin but didn't receive it.

[ardecila]

Yes, the whole Congress Branch needs to be rebuilt and CTA is doing it one section at a time, as funding allows. Track is the priority but they need to do stations as well since most are not handicap-accessible. Most of the line is under 15mph slow zones for several years now, it is a painfully slow literal crawl out to Forest Park.

Last year they rebuilt the track from IMD to Clinton, and there is an ongoing project to rebuild the Racine station that should be gearing up very soon.

[Busy Bee]

How exactly is it possible for track to get so bad they have to have multiple slow zones anyways? Is this an erosion issue?

[ardecila]

Yes. The storm drains ain't draining, so the ballast and subgrade under the tracks is permanently soaked.

[Busy Bee]

That's what I thought but couldn't remember.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by left of center

Will this also coincide with the widening of the Eisenhower to 4 lanes between Austin and Hillside? I'm normally not an advocate for widening expressways, but having 290 go from 4 lanes down to makes for some traffic headaches. Inbound is currently poorly configured as well, with the merging of the north leg of 290 and I-88.

What your not a fan of the Hillside Strangler?

https://www.urbandictionary.com/defi...de%20Strangler

[left of center]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Yes. The storm drains ain't draining, so the ballast and subgrade under the tracks is permanently soaked.

Wow, awful. Is that new pumping station being built along the Des Plaines River going to help with any of that? Granted, its about half a mile west from the Forest Park terminal, so might not have that much of an effect on the majority of the track bed.

Originally Posted by bnk

What your not a fan of the Hillside Strangler?

https://www.urbandictionary.com/defi...de%20Strangler

Hah, you can count me as a hater of the strangler

I don't have to drive it all that often thankfully, but my in laws live in the far western burbs, so it is a necessary evil from time to time.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by left of center

Wow, awful. Is that new pumping station being built along the Des Plaines River going to help with any of that? Granted, its about half a mile west from the Forest Park terminal, so might not have that much of an effect on the majority of the track bed.

The pump station increases capacity downstream, but I believe the problem is more localized. The expressway and the CTA tracks share a common storm drain system and many of those branch lines are collapsed or clogged. They're also hard to repair with 8 lanes of roaring traffic going 24/7. CTA has been repairing these when they close the tracks for construction.

[Randomguy34]

Looks like they won't begin construction on Kedzie-Homan to Pulaski until summer 2027....

https://chicago.suntimes.com/transpo...-accessibility

[Randomguy34]

Holy shit, RTA is flexing their ability to bypass municipalities' home rule after transit advocates pointed out Chicago/Halsted's redesign being auto-centric. They're now calling for bus lanes in both directions for the surrounding intersection. This is a major paradigm shift for the RTA. This could be the start of RTA pushing bus lanes across the city without needing CDOT's approval!

https://www.rtachicago.org/uploads/f...d_bus_memo.pdf