Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
Again, I'm not sure we have the kind of development to justify more rail. We've already got the rail system LA is building, and it's not operating at capacity like New York's, DC's, or San Francisco's.
There is indeed a large and growing demand for transit downtown, but we also have a huge infrastructure to serve it - two subways and the Loop, plus four commuter rail terminals. Transit between different parts of downtown is better accomplished by buses, which is why CTA is sinking money into bus lanes with prepaid boarding.
I know it's not sexy, but if we came into a few billion dollars, it needs to go towards rebuilding the north Red/Purple Line and renovating downtown stations. As I mentioned a few pages back, decent transfer facilities at Jackson/Van Buren and State/Lake would be huge, even better than the one at Roosevelt.
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There are some areas overserved by bus and underserved by rail.
If you live in east Lincoln Park, it can take 30 minutes to get to the Loop at rush hour. For a neighborhood that's only 2-3 miles from the Loop, that's absurd. If there was a subway, that time could be halved.
A subway that ran along the Lakefront, had a transfer point at Clark/Division, ran through Streeterville, through Grant Park, through the South Loop past McCormick Place to the south Lakefront would be of enormous utility, would get hundreds of buses a day off the roads. If you joined that with a cross-loop subway from the West Loop, you could create routes that serve all sorts of purposes. Then adding things like sending the Pink Line to join a Lakefront line directly along 16th Street, BRT or a tramway on Chicago Ave with underground routing east of Orleans until east of Michigan, and a Clinton Street Subway would really enhance the ability of the Central Area to attract transit riders. Suddenly Lincoln Park would have less cars to worry about, the South Lakefront would gain new residents, conventioneers could get from North Michigan to McCormick without using up all the cabs or clogging the streets with literally hundreds of special-purpose shuttles. What would it cost to do all of that? Less than what L.A. is spending, and we'd probably see dramatic increases in ridership, especially if coupled with serious TOD zoning changes (improvements).