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Originally Posted by the urban politician
No matter how that new building will look, it’s going to be a massive improvement over what’s there.
But if/when people begin riding the Blue Line en masse again, those trains are going to be packed to the gills
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River West is really part of downtown, you don't have to rely on the Blue Line as much. Pre-Covid, a lot of the people in River West would bike or Divvy to work since it's so close, and there are good bike lanes on Milwaukee/Hubbard/Kinzie. The Milwaukee bus is also an option, or the Grand & Chicago buses for folks that work in River North. For West Loop jobs, a lot of people walk as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mark0
All the more reason for a true circle line. I love the density developments along the blue line corridor but it's far past capacity and even with signal upgrades I dont see it gaining much more capacity. If anything the shift to more work from home and flex hours will be the paradigm shift that makes this density + current track capacity work best. We broke and unless uncle rides in with tons of Federal dollars it just aint happening in our lifetimes.
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I'm not sure how a circle line that doesn't even go downtown would help with the Blue Line capacity...? I think the easiest/cheapest way to relieve the Blue Line is to add a few infill stops to the UP-NW Metra line and run trains every 15 minutes out to Des Plaines. The line already has 3 tracks, so it wouldn't foul up the express trains for the suburbanites.
You could also look at automating the Blue Line so trains come every few minutes (and you'd get nice features like platform doors, etc).