[Chicago] Chicago plans $15.5 Billion in transportation infrastructure improvements

[GRDadof3]

Some of the 2020 proposal includes:

) New high speed express CTA service between the airports and downtown

) A $500 Million cap over portions of the Kennedy Expwy

) Shifting Lake Shore Drive East to make way for bike and pedestrian paths, from Navy Pier North to the Oak Street curve (probably getting rid of that service drive that runs along LSD near the W Hotel)

) A new 4 level (underground) $6 Billion transportation center underneath Clinton Street

) A new Carroll Ave transitway

) A new Lakeshore transitway

) A new West Loop Clinton subway

) New bike lanes, a new West Loop bike station and expanded water taxi service

New Transportation Center:

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1503475,C...ction31.article

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webport...mp;context=dept

Interesting stat: 578,000 people travel into downtown Chicago every day, with 52% riding some kind of transit.

[Neo]

This is amazing if they can pull it off financially. Regarding the high speed CTA line to the airports, I assume they would be using the existing lines? There really isn't a way to have an express line on either of those corridors unless they put down additional track and I'm not sure that would be possible in many areas. It takes ~45 minutes from O'Hare to downtown and I think about 30 minutes from Midway to downtown. I've never thought those times were that bad to be honest.

I believe New York has a similar plan for an underground transit center.

[mgman]

This is amazing if they can pull it off financially. Regarding the high speed CTA line to the airports, I assume they would be using the existing lines? There really isn't a way to have an express line on either of those corridors unless they put down additional track and I'm not sure that would be possible in many areas. It takes ~45 minutes from O'Hare to downtown and I think about 30 minutes from Midway to downtown. I've never thought those times were that bad to be honest.

I believe New York has a similar plan for an underground transit center.

[Neo]

I believe the plan for the airport express trains would be to put down two passing tracks along the route and let the express trains pass the locals there.

This seems a bit hard to do (if they're wanting to keep costs low which I assume they are) considering there is very limited space to construct the passing tracks, particularly for the blue line to O'hare. Seems to me that they would need to touch the expressway and this just doesn't seem possible.

This is a typical section of this line and is obvious to see the complications that would arise:

[mgman]

I agree with you that there is not very much space anywhere along the Blue line. I also question whether or not there will be that much time saving if they only use 2 passing tracks but something tells me that we will not see any kind of implementation any time soon. Here is a link to an article I found that talks extensively about the project from 2005:

Express trains to O'Hare

The two passing tracks would be located here:

pass track 1

and here

pass track 2

I think the track closest to O'Hare would require a lot of construction on the Kennedy as well

This entire plan has always seemed to me that no one was actually going to sit and fully plan any part of the project.

How are you going to provide express service?

We will let some private company work it out.

How are you going to pay for it?

We will let somebody else figure it out.

Unfortunately as evidenced by the parking meter disaster, that is how the city works now.

[GRDadof3]

I agree with you that there is not very much space anywhere along the Blue line. I also question whether or not there will be that much time saving if they only use 2 passing tracks but something tells me that we will not see any kind of implementation any time soon. Here is a link to an article I found that talks extensively about the project from 2005:

Express trains to O'Hare

The two passing tracks would be located here:

pass track 1

and here

pass track 2

I think the track closest to O'Hare would require a lot of construction on the Kennedy as well

This entire plan has always seemed to me that no one was actually going to sit and fully plan any part of the project.

How are you going to provide express service?

We will let some private company work it out.

How are you going to pay for it?

We will let somebody else figure it out.

Unfortunately as evidenced by the parking meter disaster, that is how the city works now.

[Nashville_maestro]

This is amazing if they can pull it off financially. Regarding the high speed CTA line to the airports, I assume they would be using the existing lines? There really isn't a way to have an express line on either of those corridors unless they put down additional track and I'm not sure that would be possible in many areas. It takes ~45 minutes from O'Hare to downtown and I think about 30 minutes from Midway to downtown. I've never thought those times were that bad to be honest.

I believe New York has a similar plan for an underground transit center.

[Allison Slater]

What's with New York and Chicago always trying to one-up each other?

Anyway I would like to see some of the money spent on resurfacing the Dan Ryan. Last time I was there it was pretty horrific but then again, traffic is usually so bad on it that you can't go fast enough to feel the bumps/potholes anyway. I AM glad that Chicago is spending serious money on transit though.

[Neo]

Keep having problems with UP giving errors when I post, and I have to retype. Really don't feel like retyping it all, so in short.. I like the rivalry, element of days gone by that still persists, and competition is healthy.

Hmm, if you continue to have errors posting please PM or e-mail me and we'll see if we can't get them resolved.

Regarding the rivalry...it is certainly healthy. Just as we benefit from companies who compete with one another, we also benefit with cities compete with one another.

[Allison Slater]

Haven't had any issues since the above.. it was like a single-day sort of thing.