CTA Dan Ryan Red Line Tracks Removed?? (Chicago, Cicero: neighborhoods, income)

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Also it's been proposed to extend the Red Line over 5 miles south to 130th street...

It's been proposed for the CTA to do a lot of things over the past several years, but so many of them are "pie in the sky":

• Dedicated high-speed trains to O'Hare.
• "Super Station" connecting Washington Red Line to said O'Hare trains under Block 37 (already partially constructed).
• Circle line trains allowing cross-town connections between existing lines.

I'd love to see these improvements, but I think the Red Line extension seems like the most likely to move forward for now.

[urbanologist]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

It's been proposed for the CTA to do a lot of things over the past several years, but so many of them are "pie in the sky":

• Dedicated high-speed trains to O'Hare.
• "Super Station" connecting Washington Red Line to said O'Hare trains under Block 37 (already partially constructed).
• Circle line trains allowing cross-town connections between existing lines.

I'd love to see these improvements, but I think the Red Line extension seems like the most likely to move forward for now.

Blue Island residents could find it very useful.

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

• Circle line trains allowing cross-town connections between existing lines.

Even one such line would work miracles. The Bus Rapid Transit proposal connecting train lines on Ashland may be the next best thing.

[prelude91]

Originally Posted by urbanologist

Blue Island residents could find it very useful.

Perhaps, and this is going to probably be an unpopular statement, but is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make traveling into the loop, for mostly low income households, slightly more convenient, really that important?

There are so many other under served (rapid transit wise) parts of the city that would actually have a great impact to the city as a whole, if those dollars were allocatedthere.

[knitgirl]

So they can get to their jobs in the Loop? YEAH, I think that's important!

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by prelude91

Perhaps, and this is going to probably be an unpopular statement, but is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make traveling into the loop, for mostly low income households, slightly more convenient, really that important?

There are so many other under served (rapid transit wise) parts of the city that would actually have a great impact to the city as a whole, if those dollars were allocatedthere.

I still think the Gray line idea is a better, more cost-efficient way to improve transit to the far south side than spending billions on Red line extension. (Proposed Route Map: Metra Electric and New CTA Gray Line)

For those who don't know, the Gray line idea was/is proposed by a random dude (unemployed typewriter repairman, seriously! ) named Mike Payne. It proposes "rebadging" the Metra Electric South Chicago and Blue Island branches as CTA lines, accepting CTA fares, and running with increasing frequencies. No additional capital expenses are required, just operational expenses. As Metra has no incentive to improve service within the city limits, this plan has gone nowhere.

[Irishtom29]

I think the city needs two north to south subways running the entire length of the city; one under Western and one under Cicero. Or EL lines running alongside those streets.

And the Kenwood line should be reopened and the Jackson Park extended through South Shore and down to the East Side, maybe even to the Ford Plant.

It would be a good idea to extend the Congress line back out to Westchester, I think that would benefit Chicago as well as the burbs. Same with extending the Douglas Park out to Harlem.

[prelude91]

Originally Posted by knitgirl

So they can get to their jobs in the Loop? YEAH, I think that's important!

And they can't get there today?

[Lookout Kid]

How about "light rail" running near or in the median of Lake Shore Drive to take the place of all of those express buses? The lakefront has very high density most the way north to Rogers Park, but it can be far from the "L" at certain locations.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

How about "light rail" running near or in the median of Lake Shore Drive to take the place of all of those express buses? The lakefront has very high density most the way north to Rogers Park, but it can be far from the "L" at certain locations.

Seems like a huge expenditure for not much return. BRT could also accomplish the same improvement at a much lower cost.

While a Circle line would be great I think they need to focus on some basic service improvements first. They've got a lot of basic maintenance to perform, along with track and signal upgrades (a lot of which they've been working on). The new trains should help them take advantage of the track and signal upgrades and hopefully alleviate some of the crowding that happens at rush hour on many lines. I've always thought that extending the Brown Line to meet the Blue Line would make a lot of sense.