Will this get built? (Chicago, Westchester: 2015, credit card, employment)

[pvande55]

4 groups show interest in O'Hare express train project - Chicago Tribune
I thought it was a real long shot, considering that any group building the express rail to OHare would have to pay for it. But with four groups interested, it might happen. It would be more expensive, but faster, than the blue line. I doubt the CTA has anything to worry about for the next ten years, though.

[missmeli0501]

The blue line takes forever, but I wouldn't want to pay $30 for a direct train downtown. As a Pilsen resident, it'd be cheaper for me to hop the blue line to Damen and take a Lyft straight south home. Otherwise, I'd suck it up and ride to the pink line for almost no money.

However, I'm not the business class they're after. Maybe people wouldn't think twice if they have transportation coverage, company credit cards, etc.

[compactspace]

It might. Likelihood rises if the city lands any of the new Apple, Amazon or Google offices. Chicago’s core is its biggest asset. That part of the city is growing and thriving, and hooking it up to the airport is sound figure planning.

That said, huge projects like this always hit snags, and the city doesn’t have a lot of money to throw around.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by compactspace

...
That said, huge projects like this always hit snags, and the city doesn’t have a lot of money to throw around.

Which is why it's trying to get a private entity to do as much of it as possible, with the city limiting its contribution to, perhaps, some free land and maybe some investment in linking the express to regular transit. At least that's the goal. If the City can do things to streamline the process of getting it planned and built, that could reduce overall costs enough to make a private entity willing to front a significant chunk of the investment. I'm not sure where I think the best place to put the downtown terminal would be. In a perfect world, it might have a three-station underground loop linking North Michigan, Block 37, and the West Loop Metra stations together. If you built that loop, you could run a circulator on it in between express runs and be win/win. I seriously doubt if anything like that is being planned, though.

[via chicago]

Originally Posted by compactspace

It might. Likelihood rises if the city lands any of the new Apple, Amazon or Google offices. Chicago’s core is its biggest asset. That part of the city is growing and thriving, and hooking it up to the airport is sound figure planning.

its already "hooked up"...

[lepoisson]

These express airport trains are usually not successful in the US. I think it's a waste of money.

[ChiGuy2.5]

I fly a lot for work and I've never thought to myself "oh man this commute to downtown is far too long I need an express option".

Perhaps that's because I'm used to it or because when I fly I know patience is necessary. Either way, what is the motivation to get this built? To save a half hour at 10X the cost... at best? I don't see it happening anytime soon. They would be better off digging the blue line all the way underground and expanding the kennedy a couple of lanes. That's my $.02

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by ChiGuy2.5

I fly a lot for work and I've never thought to myself "oh man this commute to downtown is far too long I need an express option".

Perhaps that's because I'm used to it or because when I fly I know patience is necessary. Either way, what is the motivation to get this built? To save a half hour at 10X the cost... at best? I don't see it happening anytime soon. They would be better off digging the blue line all the way underground and expanding the kennedy a couple of lanes. That's my $.02

The motivation for these things comes from folks who've seen them operate in other places --
https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/lhr_rail.htm
https://www.upexpress.com/
https://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/...t-express.html

I truly have no interest in determining what sort of "fare structure" would make sense for an O'Hare-to-Loop express train, but it is clear that these other services have very "premium" prices that probably would be appealing to the sorts of firms that would like to have something similar in Chicago.

The issue of "why not make the blue line a subway" is similarly driven by concerns over the SPEED OF CONSTRUCTION -- the most optimistic schedules for a publicly run project like the potential 5.3 mile red line extension that would largely be parallel to existing heavy rail surface routes is something like four years IF it gets funded by 2022... As officials plan Red Line extension, there's still no green to fund it - Chicago Tribune The reality is that similar efforts to expand NY's subway have already taken twice that -- https://untappedcities.com/2015/03/0...-rail-lines/4/
Similar efforts are moving at equally glacial pace -- https://www.theverge.com/2015/11/5/9...al-lirr-access

In contrast the most likely provider of privately built express service moves at a whole different pace -- https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...ropulsion-Open
https://hyperloop-one.com/blog/full-...ment-dubai-rta

[dtcbnd03]

I travel a lot for work too and have been to London several times in the past year. This project seems to be a carbon copy of the London Heathrow to Piccadilly (20 miles) via the Heathrow Express. Same travel length, time and cost comparison. Cuts the train time from 45 minutes down to 15 minutes and costs about 25 pounds. I take the Heathrow express over the normal train every time and expense the cost. The Heathrow Express is always full every time I ride it and a more upscale train with 2x2 row seats.

However, I do not think this will work in Chicago. London's population is 9 million people and one of the financial capitals of the world with tons of business and international travel flowing through there. Chicago's population is roughly 3 million and while O'hare sees a lot of traffic it's a lot of people on connecting flights and not necessarily staying and going downtown.

I also travel a lot to NYC and neither Newark, LaGuardia or JFK have express trains to Manhattan. You have to take a bus to train or multiple trains and it takes a while. New York population is 9 million so these companies would be better suited testing it in NYC first and seeing if it works there before trying Chicago.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by dtcbnd03

I travel a lot for work too and have been to London several times in the past year. This project seems to be a carbon copy of the London Heathrow to Piccadilly (20 miles) via the Heathrow Express. Same travel length, time and cost comparison. Cuts the train time from 45 minutes down to 15 minutes and costs about 25 pounds. I take the Heathrow express over the normal train every time and expense the cost. The Heathrow Express is always full every time I ride it and a more upscale train with 2x2 row seats.

However, I do not think this will work in Chicago. London's population is 9 million people and one of the financial capitals of the world with tons of business and international travel flowing through there. Chicago's population is roughly 3 million and while O'hare sees a lot of traffic it's a lot of people on connecting flights and not necessarily staying and going downtown.

I also travel a lot to NYC and neither Newark, LaGuardia or JFK have express trains to Manhattan. You have to take a bus to train or multiple trains and it takes a while. New York population is 9 million so these companies would be better suited testing it in NYC first and seeing if it works there before trying Chicago.

While I already said I have no desire to even attempt to determine what the "fair fare" might be I do think that the VALUE is not simply a function of "population" or even size of the workforce. The thing that really might give the ORD to the Loop "rail super express" a huge boost is the way that ORD is such a massive "funnel" AND how concentrated the Loop employment situation is. Ask anybody who has traveled to "NYC" for business and odds are they've landed at not just Newark, LaGuardia or JFK, but also Teterboro, Westchester and other spots. The range of businesses that have major employment centers in the region means LOTS more folks have to make multiple stops when out there. Very different kind of "regionalism" when looking at firms that have primary business functions in Lake, Cook or DuPage Co...

The fact is that despite growth in the South Loop it is extremely rare for anyone to work south of Roosevelt. Similarly, for better or worse, there is are so few folks working in office setting north of even Chicago Ave that it kind of makes Goose Island the outlier / northern limit. The "diagonal" from Goose Island to Roosevelt & Michigan is less than 3 miles -- less that HALF the distance from NYC's Financial District to the Upper East Side.

Now you don't need a PhD in Urban Transit or Economics to realize that if ALL the tourists and essentially EVERY business person landing at ORD is a potential patron of the "super express rail" this things could make a WHOLE LOT OF MONEY very quickly.