Rosemont Blue Line into the City: Good Option? (Berwyn, Lincoln: crime, transfer to)

[zzguy2]

Hey,

I'm a suburban college student who likes to go into the city every change I can. I just found out about the parking lot at the Rosemont stop.

Can you take that into downtown and then have a free transfer to the Brown or Red lines? And the Red and Blue Lines run all night, so even at like 2/3 am on a Saturday night couldn't we take the Red Line south and then transfer to the Blue and take it to Rosemont? If so,

1) How long would it take to go from Rosemont-Fullerton ish say at like 5-7pm on Saturday night.
2.) How long reverse at like 1-3am on Saturday night.
---how often do the Blue Line trains come that late at night? On the CTA website it looked like every 15-30 minutes
3.)Do you have to go up to street level to transfer? Think we'll have any crime problems that late at night?


Thanks for helping me to escape suburbia.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by zzguy2

Hey,

I'm a suburban college student who likes to go into the city every change I can. I just found out about the parking lot at the Rosemont stop.

Can you take that into downtown and then have a free transfer to the Brown or Red lines? And the Red and Blue Lines run all night, so even at like 2/3 am on a Saturday night couldn't we take the Red Line south and then transfer to the Blue and take it to Rosemont? If so,

1) How long would it take to go from Rosemont-Fullerton ish say at like 5-7pm on Saturday night.
2.) How long reverse at like 1-3am on Saturday night.
---how often do the Blue Line trains come that late at night? On the CTA website it looked like every 15-30 minutes
3.)Do you have to go up to street level to transfer? Think we'll have any crime problems that late at night?


Thanks for helping me to escape suburbia.

1- Weekends have been awful for the Blue Line and Red Line for a while due to construction, but that is wrapping up. Check the CTA site to make sure there are no delays due to construction and it should take no more than 45 minutes to get downtown once you get on the train. Another 20 minutes north on the Red Line, once again, check for construction. Depending on construction and where exactly you are headed to it might make sense to get off the Blue line at California and walk up to Fullerton and grab a bus east.

2- same in reverse, but check the schedules, trains run less frequently at that hour. For the reverse trip you could probably save a lot of time taking a cab to the Blue line. Transferring late at night gets time consuming if you don't catch the trains just right.

[Drover]

Not only are delays a concern, but especially on the Blue Line, they have frequently terminated service well southeast of O'Hare on weekends -- sometimes terminating as far southeast as the Irving Park stop -- with shuttle buses picking up the slack. So it would certainly behoove you to make sure the train is actually running to and from Rosemont on any given weekend because otherwise it will be an extremely long haul from Rosemont to downtown.

But if your main attractions are along the Red and Brown lines, hauling in on the Blue Line may not be your best option because you'd have to go all the way down to the Loop to transfer from the Blue Line to the Red or Brown Line and then take whichever all the way back up north to get to your destination.

There are also parking lots along the Brown Line (Kimball, Kedzie and I think Western??) and Red Line (Howard) and those lots are cheaper than the Rosemont lot. Of course, one of the better kept secrets is that there's plenty of open and free parking on Magnolia Avenue -- a residential side-street a block and a half west of the Red Line -- between the 5300 block and the 5600 block, which would put you within easy walking distance (3 minutes or less) of either the Berwyn or Bryn Mawr Red Line stops. I believe Magnolia is one-way south so it's best to approach it from Bryn Mawr Street and work your way south until you find a spot.

[scarletneon]

Originally Posted by Drover

Not only are delays a concern, but especially on the Blue Line, they have frequently terminated service well southeast of O'Hare on weekends -- sometimes terminating as far southeast as the Irving Park stop -- with shuttle buses picking up the slack. So it would certainly behoove you to make sure the train is actually running to and from Rosemont on any given weekend because otherwise it will be an extremely long haul from Rosemont to downtown.

But if your main attractions are along the Red and Brown lines, hauling in on the Blue Line may not be your best option because you'd have to go all the way down to the Loop to transfer from the Blue Line to the Red or Brown Line and then take whichever all the way back up north to get to your destination.

There are also parking lots along the Brown Line (Kimball, Kedzie and I think Western??) and Red Line (Howard) and those lots are cheaper than the Rosemont lot. Of course, one of the better kept secrets is that there's plenty of open and free parking on Magnolia Avenue -- a residential side-street a block and a half west of the Red Line -- between the 5300 block and the 5600 block, which would put you within easy walking distance (3 minutes or less) of either the Berwyn or Bryn Mawr Red Line stops. I believe Magnolia is one-way south so it's best to approach it from Bryn Mawr Street and work your way south until you find a spot.

I'm sure the people that live on street appreciate you giving out that secret.

[Drover]

They can always petition to have their street made a permit-only zone.

[scarletneon]

Originally Posted by Drover

They can always petition to have their street made a permit-only zone.

I'm surprised at how almost all of the parking in Edgewater is free, when people complain so hardcore about there not being enough parking in the neighborhood.

[Drover]

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that there's no permit parking east of Broadway where you have more highrises. But really tight parking west of Broadway is a relatively new phenomenon. When I lived in Andersonville about 10 years ago, I never had to park more than a block away, and that was when I had as many as 3 cars. I drove around there at night recently and it looked almost as tight as Lakeview, the only exception being right along the Metra tracks. But even stretches of Ravenswood (along the tracks) were pretty tight. And this was way late at night on a weekday, so the tight parking wasn't attributable to Clark Street commercial district patrons eating up side-street parking. That said, there were a precious few spots east of Clark late at night, which I figure were left by patrons who had left after the bars closed.

[scarletneon]

Originally Posted by Drover

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that there's no permit parking east of Broadway where you have more highrises. But really tight parking west of Broadway is a relatively new phenomenon. When I lived in Andersonville about 10 years ago, I never had to park more than a block away, and that was when I had as many as 3 cars. I drove around there at night recently and it looked almost as tight as Lakeview, the only exception being right along the Metra tracks. But even stretches of Ravenswood (along the tracks) were pretty tight. And this was way late at night on a weekday, so the tight parking wasn't attributable to Clark Street commercial district patrons eating up side-street parking. That said, there were a precious few spots east of Clark late at night, which I figure were left by patrons who had left after the bars closed.

I just think that maybe a lot of the "high-risers" just depend on the CTA. It's crazy dense here, but there's usually always a spot on my block if you are on the street at the right time.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Drover

...There are also parking lots along the Brown Line (Kimball, Kedzie and I think Western??) and Red Line (Howard) and those lots are cheaper than the Rosemont lot...

There is a parking lot next to the Western station on the Brown Line; as well as a city lot around a block or so south of the station on Lincoln.