CTA Tattler

Hah! Nice timing. After watching the increased construction (barriers and fences went up last week), I was thinking on my walk to work that I'd call the CTA today and ask them when they intended to reopen the entrance.

I am, as one of those local residents, very excited to have the new entrance. (Considerably more so than about that new high rise, which has blocked my view of the Metra maintenance yard at Roosevelt and Canal, booo hisss.)

Oh, my. The value of your condo must be going down like a rock now that people won't be able to see the maintenance yard!

I'll be praying that you'll get some neighbors who are more interesting to watch than a train yard, but you know that's probably not likely. ;)

Now if they'd just open a station entrance on the south side of Roosevelt at the Roosevelt/State station...it can be a headache to get across Roosevelt to enter the station on the north side.

Good idea for Roosevelt, also maybe one day (maybe 5 or 6 years from now) an 11th Street entrance... Roosevelt is my station and this neighborhood is growing like crazy! Also, a 13th street entrance for the elevated (and maybe a pedway to the 24hr Jewel) would also get a lot of foot traffic.

Neighborhood are pushing for an 18th st stop for the green line to serve the south end of the south loop.

So at the end of that press release (and also the slow zone-related press release (also 9/2/08), the CTA says that the work described in the releases "is provided through federal capital funds."

Does anyone know what federal capital funding program(s) are involved? I didn't realize the feds provided funding for stuff like track maintenance.

I'd prefer an Orange Line stop rather than a Green line stop somewhere around 18th street, solely for the ability to get to Midway without having to go north to Roosevelt.

Plus, the CPD mass transit unit is based out of the 1st district station on 18th and state. Its silly that no officers assigned to rails can simply walk out of the station and into any of 3 CTA rail lines within 2 blocks.

It seems so logical that a station be built at 18th and State along the orange line. There are no stops along this route from roosevelt south. This area is booming and so many people have no options other than the Roosevelt Station. It seems cta ridership would escalate tremendously with an additional south loop stop on any of the lines that go through the neighborhood!!!!

If memory serves me, the circle line plan way back when called for a stop along the 18th street stretch of the Orange line for an interface with a new metra stop below and redline.

If you look at a satellite map, it won't be possible to create an Orange Line station at 18th, because that's where the Orange Line flyover is. The only place they could do it is at 16th, but there is not enough land available at 16th for 8-car platforms (two buildings immediately adjacent to the tracks at 16th), so they would have to tear down buildings to do this, which isn't going to happen.

Sorry if this sounds dumb, but what is a "flyover", and is the answer to the first part of the question self-explanatory as to why it won't be possible to create an Orange Line station at 18th?

" but there is not enough land available at 16th for 8-car platforms (two buildings immediately adjacent to the tracks at 16th), so they would have to tear down buildings to do this, which isn't going to happen."

The obvious thing to do then would be to build platforms that are less than 8 cars long. There is no reason why every car needs to be on the platform. There could be signs at the stations and perhaps on the system maps that state that certain cars won't be on the platform at that station. Those who use the train will quickly figure out the routine and there will never be any confusion. There is no reason why the CTA can't do this. Metra does this everyday at numerous stations and it works fine. Maybe the CTA would have to spend a little bit of money reconfiguring the train equipment to allow only doors of certain cars to be opened. Perhaps other things would have to be done as well. But I can't imagine that would cost very much. And it would have undoubtadly have costed much less than they would have saved by not reconstructing just two or three of the brown line stations. There are a few that have never had all that many passengers on the platform, so a six car length was more than enough. And the stations could have lasted for several decades more. If they had done done this, they would have had money left over to build new stations on other lines.

It would be a very expensive proposition to jury-rig, and re-wire some way to only open certain doors. It wouldn't be integrated with the rest of the equipment on the train, which would be a safety hazard as great as an open door. Especially since it would affect the trains where ever they would be in the system, not just at a single station.

I would be totally against building what would amount to a station that would be functionally obsolete from pre-day one.

Bottom line: If you want to stop 8-car trains at a station, there better be a platform long enough for all 8-cars.

And given that there are so many complaints about capacity, careful consideration should be given before building any station with room for less than 10 cars. We might very well see the day when 10 car trains will be necessary, and they'll have to skip stations that don't have room for them. Either that, or take the seats out of all the cars.

This isn't a passenger railroad with conductors opening doors by hand, and setting out stools when necessary. It's a rapid tranist system with high platforms, and only one employee charged with the safe opening of the doors. So there better be a platform next to those doors when they open!

Josh, a fly-over is just what it sounds like. A set of tracks rises so trains can fly-over other tracks below it, rather than cross them at the same grade. (Also applies to highway ramps that do the same.)

Thanks Rusty, and that makes sense somewhere in the area given the Green line to the east, the Red line and Metra to the West, and the freight RR trax to the North along 16th. That said, I don't see or recall a flyover from 17th and State to 18th and Clark. Are you talking about a flyover of the red line at Wentworth or so?

For a station at 18th, I'm thinking of from 17th-18th along State or along 18th street from State to Clark, though preferably from 17th to 18th along State. I can't recall or see any other tracks that run beneath or above the Orange line at these points. Is a city block enough to accomodate 8 or 10 CTA cars?

Josh--my fault. I was only considering the possibility of building a station on the South Side Main Line at 18th (in the alley between State and Wabash), rather than on the Orange Line tracks running along 18th.

It appears there might be JUST ENOUGH room between where the track straightens just West of State, and the non-revenue Red/Orange crossover just East of Clark.

That is a bit of a walk from the population center of the South Loop...though I'm not sure what an alternate plan would be.

Awesome! We are moving into the building at 1E 8th! This will be nice for going to MDW (My wife and I fly out of there weekly) without having to drag my bags through snow for 4 blocks!