CTA Tattler

I still think it'd be a good open up the Ohio St exit and make it a controlled-entrance to lessen congestion.

Hey, where'd this come from:

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1503475,CST-NWS-action31.article

And where the heck is Carroll Street??

Carroll runs between the river and Kinzie, although as far as I know it's basically an alley now.

The Sun Times article is pretty interesting. It's not long enough to answer most of my questions though. A lot of those projects have been discussed before. I've never quite understood the Carroll Street line myself, which I'd read before on some obscure site. I don't quite understand where it would be or the purpose it would serve, or how it would connect to anything...

The Transportation hub looks awesome. The Express line to the airport is still in there, despite all the problems raised here. I also don't really understand the Kennedy thing that will allow them to build over the highway, creating a tunnel I guess.

I remember reading something about some transit option moving people from Union Station over to Navy Pier area, but never understood that either. I don't see it included though.

Also, how come this is the first I heard about the contest ($5k prize) to get the CTA to 1 billion rides? I have to think someone from this site could have come up with the right ideas to get there. The guy who won doesn't live in reality.

Oh, maybe that Kennedy thing is in reference to building over the Kennedy Loop area... I've heard that discussed before.

Carroll St. was once a C&NW Ry track that went to Navy Pier & the Filtration Plant.
It would use the abandoned single leaf bridge over the river that's been up for the last 20 years.

UCC,

Yes, on Google Maps you can see there is a railroad there. I just don't understand what good it would do to use it...

"The Carroll Avenue Transitway will link the West Loop to Streeterville and River North."

I mean, sounds interesting, just not sure how necessary it is. But more transit options is always a better thing. I guess it does not seem to cost much.

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_ATTACH/01-ExSumm20090313.pdf

Some interesting comments on that Sun-Times article--would-be suburbanites, maybe? Yeah, God forbid the third-largest city in the U.S. should try to expand transit.

I would also like to see a downtown transit plan that includes better access from Union Station to Navy Pier, or just better transit out there generally; as well as to McCormick Place. Both of those venues are pretty isolated when you consider that every major city convention is at one of them now. And sorry, but bus lines (and convention-sponsored shuttle buses) are inherently no faster or more predictable than downtown traffic.

(Not to mention that I'd like to see a transit plan that acknowledges the existence of non-hip neighborhoods more than a mile from the lakefront ... but I've given way to delirium, I fear ... I'd also like to see a winning Mega-Millions lottery ticket in my pocket, and under this mayor I've got a better chance of the second thing happening than the first.)

Chris asks: "Also, how come this is the first I heard about the contest ($5k prize) to get the CTA to 1 billion rides? I have to think someone from this site could have come up with the right ideas to get there. The guy who won doesn't live in reality."

I wondered about that too; the first I heard about it was in John Hilkevich's column the other day, and Hilkevich's summary is all the details I know at this point. Truthfully, I was just surprised and relieved that the prize didn't go to another rehash of "privatize everything."

It seems like a way of getting suburbanites from Union Station to Navy Pier. Not sure what's so wrong with the 124 bus, though. While this connects to Metra, it doesn't seem to connect with anything else and that, IMO, would be a problem.

[While this connects to Metra, it doesn't seem to connect with anything else and that, IMO, would be a problem.]

I wonder about this too. A Merchandise Mart stop on the Carroll Street transitway seems like an obvious idea, which would at least provide a Brown Line connection.

Isn't there a very unfinished short tunnel off the blue line that would run directly into Carroll street? Also why Carroll? They should do a Madison/Washington Subway before anything. United Center, madison avenue corridor, the train stations, downtown, Millenium Park. And then you're also creating a connection to the Metra Electric Randolph Street Station

Did anyone else read the Tribune story linked in the right-hand column about the Nicest Train Operator in Chicago? How sad that the CTA's response to the writer trying to find out the identity of someone who was doing his job well and deserved acknowledgement was "We cannot help you at this time." I realize CTA admins have a lot on their plate, but don't they have any concept of positive reinforcement for their employees? How hard would it be to give him some acknowledgement for doing his job well enough that customers are mentioning him specifically? Fergodsake, every fast food place has an employee of the month, would it kill the CTA to offer a few "carrots" to their employees?

I'm going to miss Grand looking like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.

Re: the stimulus plans. Why would it have been so difficult for Daley to release a list of projects when everyone was asking for them last month? If they go ahead with the Airport Express, I suggest they hire KevinB as the construction manager of the Washington Red Line station. They owe it to him.

Well, here's a really sad commentary: my first thought when I saw the headline was "I hope that guy doesn't get in trouble." From the story it sounds as if he won't; maybe my reaction was more appropriate to the CTA of twenty years ago.

Guess I should clarify that my last post was a response to CC's on the Nicest Train Operator in Chicago. And yes, for a number of years the post-apocalyptic Grand was my daily stop. I'll have to be careful next time I need to take the Red Line to that area; I won't recognize the stop if it's looking like it belongs in, you know, a civilized country or something.

Please don't read the comments at the Trib or Sun Times articles, just as you would not feed the bears at a state park.

The very same person that says we should not expand transit, then goes on to complain about traffic. Amazing!

There is recommendations for new stations at:

Morgan (Green/Pink)
Cermak or 18th (Green)
Division (Brown/Purple)
Clark/18th (Orange)

"The very same person that says we should not expand transit, then goes on to complain about traffic. Amazing!"

But responding to traffic congestion by letting transit rot and building more roads has worked so well!

I love reading City plans like this one; just so much fun. But when you get down to reality, and you think hard, I'm sure this is released right before the IOC comes, don't you think?

What you are seeing with this document is further proof of the disjointed planning process in our region. Wait, of course: we all know the regional planning process is disjointed. What is so surprising here is the disjointed nature of the City's planning process, particularly vis-a-vis the CTA's official list of desired projects. So who plans the transit for Chicago? CTA or the City?

The document, Chapter 2 on Transportation is stamped "Draft" and it has tables on Page 18 with titles like, "2008-12 Transportation Projects." 2008 is already over! This looks like an old document, that probably got buried a while back, then they dusted it off on the eve of the IOC visit. yikes.

More importantly, the Carrol and Clinton Transitways would cost $320m--but how? A Federal New Starts Grant? But isn't the reason that the CTA's Circle, Red, Yellow and Orange Line projects and Metra's STAR lines are still in planning phases, is because the Feds require such a long study, planning and engineering process before they give those funds? So does the City have some inside track that they haven't let CTA in on? Or is this document just BS? Are these projects just BS? If he gets 2016, are these the projects that he's going to go to Washington and beg for? Oh, by the way, there's another two Transitway projects for another $350m in the 2012-16 table.

Either these are good ideas and merit funding or they're not, but the Mayor has to make up his mind what he wants: a Circle Line, a New Red Line or a new set of Transitways in the downtown? Maybe he thinks he can get them all?

It's basically a BILLION dollars A YEAR of transportation projects for over a DECADE all to be spent just in the downtown.

I'm all for more transit; I'm all for making some plans and putting them out there to get people to dream big, but, jeez, keep it closer to reality.

I, too, was wondering about that $5000 competition. First I heard of it was an article announcing the winner. Apparently the thing only got 125 entries. Heck, had it been advertised to somebody other than the chamber of commerce's drinking buddies, they would have gotten another 50 entries from participants of this blog alone! Granted, 7 of them would be from MK and 4 from KevinB, but still! :-)

Thought I'd make a cameo reappearance to say that the bus rerouting (145, 148) I commented on ever so mildly a couple weeks ago (then getting blasted for the gall of my unfounded and apparently ragingly bitter complaint) has now been re-re-routed, again without any notice or signage that I've seen.

And to add to the confusion, the driver tonight didn't follow the route as described in the re-route, nor in the re-re-route. I got off at my old stop, which wouldn't even be a stop under the re-re-routing, but should be a stop under the re-routing. After I got off, someone else detained the bus for a minute, no doubt squabbling with the driver over why he hadn't turned on Ashland, so the guy could get off where he wanted. I paused to see where the bus would go, and it turned north on Ravenswood East, which is probably in keeping with the re-route, not the re-re-route.

Maybe if the CTA went back to the old method of notifying people, at least their drivers would know about the changes!

All right. Flame away, those who think I'm a bitter old whiner! Ryanwc is leaving the boards again for other aliases.

The plan is very interesting, but most of that stuff never gets built. For proof, look at past ones on the Chicago L History site. The city basically throws a bunch of stuff at the wall and sees what sticks. You'll notice that if the CTA doesn't like the plan, it doesn't go anywhere. It seems they have to both agree, plus have money, be popular, etc.

I'm not a big fan of how they dedicated all the time/space to interior spending, but what are you gonna do... It's just a pipedream plan anyway.

It wouldn't surprise me if that report was done in 2008. It takes a long time to put something like that together.

ryanwc I'm with you on your frustration. I understand that the 4000s can't fit under certain viaducts but ten minutes in the area would have been plenty to allow CTA "planners" to figure out the optimum route. What a pile.

It's my understanding that the Carol Transitway runs from Lehman Brothers to Carol's destination, via a taxi ... no bus or train is involved.

"It's my understanding that the Carol Transitway runs from Lehman Brothers to Carol's destination"

Talk about a road to nowhere...or from nowhere. Since Lehman's collapse, Carole's landed at Mesirow Financial. Lucky for her their headquarters is on Clark St. and she can take the 22!