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Originally Posted by Rational Plan2
How about expanding all the Metra routes within 15 miles of the city to near metro frequencies, at lease 6 trains an hour for the 1st 10 to 15 stops from the centre. Longer distance commuter trains would be express near centre.
All it would take is a broad political consensus to develop amongst all principal groups in the city to fund a long term investment plan in public transport (irony). This could be funded incrementally with the most congested tracks expanded 1st. I know that does require a bit of wishful thinking, but such a plan would benefit a larger area and therefore hopefully get more politcial buy in from suburban councils.
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That's a
rational plan. But I can tell you're not familiar with how politics work here regionally
. But indeed if it could work like that: A) I wouldn't *necessarily* be as vocal on my position in the discussion; and B)University of Chicago students and Hyde Park area residents, who tend to rather not go so deep into the ghetto to get to the Red and Green Lines, might not be so vocal about changing one of the commuter lines that runs right through the area into a rapid-transit route.
The Regional Transportation Authority is too much a mess so that to even consider that is proposterous to some within it, I'd theorize.
EDIT: Silly me I forgot to mention the msot important factor. Only a couple Metra routes have that many in-city stops. Granted they're in the area of the city we're having this discussion on. But there are also many stops on these routes in the mnay suburbs, who would object to even that concept--they're gonna want more frequent service, and then the heavily suburban-oriented lines that are the majority of the system will want some, and the different agencies under the umbrella and their respective constituencies are gonna bitch about the available loose change the governments provide for these things, and so on, and so forth...
So it would be these parts of the city that would have to do the political heavy-lifting--and that's a helluva lotta weight.
So it's a fine idea, just not politically do-able currently.