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Originally Posted by ardecila
I know T5 is shifting to more LCCs (plus SkyTeam) instead of international flights, but this is still pretty ho-hum. O'Hare 21 will shift an even greater percentage of gates to the central terminal complex and away from T5. You could probably achieve similar ridership by reconfiguring the garage to bring a rail spur to the west side between Mannheim and the APM station.
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Delta has expressed interest in expanding their service also. T5 would be more convenient time wise than the CONRAC probably for similar cost. If ORD wants to spend the money to get a line into the central terminal area they can be my guest, METRA should under no circumstances pay for that (they have MANY other priorities).
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Fundamentally an airport express train serves a narrow market since it prices out airport workers and budget travelers, leaving only wealthy travelers and business folks. Toronto's airport express train could not be more similar to Chicago's, even the same travel distance, yet it was a miserable failure financially and the private operator ran away. Now it's a huge strain on the balance sheet of the public agency.
Elon Musk's plan had many red flags, but at least it changed the rules so majorly that it could overcome this obstacle. The projected travel time beat out every other option, including driving on an uncongested Kennedy. It would have been the fastest way to access O'Hare at the peak of rush hour or the wee hours of the night. Plus the Block 37 terminal offered excellent CTA connections and the O'Hare terminal was in the middle of the action. The speed and convenience were so clearly stronger than any other option that it could have dominated the travel market from "global city Chicago" to O'Hare, and stood a decent chance of covering its expenses (assuming Musk's ultra-low cost goals could be achieved). I don't think there's a way for North American commuter rail to succeed at this market without a massive re-alignment to European or Asian transit principles.
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I don't particularly disagree with any of this. I'm not passionate about airport express service to begin with. I'd rather have CTA focus on getting (and keeping) the Blue Line in good shape and replace the aged rolling stock as soon as they start getting 7000 series cars. Also maybe find a way to reliably inform incoming passengers which track of the terminal will be the next to board from...