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  #9161  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 4:27 AM
lawfin lawfin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by emathias View Post
I was at the Morgan stop yesterday. It looks really good - it's what all the Brown Line stops should have looked like, in my opinion.

Some of the trains don't have announcements with Morgan on them yet. I ate dinner in Douglas Park last night and on the way back downtown on the Pink Line, they announced Clinton after Ashland. They did stop at Morgan, but it wasn't in the announcements.

One of the coolest things, actually, are the cool sculptural bike rakes they have on each corner.
Cool where did you eat, I am unfamiliar with any restaurant s in. that area but it certainly has potential, still on the urban frontier at this point


Don't know why its displaying a sad face that was inadvertant
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  #9162  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 6:15 AM
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Kingofthehill Kingofthehill is offline
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Yeah, the Morgan station looks great! I saw it last weekend when I was visiting the area. I, too, hope that it can serve as a design template for future CTA developments.

Quote:
Originally Posted by emathias View Post
I was at the Morgan stop yesterday. It looks really good - it's what all the Brown Line stops should have looked like, in my opinion.

Some of the trains don't have announcements with Morgan on them yet. I ate dinner in Douglas Park last night and on the way back downtown on the Pink Line, they announced Clinton after Ashland. They did stop at Morgan, but it wasn't in the announcements.

One of the coolest things, actually, are the cool sculptural bike rakes they have on each corner.
Where on earth did you eat down there?
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  #9163  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 12:19 PM
the urban politician the urban politician is offline
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Originally Posted by lawfin View Post
Cool where did you eat, I am unfamiliar with any restaurant s in. that area but it certainly has potential, still on the urban frontier at this point
^ The west loop, with that station being only about a block away from the Randolph St restaurant row, is an 'urban frontier'?

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  #9164  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 12:57 PM
sukwoo sukwoo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
^ The west loop, with that station being only about a block away from the Randolph St restaurant row, is an 'urban frontier'?

Damn, you're hard to please
I think he was referring to Douglas Park.

Quote:
Originally Posted by emathias View Post
Some of the trains don't have announcements with Morgan on them yet. I ate dinner in Douglas Park last night and on the way back downtown on the Pink Line, they announced Clinton after Ashland. They did stop at Morgan, but it wasn't in the announcements.
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  #9165  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 2:08 PM
Nowhereman1280 Nowhereman1280 is offline
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Originally Posted by Kingofthehill View Post
Where on earth did you eat down there?
There's some fantastic Mexican places just South of the Park along Cermak. I just bought a 6-flat just off Cermak last week and absolutely HAD to try the Mexican place across the alley while I was down there last night after being tormented by delicious food vapors for an hour or two.

Urban frontier is right, beautiful area, OK people, tons of potential.
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  #9166  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 3:27 PM
emathias emathias is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lawfin View Post
Cool where did you eat, I am unfamiliar with any restaurant s in. that area but it certainly has potential, still on the urban frontier at this point
...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingofthehill View Post
Yeah, the Morgan station looks great! I saw it last weekend when I was visiting the area. I, too, hope that it can serve as a design template for future CTA developments.

Where on earth did you eat down there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
^ The west loop, with that station being only about a block away from the Randolph St restaurant row, is an 'urban frontier'?

Damn, you're hard to please
Started out there, but the place I wanted to try was closed (Sawtooth).

Quote:
Originally Posted by sukwoo View Post
I think he was referring to Douglas Park.
Yes, I was.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280 View Post
There's some fantastic Mexican places just South of the Park along Cermak. I just bought a 6-flat just off Cermak last week and absolutely HAD to try the Mexican place across the alley while I was down there last night after being tormented by delicious food vapors for an hour or two.

Urban frontier is right, beautiful area, OK people, tons of potential.
The place I ate was La Casa de Samuel. I've been before, and I love it - they hand-make the tortillas per-order, and have a variety of interesting dishes, including some game dishes you don't often see (venison, goat, squab, alligator, rabbit, rattlesnake, etc). It has four stars on Yelp. It's less than a five minute walk from the California stop on the Pink Line. Most of the customers and servers converse in Spanish and in my experience if you get too far off the basics most of the servers run out of English pretty quickly. But for me that's half the fun.

I had a dish they called Filete En Hoja De Mazorca, which was a fish fillet wrapped with a corn leaf and stuffed with tomato, jalapeno and onions. I really liked it. That one is tilapia, but they also have a similar dish using tuna wrapped in a banana leaf.
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  #9167  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 4:51 PM
Nowhereman1280 Nowhereman1280 is offline
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I'll have to try that when I'm down there next. That's like 3 or 4 blocks from my building.
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  #9168  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 5:00 PM
lawfin lawfin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
^ The west loop, with that station being only about a block away from the Randolph St restaurant row, is an 'urban frontier'?

Damn, you're hard to please
Take a breath and read the quoted excerpt and then respond. I am not hard to please if one just responds to what was written instead of reactively jumping to conclusions.

Yes Douglas Park is the urban frontier and it has quite a bit of potential may be a new emerging hot area. Yes you are right the area directly around the Morgan station is not the urban frontier; in fact I ate on Randolph yesterday. Ironic considering you were probably typing while I was eating.
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  #9169  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 5:35 PM
Rizzo Rizzo is offline
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The Station looks really nice, but I'm not convinced it will be as forgiving to vandalism and the cold Chicago winters. Polycarbonate panels used as roofing tend to get a grimy appearance fast. And while I realize they are lightweight and easy to swap out, I think a Kalwall solution would have been more appropriate.

I cringe at the stainless steel near the entry. It should be granite. People are going to mar that up with markers and stickers. Someone will lean against it and scrape it up. The fingerprints are enough to distract from the aesthetic of the material.

It also looks like there's lots of "dust shelf" and "garbage gap" opportunities where debris will pile up in the stairways. Anyone who has really looked at the Fullerton and Belmont stations sinced they opened will know what I mean.

Again I find the architecture very nice, but from a maintenance standpoint I'd be very concerned. These issues need to be very well thought out since money for upkeep is tight.
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  #9170  
Old Posted May 23, 2012, 5:00 PM
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  #9171  
Old Posted May 23, 2012, 10:54 PM
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Put Chicago on the path to an electrified Metra

http://gridchicago.com/2012/put-chic...trified-metra/


Reactions to CDOT’s Chicago Forward Action Agenda vary Quickly: Union Station Master Plan study released today at breakfast on vintage train
Put Chicago on the path to an electrified Metra
by GUEST CONTRIBUTOR on MAY 23, 2012 · 10 COMMENTS AND 6 REACTIONS


Ed. note: Roland Solinski is a graduate student of architecture at Tulane University. “I am a Chicagoan by birth and the city runs in my blood. I’m fascinated by all aspects of urban design and urban systems, but especially transit systems and public space.” Photo is of a southbound Metra Electric train.

In November of 2010, the Chicago Tribune published an article that shocked Metra commuters. In it, Tribune reporters revealed that massive quantities of diesel exhaust were hanging in the air on platforms at Union Station and Ogilvie Transportation Center. Worse, the atmosphere inside each railcar contained the same exhaust at even higher concentrations – 72 times that of a normal city street.

In numerous other cities, commuters do not need to worry about harmful exhaust fumes, because their trains run off of electric power. In fact, many cities installed rail electrification systems at the turn of the last century specifically to eliminate toxic smoke emissions, including the Illinois Central’s line right here in Chicago, now called Metra Electric.

Clean air is just a side effect; electric trains offer a whole range of benefits with enormous potential. Just like a Porsche with a finely-tuned engine, modern electric trains accelerate at a much greater rate than Metra’s outmoded diesel locomotives. Since Metra stops are so close together, particularly in inner suburbs, trains currently spend a lot of time accelerating and slowing down, often not even reaching their 70 MPH speed limit. Alternatively, many Metra trains save precious time by simply running express and skipping whole groups of stations, benefiting outer suburban residents at the expense of inner-suburban and city residents. A fast-accelerating electric train could substantially shorten travel times and improve service for all Metra riders by bringing the train up to top speed faster.

With greatly reduced travel times, Metra could then consider a few new stations along its lines, making additional stops without inconveniencing far suburban riders. These new stations would fall particularly within the City of Chicago, where stations are currently very infrequent (aside from the Metra Electric line). Metra’s own ridership statistics, available on RTAMS, suggest that new stations inside the city would be very popular, so long as Metra’s express trains do not skip them altogether – for example, Ravenswood is currently the busiest station on the UP-North line after Ogilvie itself.



An electric commuter train in Montréal, Québec. Photo by Sean Marshall.

All these facts indicate that electrification could spur significant regional changes. It would enable a new kind of Metra service with 15-minute frequency and faster travel times – essentially an extension of the city’s rapid-transit network. Just like the ‘L’, electrified Metra service could transform Bungalow Belt neighborhoods and inner-ring suburbs into heavily transit-oriented areas, offering them the same fast service into downtown that many city residents currently enjoy while raising property values and encouraging infill development. Through electrification and proper planning, these benefits are achievable at a fraction of the cost of expanding the ‘L’.

In the 21st century, Metra needs to take a long, hard look at electrifying its busiest lines. Partially in response to the diesel-fumes debacle, Metra hosted a workshop on electrification in 2011. More of an industry symposium than a serious study, the workshop’s announcement still gave the impression that Metra was ready to start asking serious questions. However, the workshop documents do not even hint at a plan for Metra to move forward on studying electrification, suggesting that Metra officials are dismissive of the whole concept. In the same documents, those officials cite various reasons and excuses for why electrification wouldn’t work in Chicago – despite the fact that it already does and has for over a century on the Metra Electric.

Although the officials did a good job of laying out the technical challenges, many of those challenges seem to be strongly overstated. One official contends that low clearance on overhead bridges may restrict the installation of modern overhead wire along Metra lines, yet Metra Electric has some of the city’s lowest overpasses and seems to run just fine. In a similar vein, the tall double-stack cars that some freight railroads use to move shipping containers might force Metra to install the wire higher than normal. Finally, the construction of an electric system is expensive, including overhead wire, substations spaced out along the line, and new electric trains themselves.

These objections, however, are not nearly enough to doom electrification to the scrap heap of failed ideas. Instead the health benefits, savings on diesel fuel, and most importantly the faster acceleration and better service are well worth the investment for Chicago, and will save money over time for Metra and Chicago-area taxpayers while spurring sustainable transit-oriented development.



The VIRM electric train in the Netherlands, which is for commuting and intercity passengers, uses a split-level carriage design. You enter on a plane level with the platform and then either traverse stairs going up or down. The platform-level deck, at each end of the carriage, holds the space for passengers with mobility devices or bicycles.

The process would take time. Metra is a patchwork of rail lines owned by various railroads, and each line poses its own challenges – some more difficult than others. Metra itself owns the two Milwaukee District lines, the Rock Island, and the Metra Electric. On these lines, electrification can proceed easily (Metra Electric notwithstanding). The remaining six lines are owned by freight railroads, who would need to agree to the electrification. Initially after installation, Metra could swap out its aging diesel locomotives for electric ones. In fact, Metra could even purchase dual-mode locomotives to start taking advantage of the electric system before it’s even finished. These would produce no fumes and burn no costly diesel fuel on electrified segments of track, and would allow Metra to use its current fleet of railcars. However, they would not have the full benefits of acceleration and improved service. For that, Metra would need to purchase electric multiple units (EMUs) like those that Metra Electric runs. EMUs have no locomotive, but instead are simply a series of passenger cars with small motors in each one that work in sync to move the train.

How much would this all cost? We can get a good sense by looking at Caltrain, which is in the midst of planning an electrification project of its own. Caltrain is very similar to a Metra line, with two tracks, high ridership, and relatively frequent stations. It runs from San Francisco to San Jose, California. Currently, cost estimates for the electrification system are roughly $950 million for 52 miles of track, or $18 million per mile. This is a high end estimate; some projects have cost far less. Amtrak electrified the Northeast Corridor between New Haven and Boston in the 1990s, spending $475 million for 157 miles of track. Adjusted for inflation, that project cost only $4 million per mile.

Metra’s BNSF is a good candidate for electrification; it has Metra’s highest ridership and a series of closely-spaced stations between Cicero and Lisle. Using the two previous cost figures as a range, it would cost between $675 million and $150 million to electrify the 37.5-mile BNSF. This is a huge range to be sure, but even at the high end the cost is only $10,448 for every existing weekday rider. If Metra can hold costs down to Amtrak levels, the cost is only $2,500 per existing rider. When stops like Brookfield, Riverside, and Berwyn start to see much higher service frequencies, the ridership is sure to grow dramatically, increasing revenue. On the other hand, high diesel fuel costs will be replaced with a comparatively low electric bill, decreasing expenses. Both of these changes together create substantial room in Metra’s budget that can go towards the construction and maintenance of an electrified system.

Electrification has the potential to improve or solve many problems facing Metra and the Chicago region. The savings on fuel will improve Metra’s bottom line and make it virtually immune to changing fuel prices, while the elimination of emissions will dramatically improve air quality around each line. Most importantly, electrification could begin to alter the fabric of Chicagoland, stitch the region back together and link inner-ring suburbs both to downtown and to growing areas farther out, all while costing far less than expanding the ‘L’. In an era of ever-shrinking public resources, ever-growing demand for transit, and stiff global competition among cities, Chicago can’t afford to spend too much on transit or to be satisfied with the status quo. Electrifying Metra is the right move to make.
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  #9172  
Old Posted May 23, 2012, 11:05 PM
untitledreality untitledreality is offline
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^^^ I would love to see this happen, but it seems that having multiple ownerships and freight considerstions really hampers any widespread implementation.

I could see The Metra owned Rock Island making the transition, the proposed SES and possibly the BNSF only if they move it to the LaSalle Street station. But piece mealing various lines that run into Union and Ogilvie seems far fetched. I imagine it being an 'all or nothing' situation.
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  #9173  
Old Posted May 24, 2012, 9:09 AM
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I don't see why it needs to be so dramatic. You electrify the lines one by one in a gradual process, starting with the easy ones (Milw, RI, SWS) and moving on to the most difficult ones (BNSF, UP-W). Heritage Corridor isn't worth the expense given ridership levels; neither is NCS.
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  #9174  
Old Posted May 24, 2012, 10:54 AM
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Nexis4Jersey Nexis4Jersey is offline
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Here's my Proposed Metra System extensions...etc infill stations...i'm still doing the Map , so I only have the station by Station guide...and only Ogilvie Transportation Center. Picture this an Electrified Ogilvie Network...I will have the Map up by Sunday along with the rest of the Metra Network.

Current , Proposed & Planned Stations

Union Pacific/North Line
Ogilvie Transportation Center
Clybourn
Ravenswood - Evanston
Rogers Park - Evanston
Main Street - Evanston
Davis Street - Evanston
Center Street - Evanston
Wilmette
Kenilworth
Indian Hill - Winnetka
Winnetka
Hubbard Woods - Winnetka
Glencoe
Braeside - Highland Park
Ravinia Park - Highland Park
Ravinia - Highland Park
Highland Park
Highwood
Fort Sheridan
Lake Forest
Lake Bluff
Great Lakes - Lake Bluff
North Chicago
Waukegan
Zion
Winthrop Harbor
Kenosha
North Kenosha - Carthage College
Mount Pleasent
Racine
North Bay - Racine
Oak Creek South
Oak Creek
South Milwaukee
Cudahy
Harborview - Milwaukee
Milwaukee


Union Pacific/West Line
Ogilvie Transportation Center
Kedzie
Oak Park
Riverforest
Maywood
Melrose Park
Bellwood
Berkeley
Elmhurst
Villa Park
Lombard
Glen Ellyn
College Avenue - Wheaton
Wheaton
Winfield
West Chicago
Geneva
La Fox
Elburn
Maple Park
Cortland
Dekalb
Rochelle


Union Pacific/Northwest Line
Ogilvie Transportation Center
Clybourn
Irving Park
Jefferson Park
Gladstone Park
Norwood Park
Edison Park
Park Ridge
Dee Road - Park Ridge
Des Plains
Cumberland - Des Plains
Mount Prospect
Arlington Heights
Arlington Park - Arlington Heights
Palatine
Barrington
Fox River Grove
Cary
Pingree Road
Crystal Lake
Ridgefield
Woodstock
Harvard
Sharon
Clinton
Janesville


Union Pacific/Northwest Line (McHenry Branch)
Ogilvie Transportation Center
Clybourn
Irving Park
Jefferson Park
Gladstone Park
Norwood Park
Edison Park
Park Ridge
Dee Road - Park Ridge
Des Plains
Cumberland - Des Plains
Mount Prospect
Arlington Heights
Arlington Park - Arlington Heights
Palatine
Barrington
Fox River Grove
Cary
Pingree Road
Prairie Grove
McHenry
Johnsburg
Ringwood
Richmond
Genoa City
Pell Lake
Lake Geneva
Elkhorn
Delavan



Next To tackle : Rock Island & Metra Electric Network

Last edited by Nexis4Jersey; May 25, 2012 at 10:01 PM.
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  #9175  
Old Posted May 24, 2012, 12:02 PM
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Nexis4Jersey Nexis4Jersey is offline
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Current , Proposed & Planned Stations

Electrified Rock Island Disrect

Rock Island District - Main line
LaSalle Street
'Lou' Jones/Bronzeville
95th Street - Longwood
103rd Street - Washington Heights
Blue Island - Vermont Street
Robbins
Midlothian
Oak Forest
Tinley Park
Tinley Park - 80th Avenue
Mokena - Hickory Creek
Mokena - Front Street
New Lenox
Joliet
Rockdale
Minooka
Morris
Seneca
Marseilles
Ottawa
La Salle



Rock Island District - Beverly Hills Branch
LaSalle Street
'Lou' Jones/Bronzeville
Brainerd
91st Street - Beverly Hills
95th Street - Beverly Hills
99th Street - Beverly Hills
103rd Street - Beverly Hills
107th Street - Beverly Hills
111th Street - Morgan Park
115th Street - Morgan Park
119th Street - Blue Island
123rd Street – Blue Island
Prairie Street - Blue Island
Blue Island - Vermont Street
Robbins
Midlothian
Oak Forest
Tinley Park
Tinley Park - 80th Avenue
Mokena - Hickory Creek
Mokena - Front Street
New Lenox
Joliet


Southwest Service
LaSalle Street
'Lou' Jones/Bronzeville
South Ashland - West Englewood
Wrightswood
Ashburn
Oaklawn
Chicago Ridge
Worth
Palos Heights
Palos Park
Orland Park 143rd Street
Orland Park 153rd Street
Orland Park 179th Street
Laraway Road - New Lenox
Manhattan

Last edited by Nexis4Jersey; May 25, 2012 at 10:00 PM.
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  #9176  
Old Posted May 24, 2012, 12:29 PM
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Nexis4Jersey Nexis4Jersey is offline
Greetings from New Jersey
 
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Current , Proposed & Planned Stations

Metra Electric - Main line
Millennium Station
Van Buren Street
Museum Campus/11th Street
18th Street
McCormick Place
27th Street
Kenwood/47th Street
Hyde Park/53rd Street
55th–56th–57th Street
59th Street
63rd Street
75th Street-Grand Crossing
79th Street-Chatham
Avalon Park-83rd Street
Woodruff-87th Street
Chesterfield-91st Street
95th Street – Chicago State University
103rd Street-Rosemoor
107th Street Station
Pullman/111th Street
Kensington/115th Street
Riverdale
Ivanhoe
147th Street / Sibley Boulevard
Harvey
Hazel Crest
Calumet
Homewood
Flossmoor
Olympia Fields
211th Street-Lincoln Highway
Matteson
Richton Park
University Park
Monee
Pentone
Manteno
Bourbonnais
Bradley
Kankakee


Metra Electric Blue Island Branch
Millennium Station
Van Buren Street
Museum Campus/11th Street
18th Street
McCormick Place
27th Street
Kenwood/47th Street
Hyde Park/53rd Street
55th–56th–57th Street
59th Street
63rd Street
75th Street-Grand Crossing
79th Street-Chatham
Avalon Park-83rd Street
Woodruff-87th Street
Chesterfield-91st Street
95th Street – Chicago State University
103rd Street-Rosemoor
107th Street Station
Pullman/111th Street
Kensington/115th Street
State Street
Stewart Ridge
West Pullman
Racine
Ashland
Blurr Oak
Blue Island

Metra Electric Chicago Branch
Millennium Station
Van Buren Street
Museum Campus/11th Street
18th Street
McCormick Place
27th Street
Kenwood/47th Street
Hyde Park/53rd Street
55th–56th–57th Street
59th Street
63rd Street
Stony Island
Bryn Mawr
South Shore
windsor Park
Cheltenham
83rd Street
87th Street
South Chicago (93rd Street)


Metra Electric Chicago Heights Branch
Millennium Station
Van Buren Street
Museum Campus/11th Street
18th Street
McCormick Place
27th Street
Kenwood/47th Street
Hyde Park/53rd Street
55th–56th–57th Street
59th Street
63rd Street
75th Street-Grand Crossing
79th Street-Chatham
Avalon Park-83rd Street
Woodruff-87th Street
Chesterfield-91st Street
95th Street – Chicago State University
103rd Street-Rosemoor
107th Street Station
Pullman/111th Street
Kensington/115th Street
Golden Gate
Dolton
South Holland
Thorton
Chicago Heights
South Chicago Heights
Crete



Up Next : South Shore Network

Last edited by Nexis4Jersey; May 24, 2012 at 9:20 PM.
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  #9177  
Old Posted May 24, 2012, 3:11 PM
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As CTA Gray Line notes, the Union Station Master Plan is out.

It's a big report and it makes a lot of recommendations. Here are a few that caught my eye.

1. Through tracks for all platforms are out of the question. The tracks don't line up and demolishing everything built over them to make them line up is just not feasible. Demolishing 222 Riverside would allow for some of the tracks to be linked, but extremely long platforms with a jog in the middle, or two sets of platforms arranged end-to-end with crossovers in the middle, with no discernable way to access them from the head house, is also not particularly useful.
2. Platforms with through tracks CAN be added by converting the old mail platforms.
and/or by building them under Clinton/Canal. (1 level/2 platforms/4 tracks under Canal; 2 levels/2 platforms/4 tracks under Clinton.) Building new tracks under Clinton/Canal will be challenging since it will require slow and expensive stacked drift excavation under Fulton Station Condominums.
3. It will be possible to add a fourth surface-level northern lead track but it will require A. rebuilding the 100 year old CNW viaduct that carries the UP metra lines into Ogilvie (which will need to be done eventually anyway) and B. a small right-of-way dedication from River Point/444 W Lake.
4. The report recommends eventually widening all the south platforms by removing the baggage platforms, but makes no mention of doing the same for the north platforms.
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  #9178  
Old Posted May 24, 2012, 3:48 PM
lawfin lawfin is offline
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^^^^On the UP North line there is a proposed station at Peterson that I do not see listed. My sources tell me that this station is as good as set. between ridge and peterson north of peterson. Also neither rogers park nor ravenswood are in Evanston they are firmly in Chicago
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  #9179  
Old Posted May 24, 2012, 3:59 PM
lawfin lawfin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CTA Gray Line View Post
http://gridchicago.com/2012/put-chic...trified-metra/


Reactions to CDOT’s Chicago Forward Action Agenda vary Quickly: Union Station Master Plan study released today at breakfast on vintage train
Put Chicago on the path to an electrified Metra
by GUEST CONTRIBUTOR on MAY 23, 2012 · 10 COMMENTS AND 6 REACTIONS


Ed. note: Roland Solinski is a graduate student of architecture at Tulane University. “I am a Chicagoan by birth and the city runs in my blood. I’m fascinated by all aspects of urban design and urban systems, but especially transit systems and public space.” Photo is of a southbound Metra Electric train.

In November of 2010, the Chicago Tribune published an article that shocked Metra commuters. In it, Tribune reporters revealed that massive quantities of diesel exhaust were hanging in the air on platforms at Union Station and Ogilvie Transportation Center. Worse, the atmosphere inside each railcar contained the same exhaust at even higher concentrations – 72 times that of a normal city street.

In numerous other cities, commuters do not need to worry about harmful exhaust fumes, because their trains run off of electric power. In fact, many cities installed rail electrification systems at the turn of the last century specifically to eliminate toxic smoke emissions, including the Illinois Central’s line right here in Chicago, now called Metra Electric.

Clean air is just a side effect; electric trains offer a whole range of benefits with enormous potential. Just like a Porsche with a finely-tuned engine, modern electric trains accelerate at a much greater rate than Metra’s outmoded diesel locomotives. Since Metra stops are so close together, particularly in inner suburbs, trains currently spend a lot of time accelerating and slowing down, often not even reaching their 70 MPH speed limit. Alternatively, many Metra trains save precious time by simply running express and skipping whole groups of stations, benefiting outer suburban residents at the expense of inner-suburban and city residents. A fast-accelerating electric train could substantially shorten travel times and improve service for all Metra riders by bringing the train up to top speed faster.

With greatly reduced travel times, Metra could then consider a few new stations along its lines, making additional stops without inconveniencing far suburban riders. These new stations would fall particularly within the City of Chicago, where stations are currently very infrequent (aside from the Metra Electric line). Metra’s own ridership statistics, available on RTAMS, suggest that new stations inside the city would be very popular, so long as Metra’s express trains do not skip them altogether – for example, Ravenswood is currently the busiest station on the UP-North line after Ogilvie itself.

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This would be great I also think there needs to be a sea change in mind set at Metra. They continually look to fiurther outward expansion for growth. Thus would allow them to look internally for growth and add frequency which I think would do wonders for ridership.....if the north line ran even every .5 hours everfy .25 hours would be fantastic....and with the quicker accleration an additional station or two in the city beyond any planned....kind of ridiculous that evanston has what 3 stations and chicago only has 3 as well....OTC excepted as the terminus
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Old Posted May 24, 2012, 5:33 PM
untitledreality untitledreality is offline
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Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey View Post
Here's my Proposed Metra System extensions...etc infill stations...i'm still doing the Map , so I only have the station by Station guide...and only Ogilvie Transportation Center. Picture this an Electrified Ogilvie Network...I will have the Map up by Sunday along with the rest of the Metra Network.
I hate to rain on your parade, but I dont think a system that expansive could be justified. For a commuter system some of those lines are far too long of trips... and don't seem to have much potential ridership.
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