CHICAGO | 108 North State (Block 37)

[Rail Claimore]

The ultimate question is... Does Chicago just want to be a really big Detroit????... or does it want to compete with NYC, London, Tokyo, Paris, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc.... the true "World Class" cities. With a tool like this it will further the business community here to the ranks of those other business giants.

And this is why I love Chicago: It's a city with ambition. I cannot stand the anti-capitalist NIMBYS who do nothing but talk shit about projects such as these without even knowing the facts surrounding them. When I read that they're using London and Hong Kong as models... i thought "wow." Every major Asian city has this service and lots of European ones. It's about time Chicago and New York start on theirs.

Concering the WLTC, it seems quite reasonable given they'll construct it around Clinton Street, which has relatively few underground utlilities compared to the other West Loop streets. Not only that, but they could also set up a second airport-express service terminal for both airports there as well. So anywhere within the Loop and West Loop, you would not be more than 5 blocks from such service and transit hubs. And, to top that off... imagine if they expand Gary and/or build a south suburban airport. Now imagine that same express service along the Metra Electric and South Shore lines out of Randolph Street Station. From downtown Chicago, you could have your choice of 3 or 4 airports to go to with this service!!! London has this level of service but from 4 different stations. Chicago would only have it from two future central transit hubs: WLTC and Block 37/Randolph Street (those two will be connected underground, I think). Each of these hubs would be 3 to 4 blocks long and underground... WOW. And both connected by a new loop... underground blue line with a Clinton Street Subway being that missing side. Thinking about these ideas just tickles me pink!

Let's hope nothing goes a long way into derailing such projects, no pun intended.

[TransitEngr]

Originally Posted by Rail Claimore

Thinking about these ideas just tickles me pink!

Let's hope nothing goes a long way into derailing such projects, no pun intended.

See my comments in the "CHICAGO: everything UNDER 12 stories"
page... you'll be happy.

[jcchii]

actual equipment out there?
well, I'll be dipped.
I'm surprised the earth didn't open up and swallow the trucks.

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by jcchii

actual equipment out there?
well, I'll be dipped.
I'm surprised the earth didn't open up and swallow the trucks.

Yeah, the curse of Block 37 has not gotten to this project yet. The way things are going, it just may be built after all.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

The way things are going, it just may be built after all.

ye of little faith............ the curse will find a way to work its magic. patience.

[the urban politician]

From Crain's:

CTA's money pit
Big bucks, small bang for agency's planned express line to O'Hare


August 01, 2005
By Greg Hinz


Any company that wants to stay in business figures out fast that it better make good use of its limited investment capital. Blow it on chasing a couple of wild geese and the future disappears.

The same applies to government. So why is the Chicago Transit Authority — which by its own account needs an additional $2 billion to update its creaky system — about to take a $500-million-plus flier?

In an action that has slipped under the radar, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in recent months has locked itself into spending $170 million on a project whose final total will be so high and its potential use so low that it might never be completed.

In essence, big dreams have preceded good planning. And unlike Millennium Park, where corporate philanthropists rode to the rescue after the budget broke, taxpayers will have to pick up the tab.

At issue is the proposed premium express train service to O'Hare International Airport.

It now takes about 45 minutes to get to O'Hare by CTA train. I use it often, but most others prefer to grab a cab and stick the boss with the $45 fare.

The CTA's idea is to raise its share of the Loop-to-O'Hare market by double-tracking and other methods to sharply speed service on the existing Blue Line. Combined with tweaks like allowing baggage to be checked downtown, it hopes the extra-fare service would pay for itself and give the agency a futuristic image.

The CTA likens the proposal to initiatives in places like Shanghai, China, where Mayor Richard M. Daley reportedly grooved on that city's snazzy new magnetic levitation line during a recent visit. Some convention officials say the service could be a big draw here.

But is it real? To find out, the CTA and the city commissioned a September 2004 "ridership and revenue forecast" by Wilbur Smith Associates, an engineering and planning firm. After asking lots of times, I finally got a copy. The results are not promising. Assuming the service charges only $10 a ride, takes 29 minutes and is supplemented by a shuttle bus service linking downtown hotels to an anchor superstation under Block 37 in the Central Loop, the line would generate $22 million a year by 2020, Wilbur Smith found. That would cover operating costs, the city says, but would leave little toward the $500 million or more that CTA officials indicate might well be needed for construction.

Based on the same assumptions, Wilbur Smith estimated that by 2020 the line would carry about 3,000 people a day each way, 22% of them diverted from the Blue Line.

Let me repeat: The CTA would spend $500 million or more for a service that its consultant says would generate a net ridership increase of less than 2,500 a day, each way, 15 years from now. Uh-huh.

CTA officials insist the Wilbur Smith report was preliminary, with a fuller marketing and design plan being drafted. Chicago Congressman Rahm Emanuel will garner federal funds when he's House Speaker, one half-jests. Either way, they say, don't judge until the marketing study is done, around Christmas.

The problem is that, around Halloween, Mills Corp. will break ground on the long-stalled Block 37 mixed-used project. And in the basement will be the superstation, toward which the city this spring contractually agreed to provide $42 million in tax-increment financing funds and the CTA $130 million from bonds.

What happens if the marketing plan finds that the express train numbers won't work, or that funding isn't available? CTA officials reply that the station would cost far more if built later. And they say it will provide valuable connections among the Blue, Red and Orange lines if an accident happens or terrorists strike. Right.

In a perfect world, with lots of dough for everything, maybe. In this world, where it costs $30 million to $50 million for a new school, $30 million or so to rebuild a stinky CTA station and $200 million to reconstruct Wacker Drive, can you think of a better use for $500 million?

Try fixing up the existing lines first, folks

[Jaroslaw]

Can't disagree. I cant' see the double tracking (actually triple-tracking), because there is no room most of the way. A better idea would be for the CTA trains to get on Metra's ROW (which has only three stations until ORD and room to expand tracks), and then branch off into the airport.

My other big problem is that I don't trust the CTA--but I want good transit, of course.

[Tom In Chicago]

^Yeah. . . that is the million dollar question after all. . . perhaps they can remove the median on the Kennedy. . . it's not impossible if you've seen what they've been doing on the Dan Ryan lately. . .

[Rail Claimore]

I think anyone who doesn't support any good idea that Chicago takes from cities like London or Tokyo is an idiot. Crain's seems to have a lot of them as writers. I bet he's never even used such service in other cities.

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by Jaroslaw

My other big problem is that I don't trust the CTA--but I want good transit, of course.

Why not?

[alex1]

Originally Posted by VivaLFuego

Why not?

i'm sure kruesi has a ton to do with it. I don't trust that hack.

[Chicago3rd]

When I moved here in 1997...the brown line had practically no service past 11 p.m. The orange line quit going and coming from Midway around that time too. There were not all the fantastic Express buses on both north and lakeshore drive...I use to be held captive by being forced to take 156 to LaSalle. There are way more new buses than there were...the Brown Line IS being renovated. The Red Line is being renovated. The Blue line was renovated.

CTA has had some major PR blunders....but things are way better than they were in 1997 when I first moved here.

Something even more ironic are the number of people on here who thought that closing Miegs and easy access out of downtown it provided for the upper elite and business people....seem to not like the idea of getting people in and out of downtown to both airports via CTA. It confuses me....really does.

[pip]

Good post Chicago3rd.

[Marvel 33]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

Yeah, the curse of Block 37 has not gotten to this project yet. The way things are going, it just may be built after all.

Does that mean we won't have a German Village this Christmas? ;-)

[Tom In Chicago]

^They only started expanding that über-Deutsche shin-dig from Daley Plaza to B37 within the last few years. . . they can scale it back and get rid of the Peruvian scarf makers. . . not sure what they were doing there in the first place. . .

[Jaroslaw]

Originally Posted by Rail Claimore

I think anyone who doesn't support any good idea that Chicago takes from cities like London or Tokyo is an idiot. Crain's seems to have a lot of them as writers. I bet he's never even used such service in other cities.

Here is a reply to that, from today's Sun Times:

CTA resists audit of its finances, state says

August 3, 2005

BY MARK J. KONKOL Transportation Reporter


CTA officials have balked at a state Legislature-mandated audit of the agency's finances and operations, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

During a tense conference call on Friday, CTA brass told Illinois Auditor General William Holland the CTA would not agree to a state review if it required the CTA to pick up the tab.

Holland replied on Tuesday with a letter to top lawmakers saying the CTA is the first agency not to comply with the terms of an audit, and that leaves his office "unable to proceed."

That news rankled state Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago), author of the audit resolution that passed the House in a 113-1 vote on the heels of passing a $54 million CTA budget bailout. He said the CTA owes taxpayers an independent look at how the agency spends money and makes decisions.

"I find it troubling the CTA is looking to spend well over $100 million on a proposed [express] train line [to O'Hare] whose viability is not even certain, but they are unable to come up with a fraction of that amount to reassure the people of the state they are doing business properly," he said.

Logic 'stinks'

"The CTA needs to tread very carefully with the General Assembly when it's likely not the last time they will come before us. This won't sit well with the General Assembly or the public."

CTA Board chairwoman Carole Brown was surprised by Holland's letter, saying she believed the two sides were still trying to figure out how much the audit would cost.

"We welcome the audit . . . but we had concerns of whether it was [lawmakers'] intent for the CTA to pay for the cost of the audit. If so, where do we get the money . . . because we don't have any money," she said. "There was reluctance by the [auditor general] to say what the cost and scope of the audit would be. At no time did we say we're done, no audit."

State Sen. Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora), co-chair of the Legislative Audit Commission, said that logic "stinks."

"Every agency audited should cooperate and follow procedures," he said.

Holland's letter said he told CTA leaders the agency would not be billed for work done by in-house staff, but it is his "practice" to charge only for outside contractors hired to help.

But Brown said the CTA is unable and unwilling to go blindly into an audit without knowing a price, a number she said Holland is unable to provide.

Wants more details

"If the expectation is the CTA should pay, then it's reasonable to have a limit on what the costs are," she said.

Fritchey says he's sympathetic to the CTA budget woes, but argues the audit can only help the agency with its financial problems no matter what the cost. Only "failure to comply" can make things worse.

"If the audit finds they are doing a prudent job and still losing money, that strengthens the case to change the [transit] funding formula," he said. "If the audit shows the CTA is rife with mismanagement, I think they would like to know that as well and get it taken care of."

[Chicago3rd]

Well...if the state wanted the audit....they need to keep it independent...which means they need to pay for it. But I really....I really think Carol Brown just blew her chances of getting any help next year....like January 2006. And who will pay for that blunder? The patrons.....who will keep her job....Carol.

[VivaLFuego]

Would the taxpayers want an audit at the expense of a few bus routes? presumably the audit would come out of the operating budget, which is whats so messed up right now.

I dont think the B37/airport express project is operating money, its a capital project funded by gov't grants and bonds. So once again, politicians demonstrate an inability to grasp how money is collected and distributed, and for what purposes, at the CTA. the CTA can't just say "oh we'd rather use this money to plug the operating deficit than provide capital improvements"; federal money doesn't work like that.

Now, should the CTA invest capital money in continued renovations and the circle line instead of the airport express? possibly. but thats not being debated, and such a question has little or nothing to do with the $54million operating bailout.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by VivaLFuego

Would the taxpayers want an audit at the expense of a few bus routes? presumably the audit would come out of the operating budget, which is whats so messed up right now.

I dont think the B37/airport express project is operating money, its a capital project funded by gov't grants and bonds. So once again, politicians demonstrate an inability to grasp how money is collected and distributed, and for what purposes, at the CTA. the CTA can't just say "oh we'd rather use this money to plug the operating deficit than provide capital improvements"; federal money doesn't work like that.

Now, should the CTA invest capital money in continued renovations and the circle line instead of the airport express? possibly. but thats not being debated, and such a question has little or nothing to do with the $54million operating bailout.

^ BINGO! The fuck-wad who wrote that article doesn't understand such a basic principle. I think the CTA needs more money, not more audits. Why doesn't the state audit the Tollway Authority or something? Everybody always picks on transit--it's the culture of this friggin country.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Chicago3rd

Something even more ironic are the number of people on here who thought that closing Miegs and easy access out of downtown it provided for the upper elite and business people....seem to not like the idea of getting people in and out of downtown to both airports via CTA. It confuses me....really does.

Meigs was stupid and I'm glad it's gone.

Anything that pisses off Republicans is usually the morally correct thing to do