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True, but they’ve been pretty happy to expand 90 our past 94. Judging by the amount of trains on the blue line even during rush hour and the relatively tiny cap
by lvh 8y ago
True, but they’ve been pretty happy to expand 90 our past 94. Judging by the amount of trains on the blue line even during rush hour and the relatively tiny capacity of the proposed shuttle, we can do a LOT more with the infrastructure we already have though!
- moorhosj 8y agoAnd it would require huge investment from the city, which this project doesn't require. That said, there are already projects to increase capacity (new cars, more power on the Blue Line), southern expansion of the Red Line and the Belmont Flyover.
- lvh 8y agoDo you believe that it’ll ship and the on-paper cost will be 0? Or that even accounting for operations and externalities it’ll be zero? (I appreciate the city wouldn’t get the profits directly, but I imagine it’ll benefit via taxes. I’m suggesting the externalities won’t be even close.)
- moorhosj 8y agoThis is just the opening of a negotiating window, once we see the plan we can make those calculations. For example, Boring will likely have to rent the Block 37 station from the CTA, bringing in some money (but we have no idea how much yet).
- ForrestN 8y agoSincerely asking since I don’t know: when I lived in Chicago there was constant talk of how old and crappy that infrastructure is—how confident are you that pushing it harder when many people think it needs replacing wouldn’t cause problems and endless construction delays?
- lvh 8y agoProbably less than drilling a new tunnel through all of Chicago.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ForrestN 8y agoYou think drilling new tunnels would cause lots of delays to the existing trains?
- lvh 8y agoThe question was about endless construction delays, not limited to existing trains. My understanding of the current plans is they don’t overlap a lot with current rail lines.
- phil21 8y agoThe Blue Line is already operating at the electric and signaling capacity of the line. There is no simple/cheap fix so you get the stagnation you see everywhere in transportation everywhere in the nation. They are currently working on a signaling modernization program, but I don't know the details well enough to know if it will help much. New rolling stock that should offer a bit more capacity also starts arriving around 2020. I agree it's frustrating to watch. I moved to Chicago in 2004 and my El stop on the Blue Line was pretty lightly trafficked. Now you are lucky to get on the train during rush hour, much less get a seat. As the neighborhoods continue to heat up along the line something has to break at some point, but NYC shows things can get really bad and there is not enough focused rage to get anything done even then.