Ten year transit plan for Chicago

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NorthShore

Conductor
Joined
Sep 3, 2013
Messages
1,376
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Chicago
An extensive "ten year plan" (I wonder how much could practically be accomplished in that time) vision for expanding transit in Chicago. Some are, perhaps, more ambitious concepts that would not be so easy to realize, let alone fund. Others are already on the drawing board to get done. This compilation is an interesting gathering of ideas, in any case.

https://yard-social.com/2023/05/13/diverging-approach-2034sight/
 
I think it would be more expedient to route through trains over the St. Charles airline connection and have them continue through Union Station to points north and northwest of Chicago. The Interlocking at Western Ave. could be rebuilt with or without flyovers to allow for faster operation when trains switch to and from the ex-CNW line to the west and when they cross over to continue to Milwaukee.

Ideally, there would be new construction to combine Olgivie and Union Station to create a superstation that would provide easy connections between the platforms in Oglivie and the platforms at Union Station. This concourse would be above the tracks and below the street level. It would have shops and restaurants. If this was not possible, then there should at least be escalators at the north end of the odd number platforms to facilitate getting to Olgivie.

Run-through operations should be emphasized at Union Station. The ultimate goal should be 30-minute off-peak service on all metra lines. This could be accomplished with new equipment based on what is used over in Europe or Japan. The RER network in Paris is a good blueprint as well as the Elizabeth Line and Thameslink in London.

At Ohare, the people mover would need to be extended to the Metra station. Some sort of route would also need to be built to get people from Union Station to Midway airport.
 
Ideally, there would be new construction to combine Olgivie and Union Station to create a superstation that would provide easy connections between the platforms in Oglivie and the platforms at Union Station. This concourse would be above the tracks and below the street level. It would have shops and restaurants. If this was not possible, then there should at least be escalators at the north end of the odd number platforms to facilitate getting to Olgivie.
I agree about the need for easier accessibility at the Madison Ave entrance to Union Station. That said, in some sense, doesn't the connection you're looking for sort of already exist? Of course, there isn't a concourse over the platforms, which though desirable is probably not practically possible considering how office complexes already sit there. Yet there is an easy entrance/exit for Ogilvie through the old City News building (by the CVS) directly across the street from the north end platform entrances to Union Station on Madison. Local commuters know this pathway (which includes a ramp up to the second/platform level of the office building that fronts Ogilvie and a bridge over Canal St. in something of an arcade setting.)
 
IMHO the entire area that connects Union Station to Oglive needs to be weatherproof. Chicago's weather is notoriously miserable in the winter. For right now the connection is okay because there are not that many transferring. But with increased frequencies on all routes there would be more people transferring. It would be better if they were not all trying to cross the street.
 
IMHO the entire area that connects Union Station to Oglive needs to be weatherproof. Chicago's weather is notoriously miserable in the winter. For right now the connection is okay because there are not that many transferring. But with increased frequencies on all routes there would be more people transferring. It would be better if they were not all trying to cross the street.
There should be a grade separated weather protected, preferably air conditioned walkway, possibly with travelators. It is not an extremely short distance either. The connecting experience should be similar to that between Kings Cross and St. Pancras in London. But I am not holding my breath.
 
I wonder if Union was made into a fully through station whether LaSalle St and Olgivy could be eliminated.

Obviously not MED since we're special!

Making it a run-through station doesn't increase capacity. And you'd still need space for those trains when they leave the station, which, given the traffic out of both Ogilvie and Union during rush hour, would be difficult to come by.

Arguments could be made for realigning which service goes to Union Station vs. Ogilvie, but you only have three tracks at the north end of Union and, unless you're planning on tearing down a couple of skyscrapers that were built in the last decade or so, you don't have room for more.

On the south side, I don't know if you'd be able to fit all of the Rock Island trains coming in. In fact, Metra is planning to move the Southwest Service over to LaSalle once they get a connecting track built.
 
There is a strong belief among many rail aficionados that if you make a station through running capacity magically doubles, never mind the limitations of the throat tracks. We have observed this coming from otherwise quite sane people about Penn Station in New York.
 
If Union were a proper run through station, it would indeed increase capacity since Metra (which is who I am primarily thinking of) wouldn't need to turn their trains with every run - they would continue ahead onto another route even with a limited number of tracks. It takes something like 20 minutes to reboot the trains for this - it reduced capacity on MED when their new system took effect.
 
If Union were a proper run through station, it would indeed increase capacity since Metra (which is who I am primarily thinking of) wouldn't need to turn their trains with every run - they would continue ahead onto another route even with a limited number of tracks. It takes something like 20 minutes to reboot the trains for this - it reduced capacity on MED when their new system took effect.

You still only have 3 tracks north of CUS past CP Canal. Run-throughs don't change that. Right now, those tracks get pretty well used with two tracks used for the peak direction, and one used for the reverse peak. Add a run-through, and now both directions are essentially going to be "peak" direction (since northbound trains will essentially be run-throughs of the BNSF peak service). There'd barely be enough space for that, let alone additional capacity for hypothetical Rock Island and UP trains.
 
I
There is a strong belief among many rail aficionados that if you make a station through running capacity magically doubles, never mind the limitations of the throat tracks. We have observed this coming from otherwise quite sane people about Penn Station in New York.
I don’t know if running through doubles capacity, but just for comparison, compare which station handles more passengers in New York…Pennsylvania Station with its 21 tracks, not even all of them “through”; or Grand Central Terminal with its 67 tracks, some of which are on loops? Not including the additional tracks for the LIRR at Grand Central- Madison…
 
An interesting
If Union were a proper run through station, it would indeed increase capacity since Metra (which is who I am primarily thinking of) wouldn't need to turn their trains with every run - they would continue ahead onto another route even with a limited number of tracks. It takes something like 20 minutes to reboot the trains for this - it reduced capacity on MED when their new system took effect.
An interesting comparison might be made at Philadelphia’s Suburban Station…before and after it became a through station, linking the former PRR and RDG lines…I
 
I

I don’t know if running through doubles capacity, but just for comparison, compare which station handles more passengers in New York…Pennsylvania Station with its 21 tracks, not even all of them “through”; or Grand Central Terminal with its 67 tracks, some of which are on loops? Not including the additional tracks for the LIRR at Grand Central- Madison…
Then again Howrah Station in Kolkata with 23 terminal tracks handles more trains than Penn Station. The problem with such comparisons is that there are many other factors including throat fluidity, track layout and traffic patterns that are in play.

Of course for what it is worth for a two track railroad with two through platform tracks probably some station like Farringdon can handle more trains in its densest hour than even Penn Station. It has perfect fluidity with each train stopping less than a minute with close to one minute headway. It can be operated only completely automatically with humans just providing supervision if something goes wrong.
 
An interesting

An interesting comparison might be made at Philadelphia’s Suburban Station…before and after it became a through station, linking the former PRR and RDG lines…I
The main advantage to the Center City Tunnel was better equipment utilization (allowing retirement of some of the older equipment such as the MP54s) and more options for commuters e.g. coming from the PRR side you could now get off at Market East or Temple U and RDG side could ride directly to 30th street station or to the airport. Suburban Station had (and still does AFAIK) 7 tracks of which 4 run through and now the 3 stub tracks are less needed as few trains terminate there anymore.
 
I think it would be more expedient to route through trains over the St. Charles airline connection and have them continue through Union Station to points north and northwest of Chicago. The Interlocking at Western Ave. could be rebuilt with or without flyovers to allow for faster operation when trains switch to and from the ex-CNW line to the west and when they cross over to continue to Milwaukee.

Ideally, there would be new construction to combine Olgivie and Union Station to create a superstation that would provide easy connections between the platforms in Oglivie and the platforms at Union Station. This concourse would be above the tracks and below the street level. It would have shops and restaurants. If this was not possible, then there should at least be escalators at the north end of the odd number platforms to facilitate getting to Olgivie.

Run-through operations should be emphasized at Union Station. The ultimate goal should be 30-minute off-peak service on all metra lines. This could be accomplished with new equipment based on what is used over in Europe or Japan. The RER network in Paris is a good blueprint as well as the Elizabeth Line and Thameslink in London.

At Ohare, the people mover would need to be extended to the Metra station. Some sort of route would also need to be built to get people from Union Station to Midway airport.
The O'Hare people mover has been extended to the rent-a-car garage located next to METRA O'Hare Transfer so there could be express trains between CUS and O'Hare. There already is a CTA Orange Line from the Loop to Midway airport, but this route by-passes Union Station.
 
I wonder if Union was made into a fully through station whether LaSalle St and Olgivy could be eliminated.

Obviously not MED since we're special!
METRA needs to keep Ogilvy and LaSalle Street open due to volume of trains. Current plans are to re-route SW Corridor to LaSalle which would create more openings on South side of CUS.
 
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