we also need federal funds to pay for these projects - for the oversized taxes paid by the million of us in chi who dont use the federal highway system.
Chicago needs competent people in charge in general. I'm all for diversity and all that crap, but honestly we need more experienced people running things.
@@NosebergEatzbugsVonShekelstein what does diversity have to do with anything? These individuals were duly elected. They weren’t just placed there, people voted for them and they won.
Slow zones are a major problem. They not only affect customer experience but also frequency. The sooner a train completes a route, the sooner they can start another leg of service. A service 30% faster is like having 30% more trains for free. As for the driver shortage...the clot shot mandate is partly to blame. But yes, automation would be a great thing.
I see lots of construction going on along the Blue line’s Forest Park branch. Including a rebuilt station at UIC. That should eliminate most of the system’s slow zones
@@thehouseoftransit2719 And the "biggest slow zone" of them all is the loop. The track on the loop desperately needs to upgraded...it would be way quieter, faster, and reduce a bottleneck that is cramping frequency.
Automation would not help what's gonna happen when the trains break down? Plus too many homeless riding the blue that hold doors and make commute slower. You need operators to keep these trains moving.
When the CTA took over the L system in 1947 it embarked on 5 - 10 year project to eliminate smaller stations and certain line extensions. Among them was a much longer version of today's Pink line, the remnant of which today are the parking lots that you noted. The Blue line went all the way to Westchester. Good job guys!
The loop needs to be Deinterlined. The Green Line should run On the Western & Southern Section of the Loop & Run through. While The Purple & Brown run will run On the Northern & Eastern Section of the El. & which won’t Happen the CTA should Reroute the Orange Line to Michigan Av & Clark St & Run West on Wellington & Have Belmont be 6 Tracks, 2 Island Platforms & 2 Side Platforms Where the 2 Side Platforms, 2 Track Upper Platform will be for the Michigan Av & Ravenswood Branch. & in Case if there are Service Disruptions I would Have a Connection from the Brown line onto the Purple line this will have Orange Or Brown line Trains Run on the Purple line Trackage through the Loop & The 13th St Connecter. Same for the Purple line having a Connection North Of Belmont But will also involve having Van Buren St have 2 Island Platforms & 4 Tracks & The inner Track will be for in case Something Happened to the Loop Purple Line trains can Run On the Michigan/Clark El. Instead of having the Cermak Line run as a branch line of the Forest Park Branch. I would have run as a Spur between Rush Hospital - Damen & Instead of Running On Paulina it will run on Ashland because Back when the Paulina St El stopped Passenger Service & The Lake St - O’hare Section was Demolished Trains ran West Of Paulina St in a Alley But Today there is Development that had been build so that why I Would have the Pink line run on Ashland But the Pink line will still need to be connected to the O’hare Line So I would have the Spur run Parallel on Milwaukee Av & Connect to the Blue line Just South of Logan Square. So what I would Propose won’t happen & Probably for a Very Long Time.
Honestly Chicago needs to be putting a shit load of cash and resources into more TOD. Why arent people riding CTA? Maybe cuz outside of the immediate area around downtown and the north shore, theres absolutely nothing but single family homes.
The now pink line used to go exactly where you called out, the reason the parking lot like area exists now. The most densely populated municipalities in all IL are in the near west suburbs (Chicago is #5), and include densely populated Cicero and Berwyn. Having the old stops back could help. Beyond million less people in the city than years ago, far fewer people commute to work into the Loop than past. That may slowly come back but likely not to former levels anytime soon. Btw, the Lake Strret L (green) used to go South down the Dan Ryan (red) and other route changes. The old A and B stops might speed up commutes too
7:04 Almost like a smack to the face, they actually developed one of the three large plots of land across from Pulaski Orange Line!! They didn't build any apartments or housing though, they built a damn Auto Zone. Legitimately the single type of business that will obtain no benefit from sitting on such a prime piece of transit-connected land. The worst part is there are Auto Zones on Archer/Harlem, Archer/Francisco, Pulaski/61st, Cicero/47th, and 49th/Kedzie. This makes it the 9th corporate car parts store in an area of about 9 square miles, 6 of which are other Auto Zones, and the third which is unnecessarily within throwing distance of an Orange Line station.
Havent seen anyone else propose merging pink with blue to add trains to both blue and other loop bound lines. Well done. The song at the end was hilarious as well
This is amazing high-quality content. Your work should definitely have more views. The jokes are amazing and genuinely had me laughing, I think humor is an underused but very effective tool in the world of urbanism RU-vid. Keep doing what you're doing!
Neither Chicago nor the CTA have the vision or the drive to fix transit, be it for the "L" or bus service. And I can guarantee it will get worse (way worse) under Dorvell Carter. Looking at the slipshod track maintenance alone is a concern. Truth be told, NYC/MTA track maintenance is better than that of the Chicago Transit Authority although that system is three times larger than Chicago's rapid transit system.
Yes! Routes that are grade separated need to be automated! This could result in 2 car consists with 3 minute headways. So if you're on the L platform and it's -5°, your average wait time is 1.5 minutes. Creating 10 car consists shows CTA's bureaucratic mindset. "THEY will wait for our train and like it!" Automation would eliminate the bane of mass transit: having to wait for the next one to come along. (In the 1960's, my aunt explained to me that CTA busses have a herding instinct, so that when you've been waiting for 20 minutes, 3 of them arrive.) In addition to automation, they should be working to eliminate at-grade street crossings so those lines too can be automated. REALLY GOOD JOB you guys are doing!!!
Crime is down, after being down the previous year, and ridership is way up. There will always be some level of crime on any public transit but I ride the trains all the time and have never had issues. The crime excuse is way overblown except certain portions amd at certain times
Automation is a big lift for a system that's as far behind as CTA. Building some of the pieces now like platform screen doors would have other benefits - like keeping people off the tracks and preventing track fires. However, the big thing to fix that could really help the L right now is fixing slow zones. Slow zones mean trains back up coming out of fast moving and high traffic areas like the Loop, which reduces train capacity across the system. In the month of August CTA removed ZERO slow zones.
The CTA could build an Elevated Spur from the Southwest corner of the Loop to the where the Old Grand Central Station used to be, to serve the new 78th Development
For me about The RPM Modernization Project I think The CTA should've started talks with the community for Phase 2 when they knew when Phase 1would start construction and sealed the date of construction start. Phase 2 will cover the rest of The CTA Red Line and Purple Line from Thorndale to Howard Street Terminal and The Purple Line from Howard Street Terminal to Linden Wilmette. For a major project like this it's better to use the same contractor to build it than what they are doing in reality. This way once they receive the appropriate funds by then they'll be finishing up with Phase 1 which is what we're in currently which composed of The CTA Red and Purple Line Bypass of The CTA Brown Line and The RPM Modernization between Belmont and Addison and Lawrence and Bryn Mawr (though it's actually a little past Thorndale) so they really should've started with planning Phase 2 immediately after sealing the date of when construction of Phase 1 would begin.
I just don't think CTA has ever had a good maintenance regime lol. I know old guys say it did in the 60's /70's but I think they have always been strapped for cash. Maintenance is always the first hing to go when cash is linted. I think CTA was doomed from the beginning, city hall during the years of high ridership in the 30's, politicans thought consolidating the private lines would be a cash cow for the city budget. When CTA was created 1945-47 that was after world war two and the system was beat to hell after the war. so it's off to the right foot. I think the CTA just needs better funding, consistent funding, and better leadership. because Carters biggest failing (in my opinion) is there has been a Funding for more rail operators, but yet Carter has yet to get as many as budget will allow. The mess to come is when this Pandemic money runs out, and CTA most likely will be forced to raise fairs and that will not help CTA's ridership, Another thing against current CTA ridership, unlike during the 2009-2011 ridership spike there, is still relatively low gas prices which again are not making people think twice before driving over taking the train.
@@P0w2you Definitely agree about a need for better funding and leadership. The talks about creating a new regionwide transit agency might be the solution
CTA L Operator Here! I think you guys make some great points in the video and I agree that sending every other pink line down to the Dearborn subway would certainly help relieve congestion in the loop which is a much needed strategy to improve overall speed and reliability. I want to mention that there are some actions being taken in the next month or so to improve wait times including bringing back Orange Line trains to Kimball and Brown Line Trains to Midway to reduce congestion in the loop as well as doubling the amount of Southbound Blue Line Trains that end their Service at UIC-Halsted to increase the amount of trains in the Loop and Ohare Branch. One thing that a lot of these videos dont mention is the reliablity of the Trains themselves. Many of the trains in service have been around since the 80's and 90's meaning they breakdown all the time. The current plan is to reduce the number of cars on trains during off peak hours for 8 to 4 whcih should help the issue, but ultimatley is a band-aid on the problem. The only way to fix this is by building new trains that are also reliable. The major thing holding CTA back is the lack of trust in leadership from the public, which diminishes public willingness to both use and fund the service.
@@TheBlkgrffn Thanks for your insights! The unreliability of vehicles wasn’t something I was aware of, but I certainly agree about replacing much of the aging fleet. The 7000s are a good start but many more sets will be needed!
They could also create a line that goes to Navy Pier. They could also have a rail line that goes along the coast and share tracks with the metra and south shore lines. They could also reextend the green line to the east to stony island, connecting with the other rail line I just mentioned and the metra and south shore lines. They could also extend the orange line past ford city. They should alao consider combining the orange and brown lines together to a single line. They could extend the north branch of that line to Jefferson Park blue line or possibly even to ohare airport itself. They could extens the yellow line to old orchard mall. They could eliminate the purple line express too and replace it with a red line service that could go express and stop at stations that the purple line doesn't stop at like addison for the stadium. They could also extend the green line west to cicero and connect to a station there for the extended rail line to ford city. And they could have a street running rail line that goes down ashland and connect to existing stations. They could also create the circle line that would go through the existing metra stations downtown and connect to the rail linea to the west, north, and south.
A lot of these ideas have been floated in previous plans, submitted by various community and private groups. Many of these could have existed, but the problem was vision. Many right of ways were given up, and would be prohibitively expensive to reclaim and build on. Power is still an issue anywhere you put track, so that's a constant. The lack of vision going back 70 years was like always, due to financing constraints. Areas that didn't have rail 70+ years ago or did but no longer do, are due to low ridership. Westchester floundered due to WW2, but that area exploded with population following America's economic boom, as well as the great migration that, regardless of any race factor, necessitated urban and suburban development to accommodate the people. A lot of interconnectivity was sacrificed, somewhat due to the land the Metras living on actually belonging to commercial entities. The decline of intercity passenger rail and boom of the freight trucking industry created two major problems that spread to the urban and suburban rail land holdings. With less ridership on the heavy commuter rail and less freight due to trucks, heavy lines were abandoned and let to other purposes. This left less future routes to run light rail along, over, or so on. The second was the lack of foresight about the expansion of the city. Retraction and expansion of populations across different areas is natural, and securing land to access those areas should always have been top priority. Many extensions and spurs were abandoned as a product of the times: The city didn't need it, maintenance of trackage was expensive, maintenance of land was expensive. Automation wasn't a thing; nearly every switch had to be manually switched, no computer optimization or remote control with real-time monitoring or positive train control. Now you don't need switch houses and localized staff for efficient optimization of different connection points. Disused property is a fiscal and safety liability. But total abandonment is more expensive. Removing old tracks that would have to be rebuilt anyway, but largely leaving elevated structure, ballast, or simple chain fencing would have preserved the possibilities for future generations. As these guys state, there's large areas that aren't serviced by fast light rail. The bus system does a good job of connecting those areas, but it requires a lot of buses. The buses also used to be electrified via caternary and you can find remnants of that. It required a lot of maintenance, but had some advantages, especially looking toward the future. Some of the South side Metras fill gaps between light lines, but they're mostly at grade, which causes lots of street problems, so again, lack of planning for street level modernization. One good point this video had was that parks and rail can coexist. I'm not suggesting the 606 killed some rail, but it did. The problem is, it should have gone all out. That avenue has a lot of potential to connect alongside more rail (or former) right of way between LaBagh Woods and the Lake Shore trail system. The resulting path could go North to Ravinia as it does, and also NE to run alongside Yellow up to at least Old Orchard Mall. That's part of the old Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Interurban right of way. To directly address some of Tyler's points, the Kinzie rail bridge would be perfect for something, but the right of way was abandoned and is simply no longer usable. The big problems with some of your suggestions are spurs. They create logistical issues, but a shore line would be great, if there was space. Orange and Brown aren't a single thing because the Brown's layout keeps it significantly slower for round-trip type service. I don't know where you'd extend the Orange to, because the city largely stops there. Brown could be extended West at great cost. Notice that West of Kimball, the streets largely are counter-intuitive for a Westerly train path. Ideally though, it would connect to Montrose or JP Blue. Montrose has one Metra, and it's between two UP NW stations, but still close enough to get to the intermodal JP station. Yellow should definitely go to Old Orchard Mall. The Purple Express is needed for the far North and should stay that way, but continue optimizing stops all the way in to balance loads on all three North lines. The Metra station at Peterson/Ridge was a great addition and helps this too. The Green could go farther West on the South side, if the community wants. It used to branch off at Harvard and went to 67th/Marquette and Normal. I'm not necessarily advocating for that revival and doubt there's much demand for extension there; again, it would be a spur. A rail line at grade on Ashland would be dangerous. Express bus suggestions would be better. Elevated over main streets in the city would get too much pushback from neighborhoods. A suggested elevated highway with shuttle rail in the middle would have helped the current south to west/north highway and transit congestion. There have been a couple circle line suggestions of wildly different types, mostly though to serve the farther out parts of the city between I-294 and the Loop. The train stations near the loop are connected closely enough to existing light rail, while crosstown nearly everywhere but the North-South Red Line and straight West via Blue or Green suffers. Tyler, you are either a solid rail fan, or you're common sense enough that you're coming up with the same ideas others have had, but no administration has been able to implement. (For now) two last notes: 1.) The Dearborn Street Subway has two stub tunnels that branch just West of Clark & Lake, where the Blue swings North to Grand. These originally were intended to surface and connect to the Lake Street branch, but were never developed. They now appear to have electrical substation equipment installed, probably a small effort to deal with the power issues on the O'Hare branch. I wish they were used. Also one extra stub tunnel where the Blue emerges underneath or between I-290 unused. Might have originally been intended to hook North underneath Franklin. 2.) While still at grade, and shouldn't be, the Rock Island branch that goes through Blue Island and Beverly is being converted to Battery-Electric in the next few years as a pilot. I personally think Metra should also pilot a Battery-Electric on the North Central Service between Union and the O'Hare transfer that is currently dreadfully sparse, giving a far more express connection to the city, and one that's more environmentally friendly. Good video guys. Happy to elaborate on any of this or provide source material from my saved links and files. -Mike B
@@Bergie847 there’s definitely a need for better transit service connecting that area. The Blue Line’s already pretty long and that extension would be quite expensive, so I’m not sure it’s the best option. Improved express buses on 290 would be a great option for now, and maybe someday in the distant future it could see a newly constructed Metra branch
OK so I'm a Chicago DSA guy. The "two-person crews" idea is a union demand. Talk to the ATU rank-and-file about that. And trust me, they also get it - we're not asking to half service. Upgrading service is a bigger priority for us than two-person crews are. We definitely want Dorval out too.
As a Retiree from cta. There are a number of problems. 1) Young people don't wanna come to work and stay. 2) Money $$$ 3) Automation takes $$$ 4) An old system that needs to be rebuilt
@@christopherjones6458 You make valid points, but I think we can aim higher: 1) If young people don’t want to work, driverless trains are even more compelling 2/3) automation is an up-front investment but it would drastically reduce operating expenses 4) These lines need to be rebuilt anyway, which is the perfect time to incorporate new technologies
I seriously hope that I don't come across as too cringey (so I likely will), but it does my heart some good that there are still some young people in the world who actually care about this, and then make fun videos like this. And now for some unsolicited advice: get onto Bluesky.
@@RipCityBassWorks an excellent question. His sole focus has been securing funding for the Red Line Extension, and my guess is the recent mayors have all kept him in power to see it through
1. The City is gentrifying at a rapid rate. The CTA should start ordering quieter rail cars. With more comfortable seats. 2. While O’hare is under construction the CTA should add a Blue line stop on the west side of the airport. With plans to eventually go to Woodfield. 3. The Brown should be continued west to O’hare. Merging with the Blue line at Jefferson park. 4. Pink line should continue west. Stopping at: the V.A. hospital; Oak Brook shopping center& Yorktown mall. Diverting to the dying Riverside mall is pointless.
Extending the pink to North Riverside is just using the already torn down right of way, and the blue at one time ran to both Aurora and Elgin. While we are àt extensions, why not add stations and run the yellow all the way to Northbrook?
I'd love to see the brown use the State Street subway, go through the Loop, and then emerge and continue as an orange line. The brown is great but *so* slow after Armitage. Alternatively, the purple line could go in the subway to be an actual North Side express, though they should add stops at Loyola and either Berwyn or Bryn Mawr.
You know what they could really use, some express service though the center of the Chicago. It was the one thing I really noticed when I rode it because I was trying to get between Skokie and Clinton.
@@thehouseoftransit2719 they would probably have to buy up all the lines and assets that are still under private ownership before they can even think about trying that.
Boston MBTA was in a similar situation 2 years ago but now with a new GM Phil Eng things are turning around! Slow zones are being removed. Hope the city of Chicago can also get CTA back in shape by hiring someone that knows how to run a transit service.
@@thehouseoftransit2719 I'm og from the Seattle area which is expanding transit rapidly but I live in a different part of the country now, hope to see Chicago expand and improve service.
$3.9Billion for the extension and a brand new upgraded rail yard that can hold more trains makes sense for the 10 car train operation. Ironically, I believe the automation idea would actually be better suited for all the trains that serve the loop because more capacity and reliability would better utilized along with interlining. One simple fix that can be done right away is having all Pink Line trains interline with the South Green Line branch to East 63rd Street, no longer using the Loop. That would reduce a headache train movement at the Tower 18.
@@deric8 automation would probably have more operational benefits on the Loop, but it’d be a lot harder to implement and wouldn’t enable frequencies nearly as high as on the Blue and Red
It is not the frequency that makes automation better, it is the reliability. Red and Blue would be "easier" but the capacity on those lines can be done by extending platforms to 10 or 12 car trains and BTW the pizza argument doesn't work. Because in Paris, those trains are 60-75% the length of an 8 car CTA train. So squeezing a few more trains makes more sense in Paris compared to platform lengthening because extending that platform in the dense Parisian fabric will not work when its easier to upgrade that line and a parallel line. Longer trains will be better for the two lines in Chicago
Spot on with so many points in this video, particularly about the benefits of upgrading to driverless metro lines with enclosed stations, and the precarious plans and funding for the Red-Line extension. I don't see the Pink Link going back to the Blue. What is really needed is a West Loop N/S line that runs down Larabee or Kinsbury, Clinton or Canal, and then rejoins one of the other lines in the south loop.
@@jimmyneaylon4 west loop is hard to serve with transit, a north-south line that close to downtown would be unusual but we’ll explore options in the future
9:57 Yes to not only the Pink Line but also other lines with grade-crossings! #CTA need to prioritize removing grade-crossings throughout the L first and foremost for reliability, safety, and provisions for driverless operations system-wide. #CTA really needs to take a long-term leap with fully upgrading the 'L' to be fully closed loop with driverless automation and no grade crossings similar to how #REMmtl is built from an electric commuter rail to a fully closed loop and driverless #metro with a medium-term strategy of removing all grade-crossings in any way (elevated the lines as you mentioned, tunnelling the lines, elevating the roads, burying the roads, etc.) instead of continuing to play safe with maintaining existing grade crossings.
First, the CTA needs competent leadership. Second, a merger with Metra, Pulse and PACE suburban bus authority - even if not by organization at least by branding.
I know this might be a controversial opinion but I think the Loop should be demolished and replaced with a subway. There was a proposal to do that in the 60s but was cancelled after intense backlash
@@mommashouse6852 Depends on how it's rebuilt. If it's rebuilt as-is, it wouldn't do much but bury the tracks. But if it's rebuilt as a through-subway, (maybe as a 4 track line under East Lake and North Wabash or one street over built cut and cover) it would allow for more frequency, higher capacity, through-running, better reliability, and more modern service generally. That being said, it would also be really expensive.
