Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
Pedway, First Store Open At Block 37
Around Town
Around Town
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
Greg Hinz reports today in Crain's that tomorrow the CTA will formally solicit business plans from bidders on how to create, pay for and operate an express service to O'Hare and Midway from downtown. Estimates say the fare will be around $15 (will people pay that?) for the 20 to 25 minute ride to O'Hare.
Two weeks ago the CTA announced that they would pay The Chicago Department of Transportation $2.3 million for an analysis of operating and planning the service from TranSystems Corporation and other consultants.
The service will use existing Blue and Orange line tracks, but will require the building of express passing rails that could cost several hundred million dollars and a transfer station in the Loop that could cost $200 million. Lots of moolah. Yes, yes, we know Mr. X. These funds would be capital, but then they have to operate the service right? Maybe covered by the $15 fare?
In his budget address yesterday Blagojevich said he wants to give CTA the funds they're asking for (and wants help from lawmakers to do it), and that closing a loophole that allows big corporations to avoid software taxes could help. The Gov's statements are at least a bit encouraging, but we have to wait and see what actually gets done. A CTA spokeswoman told Hinz that the agency is confident they'll get the money they need from the State and is operating accordingly by making plans for the future. There's no word on when the project itself would be completed, though transit sources told Hinz the CTA hopes the consultation will be finished by spring 2007.
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I'm willing to pay up to 3x the current 1-way fare price. Not 8.5x. I don't really have a problem with the current travel time, although faster would be nice, but not at such a steep price.
so, let me get this straight:
the CTA wants to build an express line from downtown to o'hare for tourists and rich people (surely this couldn't have anything to do with a proposed downtown...casino, could it?) while people who rely on transit daily in all parts of the city along all lines (hellllooooo green and orange lines...) and are poor, working, and "middle" class endure fare hikes and service cuts? all this on top of the CTA's ongoing plan to make it possible for people with cell phones to use them on the underground stretches of the blue and red lines, thus increasing the range of their deep, deep obnoxiousness?
come the hell on.
At first I thought $15 was outrageous, but then I realized that this could be a direct replacement to a taxi. Even in free flow traffic, it takes 20-25 minutes to get to O'Hare on the Kennedy. I've never taken a cab there, but I'd assume (from the placards in cabs) that it costs $30-40. If you could make it there in the same time as a cab, for half of the cost, I think business travellers (who aren't afraid of the stigma of public transportation) would find value.
Yes, the "farebox" return, and sales tax revenue collected by the RTA funding formula would have to cover the operating cost. It likely won't but bug TranSystems for a their final report sometime in 2007. I think I know some people who work for them.
As for the cost, the Heathrow Express in London is £13.00 ($25), for a trip that rocks but is admitely a bit longer. The CTA should first and foremost raise fares for 1, 2, 3-day passes and what every other tourist passes they sell. Call it a tourist tax . . . I know, I know it will piss off the mayor.
Perhaps they can offer us residents a ten ride pass, or something for the express trains. Finally, y'all don't get too excited about this, there's a "consultant" involved and also Block 37 and it will take years to develop and work out. We'll still be leaving 45 minutes to get to O'Hare which is fine with me, its better than in most other American cities.
I'd rather see accurate time to next train messages, cleaner trains and stations. We've lived this long without express service to O'Hare, I think we can direct our federal/state/local fundage to more pressing issues. (and I don't mean talking on cell phones underground)
The airport express train in Hong Kong costs, I think, HK$100, or about $12-$13 US, and is a much longer, faster, and cleaner ride than anything I could ever imagine the CTA coming up with.
In addition to the "everyday" problems people have already noted, what about the problems residents have getting to O'Hare from non-Downtown locations? Most Northsiders have to take buses to the Blue Line, which is okay, except that the buses are unpredictable. And I don't even want to think about what it's like from Rogers Park or Evanston. Not to mention the preposterously underserved South Side...
I can get the O'Hare thing, although $15? But Midway? Downtown to Midway is not a long ride, I should know, as I take it all the time. What, is it too much bother for these people to travel with the rest of us plebeians? An express line is unnecessary and a waste of money. And yet at the same time they tell us they need to cut 90% of our bus lines. What bull.
Forget the El. Why don't they just send Dolly the Trolley to the airports.
Right on Kris; although I think they need a new trolley - maybe "CTA Folly Trolley" or "Peotone Here We Come-olly Trolley".
why not just FLY people directly into downtown? oh wait, we can't do that any more thanks to the closing of Meigs Field.
The idea of an express train is plain stupid. There are already regular trains and taxi cabs. They need to be finding NEW ways of getting NEW riders on. Start connecting the suburbs together. How about an O'Hare to Aurora train?