jordanb
Cyburbian
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- 3,232
- Points
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I made a map of the L that contains all the planned extentions that aren't stupid and a few lines that I'd like to see built.
The black lines are existing lines, the red are planned lines (all in Cats Shared Path 2030 I believe) and the green are the "vision" lines (ie: I came up with them).
The circles around each station are to denote distance. The green is 1/4 of a mile from the station (about a three minute walk), the purple is 1/2 of a mile (about five minutes) and the tan circle is 3/4 of a mile (or about 8 minutes).
Here's a closup of the central area:
Planned extentions:
Mid-city line
This line runs along the far west side and mid-south side. it's been in the transit plans since the '70s but there's been no movement on building it. It is estimated to only cost about a billion dollars because it can be put in an old railway ROW that the city already owns. Note: yes, it does follow the path of the cancelled crosstown expressway. People started thinking about an L line when that project started dying.
The primary advantage of the line is that it'll create a direct link between O'hare and Midway airports. That could be more important now that Midway is becoming a very busy airport again, but all the neighborhoods it runs through are ether poor or low-density bungalow neighborhoods (with plenty of NIMBYs) so it dosen't have a whole lot of political backing.
Circle Line
Next planned arc in, connecting the orange line in the south to the red line in the north. The CTA unveiled this line last year, and its primary purpose is to improve circulation through downtown by relieving congestion on the Loop (see the suggested train routing diagram below), but it would also make many crosstown trips easier. The CTA and city have been pushing it hard since it was released, so I think it has a good chance of getting TEA funds. It's estimated to cost "more than" $1 billion. Here's more information about it: http://www.chicago-l.org/plans/CircleLine.html
Grey Line
The planned line starts downtown and heads south, branching to go to south chicago and rock island. The plan is to convert the existing Metra Electric commuter line into a CTA rapid transit line. The current propsal is just to have Metra turn operations over to the CTA, who would operate it using existing Metra equipment. It's estimated that that would cost about $100 million for the conversion, but an engineering study hasn't been conducted yet. I would suggest that the line be converted to rapid transit vehicles so they can connect to the "vision" north lakeshore line. That would require the heavier metra trains to be moved to new tracks. The ROW is wide enough to have new tracks installed, so it'd just be a matter of paying for installation and converting the existing line to third rail. Here's the website for the grey line: http://grayline.20m.com
Clinton Street Subway
This is part of the Central Area Plan. It's the small mile-long north-south line inward from the circle line. The area around Clinton street was built up in the 90s with the assumption that rapid transit would be built to it. The right of way has been preserved so tunneling would be fairly straight-forward. The line would create a loop around which trains could be routed much the way they are in the existing loop, only this one would be underground. See the suggested route diagram below to see how that would work. The Central Area Plan has been well-recieved by downtown landlords, and it has been suggested that a downtown tax be implemented to pay for it, in which case, it would not have to fight for federal TEA funds. Considering that the near west side was and continues to be developed with the expectation that this line will be built, it has a pretty good shot at funding.
"Vision" Extentions
These are lines that haven't been proposed but I think would be a good idea.
North Lakeshore Line
This would extend north from the terminal of the "Grey Line" at Randolph street via a tunnel through Illinois Central and Streeterville. This would provide much-needed 1/4mile access to rapid transit to that very built up area. It would then turn in and run under the western edge of Lincoln park with stations at Oak Street Beach, North Avenue, Armatage, and Fullerton, it'd then turn back east and run (possibly elevated) along Marine Drive or Lake Shore Drive to about Larwence, where it'd turn west and connect to the northern most portion of the Ravenswood line. That line would then be extended west to link up with the O'Hare line in Jefferson Park. The end of the Ravenswood line would probably have to be elevated so the increased train traffic dosen't make it impossible to get across the tracks during rush hour, and the Kedzie station should be closed, it's redundant.
The line would be very expensive, probably between $4 billion and $5 billion. That's probably why no such line has been proposed yet as there is obviously a need for it.
Humbalt Park Line
This line would branch off the O'hare line at North Avenue and run along (near) North Avenue to Grand, on which it would run to the edge of the city. There used to be a Humbalt Park line on the L that followed the same course as far as Laramie, but it was shut down and demolished in the '60s. Due to the gentrifaction of Humbalt park, I think the line should be ressurected. I have no idea how much the line would cost. It'd depend primarily on how much of the original ROW has been preserved.
Here is a suggested route map. Because there are more lines than primary colors, I gave them letters, which I placed at both ends of the lines to make where they run more obvious.
And a closeup of the Central Area, notice the new western loop:
The black lines are existing lines, the red are planned lines (all in Cats Shared Path 2030 I believe) and the green are the "vision" lines (ie: I came up with them).
The circles around each station are to denote distance. The green is 1/4 of a mile from the station (about a three minute walk), the purple is 1/2 of a mile (about five minutes) and the tan circle is 3/4 of a mile (or about 8 minutes).

Here's a closup of the central area:

Planned extentions:
Mid-city line
This line runs along the far west side and mid-south side. it's been in the transit plans since the '70s but there's been no movement on building it. It is estimated to only cost about a billion dollars because it can be put in an old railway ROW that the city already owns. Note: yes, it does follow the path of the cancelled crosstown expressway. People started thinking about an L line when that project started dying.
The primary advantage of the line is that it'll create a direct link between O'hare and Midway airports. That could be more important now that Midway is becoming a very busy airport again, but all the neighborhoods it runs through are ether poor or low-density bungalow neighborhoods (with plenty of NIMBYs) so it dosen't have a whole lot of political backing.
Circle Line
Next planned arc in, connecting the orange line in the south to the red line in the north. The CTA unveiled this line last year, and its primary purpose is to improve circulation through downtown by relieving congestion on the Loop (see the suggested train routing diagram below), but it would also make many crosstown trips easier. The CTA and city have been pushing it hard since it was released, so I think it has a good chance of getting TEA funds. It's estimated to cost "more than" $1 billion. Here's more information about it: http://www.chicago-l.org/plans/CircleLine.html
Grey Line
The planned line starts downtown and heads south, branching to go to south chicago and rock island. The plan is to convert the existing Metra Electric commuter line into a CTA rapid transit line. The current propsal is just to have Metra turn operations over to the CTA, who would operate it using existing Metra equipment. It's estimated that that would cost about $100 million for the conversion, but an engineering study hasn't been conducted yet. I would suggest that the line be converted to rapid transit vehicles so they can connect to the "vision" north lakeshore line. That would require the heavier metra trains to be moved to new tracks. The ROW is wide enough to have new tracks installed, so it'd just be a matter of paying for installation and converting the existing line to third rail. Here's the website for the grey line: http://grayline.20m.com
Clinton Street Subway
This is part of the Central Area Plan. It's the small mile-long north-south line inward from the circle line. The area around Clinton street was built up in the 90s with the assumption that rapid transit would be built to it. The right of way has been preserved so tunneling would be fairly straight-forward. The line would create a loop around which trains could be routed much the way they are in the existing loop, only this one would be underground. See the suggested route diagram below to see how that would work. The Central Area Plan has been well-recieved by downtown landlords, and it has been suggested that a downtown tax be implemented to pay for it, in which case, it would not have to fight for federal TEA funds. Considering that the near west side was and continues to be developed with the expectation that this line will be built, it has a pretty good shot at funding.
"Vision" Extentions
These are lines that haven't been proposed but I think would be a good idea.
North Lakeshore Line
This would extend north from the terminal of the "Grey Line" at Randolph street via a tunnel through Illinois Central and Streeterville. This would provide much-needed 1/4mile access to rapid transit to that very built up area. It would then turn in and run under the western edge of Lincoln park with stations at Oak Street Beach, North Avenue, Armatage, and Fullerton, it'd then turn back east and run (possibly elevated) along Marine Drive or Lake Shore Drive to about Larwence, where it'd turn west and connect to the northern most portion of the Ravenswood line. That line would then be extended west to link up with the O'Hare line in Jefferson Park. The end of the Ravenswood line would probably have to be elevated so the increased train traffic dosen't make it impossible to get across the tracks during rush hour, and the Kedzie station should be closed, it's redundant.
The line would be very expensive, probably between $4 billion and $5 billion. That's probably why no such line has been proposed yet as there is obviously a need for it.
Humbalt Park Line
This line would branch off the O'hare line at North Avenue and run along (near) North Avenue to Grand, on which it would run to the edge of the city. There used to be a Humbalt Park line on the L that followed the same course as far as Laramie, but it was shut down and demolished in the '60s. Due to the gentrifaction of Humbalt park, I think the line should be ressurected. I have no idea how much the line would cost. It'd depend primarily on how much of the original ROW has been preserved.
Here is a suggested route map. Because there are more lines than primary colors, I gave them letters, which I placed at both ends of the lines to make where they run more obvious.

And a closeup of the Central Area, notice the new western loop:

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