MovingIntoCongestion (withtoomuchmoola)

Below is a letter printed in the Southwest News-Herald Sept 23, 2004, when there was still time to stop this project. North side papers were not interested, nor northsiders in general.

They were not interested even shortly afterwards when cost overruns forced CTA to close stations, contrary to promises. At least one northsider had the wit to ask at a packed meeting at Lane Tech in February 2005 why CTA did not restore downtown service on the parallel 11 Lincoln bus. Frank Kruesi said the state would have to come up with some more funds.

Now that CTA has announced two years of three track operation between Fullerton and Belmont, let's call it MovingIntoCongestion. Now that the transit agencies have banded together to get more moola thrown their way, under the banner (and website) MovingBeyondCongestion, and the sotto voce motto, "Leave no federal dollars on the table," let's figure the real problem is too much moola.

At least CTA recently combined the 11 Lincoln and 37 Sedgwick buses, so there is a Lincoln service going downtown.

DOES WRIGLEYVILLE KNOW WHAT IT WANTS?

In conjunction with the recent Wrigley Field deal, the neighborhood will get various transportation improvements, including elevated stations and Lake Shore Drive access at Addison. Meanwhile it wants to keep cars out of the area. Say what? Keeping cars out, with Lake Shore Drive access at Addison? Are they only supposed to go through the neighborhood? But even that is not keeping them out. What does it take to keep cars out of the neighborhood?

New L stations? Deal or no deal, CTA is about to pour a half billion into longer, wider platforms on the Ravenswood elevated line, apparently without objection, except for some buildings being taken and L platforms outside some people’s windows. Never mind that same half billion could buy a whole new CTA bus system (1800 buses @ a quarter mil each), a whole new Douglas line, eight miles of Dan Ryan expressway reconstruction, or replacement and extension of the same line with a far more capable new technology altogether. A decade ago not quite a half-billion was the cited figure for the new Midway line or for private investment in the Stockyards industrial district that created 10,000 jobs.

The longer, wider platforms are for an increase in rush hour capacity. Meanwhile CTA has yet to restore downtown service on the parallel 11 Lincoln bus line that was cut a half-decade ago. The increased traffic seems to be largely from close-in stations easily served by bus, not far from a bus barn recently abandoned by CTA.

Is century-old third rail rapid transit really a fixture of the universe? Or can it be replaced altogether? There is a so far little known and less used public transportation technology in which the vehicle runs under a standard steel I-beam, held aloft by heavy-duty light poles. The vehicle is both propelled and suspended by a linear induction motor, a version of the common clock motor, running about 3/8" under the beam. The motor generates magnetic forces along the beam and toward it. Thus it both propels and suspends the vehicle. Caster wheels keep it from falling or clamping to the beam. The structure costs about one-tenth as much as an elevated and casts shadows only about two feet wide. It only needs columns every eighty feet or so, not another swath through city or countryside, and easily co-exists with existing activities. The vehicle costs about as much as a bus of the same capacity, one-half or one third as much as a comparable rail car, and makes about as much noise as an elevator.

An initial installation in Wrigleyville could connect the ball park with the remote parking lots at Lane Tech, not quite two miles. This is a useful function but not a critical one, such as getting thousands of people to work every day, one suitable for a test. When proven, the line could be extended downtown over congested Clark St. or perhaps Halsted and Kingsbury. This could take care of the excess ridership on the Ravenswood and provide a facility useful 168 hours a week, not just ten. The cost of the whole facility would be a small fraction of the elevated platform project.

Who knows, maybe it could replace the rest of the Ravenswood north of Addison and even be extended to Jefferson Park to connect with the O’Hare line, and that without a lot of disruption on Lawrence. The cost would still be considerably less than the expanded platform project, the disruption likewise.

Still want Lake Shore Drive access? It would be environmentally acceptable even there. With a different sort of car, that buses can drive on and off for express runs, it could actually be a substantial service and environmental improvement both. It could even get oodles of cars off the streets, if that is what Wrigleyville really wants. If the riders can survive two weeks of half service north of Belmont, however, then the capacity expansion is really quite unnecessary.