Even here in Jerusalem, the most direct transit system path is not always the fastest or most comfortable. I do enjoy having a monthly pass that gets me on Light Rail as well as the buses.
The Chicago urban agglomeration, according to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects report (2011 revision), lists a population of 9,545,000.[7] The term “urban agglomeration” refers to the population contained within the contours of a contiguous territory inhabited at urban density levels. It usually incorporates the population in a city plus that in the surrounding area.
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C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Well there are diverse populations in other suburbs (especially Asians and Latinos) and some suburbs close to the poverty line, but most suburbs are fairly well-off and largely white. You really don't know the Chicago area.
Bedford Park, Aurora, Riverdale and most of the inner burbs are diverse these days both ethnicaly and incomewise.
CandOforprogress2CandOforprogress2 wrote the following post yesterday: The Star Line would have used the EJE line around the city. Downtown workers tend to be professional higher income and white. Suberb to Suberb communting is service jobs and lower income and latino and black.
Not a very accurate statement, at least about most Chicago suburbs.
The RTA Star Line proposal was for a Naperville-Barrington routing over the EJ&E. The J was understandably not too ecstatic about the proposal and the pretentious residents of Barrington also opposed the line, claiming that it would generate too much congestion.
Maybe I am conflating this with something else, but some years ago didn't the Tri-State Tollway object to competition from any proposed rail transit beltway?
The Star Line would have used the EJE line around the city. Downtown workers tend to be professional higher income and white. Suberb to Suberb communting is service jobs and lower income and latino and black. This is a social justice issue. Even a decent bus rapid or express bus service would be better then then the hodge podge of Pace and CTA buses that we have now. The time cost for a welfare to work mother of getting your kids to daycare at 500am and commuting to 2 or 3 part time jobs is too great. Also what would happen is that you would have edge citys or hubs develop where the EJE line would cross the nodes on the Chicago land web. Buisness would move from downtown to closer to where people are living.
daveklepperWhat is the demand?
Great question. The private rail/Metra lines have functioned as commuter links from suburb to the Loop for 150 years. Since WWII and even more so from the 60s on, suburban Chicago has grown tremendously, not only residents but also jobs. The trouble is fixed rail lines are not very efficient for serving those job sites. If you live in Geneva but work in Elk Grove Village, you drive.
BTW, you must have taken the former CNW Milwaukee Division line (now UP-N) from Glencoe to the Madison St. Terminal (now rebuilt as Ogilvie Transportation Center, usually called OTC) to change to the former CNW Wisconsin Division line (now UP-NW). You could have changed at Clybourn.
What is the demand?
One one of my last consulting trips before moving to Jerusalem, Israel, I had to go from one project in Glencoe to anothe in Rockford, with the second client willing to pick me up at the end of suburban service at Harvard. I saw nothing wrong with riding south to Chicago, think it may still have been Northwestern Station and not Ogilby Transit Center, or whatever it is called now, and then north. It was a close connection (four minutes), and it was stormy snowy winter day. The conductor said he did not wish me to detain at Clyde? because o the weather, and he would arrange for the connection to wait since we would be four miniutes late into Chicago. Made the connection, had four seats for myself in the lower level of a the gallery car going to Harvard, and had a nice snooz.
In New York City I regularly audited classes at Yeshiva University in the evenings after a day's work at Klepper Marshall King near the White Plains North Station. After experimenting, found the best connection was Metro-North express south to 125th Street, downstairs and up again, then a Croton-Harmon local two- or three-stops north to Marble Hill, then a redbird 1 train south from Marble Hill 225th Street to either 181st or 190th Street for the short walk to 185th St. When one uses public transit, the shortest rout is often not the most comfortable or fastest. I had tried several combinations of buses and trains before deciding on the fastest all-rail route.
The Star line or the line that would have used the EJE line waa shelved at last look. Had to take a crosstown Pace Hell Bus ride with a driver who was had a devil may care attidude to get from one Metra Line to another.
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