should yellow line be extended in present form?

[Guest metralink]

I got to thinking, the corridor the yellow line is located within has been part of CATS and now CMAP's regional plans of 2010, 2020, 2030. However, the corridor goes either to Lake Cook Road or to Highland Park depending on which plan.

Which got me thinking, but why should the yellow line get extended to Old Orchard. Is this the true end fo the market or does it continue further north? Based on the amount of traffic on the Eden's I would say no.

Plus does all the market come from the Rogers Park/Evanston area?

What about Jefferson Park market?

What about a line connecting Jefferson Park into Skokie then further north and if so does it need to be rail. What about BRT? The BRT would provide more flexibility on the north end distribution network.

And if this is the case, is the Yellow line AA too limited?

[Busjack]

North of Old Orchard got killed 10 years ago, when the then Northbrook mayor, who was a member of CATS, was against it.

The 2005 Pace restructuring proposed (1) a BRT on that right of way, and later (2) guaranteed ride home if you took the 626 to work. Neither made it into any serious plan.

The Skokie studies for this indicated that there was enough problem with grade separation at Dempster and Golf, and so the current Dempster station would have to be demolished.

Skokie to Jeff Park has been suggested on several occasions (including the Pace BRT), but they can barely keep the 54A bus running. I wonder how you connect at Jeff Park the current line, the Yellow Line alternate and the Mid City line. I also believe that the row was turned over to Skokie for a bike path.

As I have said many times, since Skokie studied the alternatives 5 years ago, all this is doing is enriching consultants. 99 to 1, the Maglev will be rejected again.

And, as the prior discussion implies, if it is something other than just extending the L to the Old Orchard area, there are serious questions about needless competition with Pace, and if Pace thought it wasn't justified to put a BRT in the area, how can the CTA justify it?

Finally, I wonder how they could justify a $2.00 ride on the L to the Lake Cook area, when it is $4.30 on Metra (now that conductors have been eliminated to collect extra fares, like what used to happen on the Evanston Express).