CTA vs Metra

[artthouwill]

I found it interesting that ME has 28 stations south of Roosevelt (McCormick, 27th, 47th, Hyde Pk,55th - 57th, 59th, 63rd, 67th, Stony Is, Bryn Mawr, S. Shore, Windsor (75th), Cheltenham (79th), 83rd/Exchange, 87th/Baltimore,93rd, Grand Crossing (75th), Chatham (79th),Avalon (83rd), Woodruff (87th), 91st, Chicago STate (95th), Rosemoor (103rd), 107th, Pullman (111th), Kensington (115th), State ST, Halsted (120th), all within the city limits. Outside of the Loop, the Orange Line has 8 stations, the Pink Line has 11 stops, the Brown Line has 18, The Green Line 10 on the West leg and 11 on the south legs), the Blue Line 23 stops (Cicero thru Clinton and Grand through O"Hare excluding Rosemont, note that the Austin station is on the Oak Park side of the street), the Red Line 29 (10 95th through Roosevelt, 19 Grand through Howard).

Rock Island line has 10 inner city stops from Gresham through 115th (7 on Beverly branch and 2 along Vincennes at 95th and 103rd)

South Shore line has 4 inner city stops south of Roosevelt (55th - 57th, 63rd, Kensington, and Hegewisch).

Metra and Pace have been partners and CTA and Pace have been partners, but Metra and CTA don't seem to fare as well.

Consider that Metra decided to boost ridership on the S. Chicago branch by making the entire branch a zone B to compete with the CTA. The CTA eventually responded by making a new express route (26 South Shore Express) which virtually runs along the branch between 93rd and 71st/S. Shore and adding an express route that crosses Stony and improving the express route that crosses Bryn Mawr (Jeffery Blvd).

Even with a heavy CTA presence, RI does very well in the inner city Beverly branch, as does the MD- W line in Galewood (even though the 86 connects with the Green Line). MD -N stops through Jefferson Pk and Forest Glen, UP- NW stops at Irving Pk and Jefferson Pk).

I also believe part of the reason for the routing of the CTA Red Line extension to 130th via the UP tracks is to thwart or preemptively strike at Metra's proposed SE service which would have probably put stops at 95th and Roseland (111th or 115th, and 130th). Also consider that Metra proposed this route would terminate at LaSalle station as opposed to Union STation. Part of it is capacity at Union Statiom, but certainly LaSalle station puts it closer to CTA rail services and thus more convenient.

What do you all think?

[Busjack]

Metra 6, CTA 3, in the top of the 6th inning.

Seriously, I think that with the Olympics gone, that ends any thought Daley had of cooperating with Metra.

The list of city stations doesn't tell the whole story, as it is also a matter of how they are used. For instance, the South Shore doesn't use its for local service in Chicago [except, of course, for Hegewisch, which isn't on the ME]. Furthermore, its disinterest in Chicago is indicated by various statements that it wants to redo Kensington Jct. to do away with that bottleneck to entering the ME, and, by the way, trains wouldn't stop at Kensington station.

Also, I remember when 200 series IC trains (i.e. local between 63rd and Blue Island) were always on the same headway as the 300s. It doesn't look like it any more, and the stops between 59th and Kensington are now basically just flag stops.

With regard to the Red Line and the SES, they are on the same alignment between 99th and 115th, but what does CTA plan to do--build an L over the tracks? In any event, the only city station indicated in the SES plan is Gresham, apparently to transfer to the RID. Basically, on either the South Shore or SES right of way, there isn't anyone to pick up between Kensington and Riverdale (first stop indicated for the SES is Dolton), except that the proposed 130th Red Line stop is near Altgeld Gardens.