Renew The Blue: Forest Park Branch

[Shannoncvpi]

10 hours ago, NovaBusFan said:

Seems like they have renewed the tracks replacing worn out rail and ties around the Forest Park terminal this weekend it’s good to see mini improvements at least until reconstruction actually starts on the Congress Branch of the line. Credits go to the owners of these two photos from Facebook.

Yea them tracks are way pass their age thats why I kinda hated doing the blue line was always slow zones until uic

[NovaBusFan]

10 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I rode the line today.  Obviously it is still slow between Forest Park and Harlem.   There is good speed between Harlem and Oak Park.   Between Oak Park and Austin there is good speed WB, but it's still a crawl EB.  Between Austin and Cicero is a crawl EB and WB crawls between Cicero and Central before picking up speed.   Between Cicero and Pulaski. The speed is moderate between Cicero and Kostner in both directions and slow from Kostner to Pulaski.   Overall. WB is faster than EB, with the next fastest stretch between Western end IMD.  The line doesn't speed up again until the subway past UIC.

Man, we will have to wait years until we get those slow zones reduced. If IDOT already finished the Jane Byrne interchange before then we would already began construction on the Ike. 

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

4 hours ago, NovaBusFan said:

Man, we will have to wait years until we get those slow zones reduced. If IDOT already finished the Jane Byrne interchange before then we would already began construction on the Ike. 

i have a strong feeling blue line will get the 5000’s from either the red or green and pink lines at this point i would say it’s somewhat of a mystery on what blue will get when 7000’s enter service 

[Shannoncvpi]

16 minutes ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

i have a strong feeling blue line will get the 5000’s from either the red or green and pink lines at this point i would say it’s somewhat of a mystery on what blue will get when 7000’s enter service 

The 7000 is already in service they I just wonder why the 5000 cant run on the blue line but the 7000 can run on the same tired ass tracks 

[Sam92]

6 minutes ago, Shannoncvpi said:

The 7000 is already in service they I just wonder why the 5000 cant run on the blue line but the 7000 can run on the same tired ass tracks 

Neither can run full on revenue service on the blue line. Only the odd test train. On top of track conditions both series being higher tech and having more features draw more power than the blue line substations can provide. The same reason for the 2005-2006 “a more vibrant red” project. Back then the red line wasn’t ready for the demand that was growing so they had to upgrade the power on the dam Ryan side to handle the increases of service over time in conjunction with the increasing car lengths and frequency. 

[NovaBusFan]

59 minutes ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

i have a strong feeling blue line will get the 5000’s from either the red or green and pink lines at this point i would say it’s somewhat of a mystery on what blue will get when 7000’s enter service 

Ye I kinda wish that the Blue Line can get the #5000s, on the other hand the tracks just can’t take it and the power on the Blue is still not strong enough to handle a fleet of #5000s or #7000s.?

[artthouwill]

26 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

Neither can run full on revenue service on the blue line. Only the odd test train. On top of track conditions both series being higher tech and having more features draw more power than the blue line substations can provide. The same reason for the 2005-2006 “a more vibrant red” project. Back then the red line wasn’t ready for the demand that was growing so they had to upgrade the power on the dam Ryan side to handle the increases of service over time in conjunction with the increasing car lengths and frequency. 

I believe that the O'Hare branch of the Blue Line received the power upgrades necessary

  We still haven't heard anything about the rebuilding of the Eisenhower and its impact on the rebuilding of the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line.   We haven't seen any environmental studies or even rough drafts of what these will look like.   There were some proposals for extending the line west to Manheim or even Oakbrook Mall.  The longer this process takes, the impact of newer equipment on the Blue Line is greater..  I'm afraid that CTA will be forced to take action on upgrading the branch and then after CTA is in the middle of construction or nearly completing the job. IDOT will finally decide on how to move forward with the Ike rebuild and CTA will be forced to redo its project.  Government agencies cannot seem to coordinate with each other. 

.

[NovaBusFan]

11 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I believe that the O'Hare branch of the Blue Line received the power upgrades necessary

  We still haven't heard anything about the rebuilding of the Eisenhower and its impact on the rebuilding of the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line.   We haven't seen any environmental studies or even rough drafts of what these will look like.   There were some proposals for extending the line west to Manheim or even Oakbrook Mall.  The longer this process takes, the impact of newer equipment on the Blue Line is greater..  I'm afraid that CTA will be forced to take action on upgrading the branch and then after CTA is in the middle of construction or nearly completing the job. IDOT will finally decide on how to move forward with the Ike rebuild and CTA will be forced to redo its project.  Government agencies cannot seem to coordinate with each other. 

.

Same O’Hare has seen a lot of improvements, I haven’t heard nothing about construction soon going on for the Congress branch like u stated, when they finish up with the Jane Byrne interchange next fall (finally done with the 4-year delay), they should will start slicing things up for construction of the Ike afterwards around early 2023. I also have a feeling that the CTA will go first with the project for the Congress branch which is in the worst shape of the L system. Anyways the entire Ike project may take another 7-9 years (My guess) that would take until 2030/2031 That’s 9/10 years from now. 

[strictures]

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I believe that the O'Hare branch of the Blue Line received the power upgrades necessary

  We still haven't heard anything about the rebuilding of the Eisenhower and its impact on the rebuilding of the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line.   We haven't seen any environmental studies or even rough drafts of what these will look like.   There were some proposals for extending the line west to Mannheim or even Oakbrook Mall.  The longer this process takes, the impact of newer equipment on the Blue Line is greater..  I'm afraid that CTA will be forced to take action on upgrading the branch and then after CTA is in the middle of construction or nearly completing the job. IDOT will finally decide on how to move forward with the Ike rebuild and CTA will be forced to redo its project.  Government agencies cannot seem to coordinate with each other. 

.

IDOT does want to eliminate the left side exit/entrances in Oak Park, but that shouldn't affect the CTA trains which run on the South Side of the Ike. 

There has been talk of extending it to First Ave., but extending it to Fifth Ave. makes the most sense, as Fifth has a major Pace Bus route, the 331.  Originally, the CTA went to 17th, with the Chicago Aurora & Elgin going the rest of the way.  I used to see the abandoned rail bridges over creeks on the north side of the Ike until maybe 10 years ago, east of First Ave.

[NovaBusFan]

46 minutes ago, strictures said:

IDOT does want to eliminate the left side exit/entrances in Oak Park, but that shouldn't affect the CTA trains which run on the South Side of the Ike. 

There has been talk of extending it to First Ave., but extending it to Fifth Ave. makes the most sense, as Fifth has a major Pace Bus route, the 331.  Originally, the CTA went to 17th, with the Chicago Aurora & Elgin going the rest of the way.  I used to see the abandoned rail bridges over creeks on the north side of the Ike until maybe 10 years ago, east of First Ave.

Nah I would rather keep the Blue Line at Forest Park, no extensions sorry. I like it the way it is.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

2 hours ago, NovaBusFan said:

Nah I would rather keep the Blue Line at Forest Park, no extensions sorry. I like it the way it is.

IMO it’s be cool to extend it make it seem like Jefferson park but I don’t know how long this’ll take just like the 130th extension on red 

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

15 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

IMO it’s be cool to extend it make it seem like Jefferson park but I don’t know how long this’ll take just like the 130th extension on red 

you see the 130th red line extension has seen progress to it like community reaches and rough drafts of what it will look like and environmental studies but the congress branch of the blue hasn’t seen any of this yet sadly because IDOT or CDOT is taking their sweet time with the jane byrn n what not 

[artthouwill]

18 hours ago, strictures said:

IDOT does want to eliminate the left side exit/entrances in Oak Park, but that shouldn't affect the CTA trains which run on the South Side of the Ike. 

There has been talk of extending it to First Ave., but extending it to Fifth Ave. makes the most sense, as Fifth has a major Pace Bus route, the 331.  Originally, the CTA went to 17th, with the Chicago Aurora & Elgin going the rest of the way.  I used to see the abandoned rail bridges over creeks on the north side of the Ike until maybe 10 years ago, east of First Ave.

To me, extending to Fifth Avenue doesn't make sense.  There would probably be a stop at Maybtook Courthouse but there's nothing at Fifth.  The 331 serves Loyola Medical and Hines, but the 308 does that from Forest Park.   The 331 serves Triton College,  but the 318 is a short walk from North Ave to the campus.  

A logical extension would be to ar least Manheim and possibly Oakbrook.   The idea would be to encourage drivers further west to switch to the Blue Line to help alleviate the traffic nightmare known as the Hillside Stranger.

Besides  eliminating  the left exits in Oak Park, another goal was to add an additional lane in each direction between Austin and 25th Avenue on the Ike.  That could affect the CTA and they might have to move the trackage to the EJ&E r.o.w.   To that point,  there was also talk about switching the Forest Park Station to the EJ&E trackage.

[NewFlyerMCI]

53 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

Hillside Stranger

What is this???

[Sam92]

1 hour ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

What is this???

The eastern end of I-88

[Sam92]

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

To me, extending to Fifth Avenue doesn't make sense.  There would probably be a stop at Maybtook Courthouse but there's nothing at Fifth.  The 331 serves Loyola Medical and Hines, but the 308 does that from Forest Park.   The 331 serves Triton College,  but the 318 is a short walk from North Ave to the campus.  

A logical extension would be to ar least Manheim and possibly Oakbrook.   The idea would be to encourage drivers further west to switch to the Blue Line to help alleviate the traffic nightmare known as the Hillside Stranger.

Besides  eliminating  the left exits in Oak Park, another goal was to add an additional lane in each direction between Austin and 25th Avenue on the Ike.  That could affect the CTA and they might have to move the trackage to the EJ&E r.o.w.   To that point,  there was also talk about switching the Forest Park Station to the EJ&E trackage.

Lol that is gonna be a hell of a run time. I wonder if that were to happen would the UIC short turns be pushed to forest park or remain at the new IMD turnback? I can see operaors only being able to do one round trip or MAYBE two at most 

[Sam92]

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

To me, extending to Fifth Avenue doesn't make sense.  There would probably be a stop at Maybtook Courthouse but there's nothing at Fifth.  The 331 serves Loyola Medical and Hines, but the 308 does that from Forest Park.   The 331 serves Triton College,  but the 318 is a short walk from North Ave to the campus.  

A logical extension would be to ar least Manheim and possibly Oakbrook.   The idea would be to encourage drivers further west to switch to the Blue Line to help alleviate the traffic nightmare known as the Hillside Stranger.

Besides  eliminating  the left exits in Oak Park, another goal was to add an additional lane in each direction between Austin and 25th Avenue on the Ike.  That could affect the CTA and they might have to move the trackage to the EJ&E r.o.w.   To that point,  there was also talk about switching the Forest Park Station to the EJ&E trackage.

I see mainheim being possible but oak brook  brings up the old argument of “cta shouldn’t be far into the suburbs” but your case is a good argument to the exception seeing as metra isn’t really close. The thing that kills this is operator efficiency for the runs doing the full route. Currently a full time straight looks like it can just BARELY get 3-4 round trips in currently so those might be all part timers if anything. 

[artthouwill]

4 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

What is this???

 

3 hours ago, Sam92 said:

The eastern end of I-88

The Hillside Stranger starts at the I 88 and I 290 junction where it is five lanes ( 2 from 290, one from 88 and 2 truck lanes with the Manheim exits)   Approaching 25th Ave this narrows down to 3 lanes.  Thus the Strangler name.

[NewFlyerMCI]

35 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

 

The Hillside Stranger starts at the I 88 and I 290 junction where it is five lanes ( 2 from 290, one from 88 and 2 truck lanes with the Manheim exits)   Approaching 25th Ave this narrows down to 3 lanes.  Thus the Strangler name.

Ohhh, strangler. I thought this was some sort of notable police officer that hung out here.

[NovaBusFan]

On 9/22/2021 at 7:15 AM, Shannoncvpi said:

Yea them tracks are way pass their age thats why I kinda hated doing the blue line was always slow zones until uic

True, the line hasn’t seen a rehab since it was first originally constructed along with I-290 in 1958. When the 3200-series was first assigned there, the line has finally got the attention it needed when it comes to newer train models and to alleviate crowding during rush hours. We are looking at 63 years of those tired tracks that trains run on that is why the 5000-series or 7000-series can’t fully run on that section of the line because they are heavier than the 2600-series cars and 3200-series cars. That is why the 2600-series and 3200-series mostly run down there because they are the lightest cars on the system. IDOT is taking a while to spice things up for construction for the I-290 we have seen a few cracks on the track sleepers where rail and ties are laid on. Next issue is the stations on the Congress branch, they will soon make the platforms wider to accommodate more room and add elevators at each stop for those who are handicapped. But at least they’ve replaced rail and ties at the Forest Park terminal. Since IDOT is planning on adding toll lanes to I-290 similar to the Dan Ryan, the CTA will end up deleting all the space you will see on the Blue Lines Congress Branch where grass was formally added when the line was originally constructed.

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

3 hours ago, NovaBusFan said:

True, the line hasn’t seen a rehab since it was first originally constructed along with I-290 in 1958. When the 3200-series was first assigned there, the line has finally got the attention it needed when it comes to newer train models and to alleviate crowding during rush hours. We are looking at 63 years of those tired tracks that trains run on that is why the 5000-series or 7000-series can’t fully run on that section of the line because they are heavier than the 2600-series cars and 3200-series cars. That is why the 2600-series and 3200-series mostly run down there because they are the lightest cars on the system. IDOT is taking a while to spice things up for construction for the I-290 we have seen a few cracks on the track sleepers where rail and ties are laid on. Next issue is the stations on the Congress branch, they will soon make the platforms wider to accommodate more room and add elevators at each stop for those who are handicapped. But at least they’ve replaced rail and ties at the Forest Park terminal. Since IDOT is planning on adding toll lanes to I-290 similar to the Dan Ryan, the CTA will end up deleting all the space you will see on the Blue Lines Congress Branch where grass was formally added when the line was originally constructed.

at some point CTA will give up on IDOT and rebuild the congress im hoping this happens before the 7000’s enter service but at the same time i have doubts of it happening 

[Shannoncvpi]

3 hours ago, NovaBusFan said:

True, the line hasn’t seen a rehab since it was first originally constructed along with I-290 in 1958. When the 3200-series was first assigned there, the line has finally got the attention it needed when it comes to newer train models and to alleviate crowding during rush hours. We are looking at 63 years of those tired tracks that trains run on that is why the 5000-series or 7000-series can’t fully run on that section of the line because they are heavier than the 2600-series cars and 3200-series cars. That is why the 2600-series and 3200-series mostly run down there because they are the lightest cars on the system. IDOT is taking a while to spice things up for construction for the I-290 we have seen a few cracks on the track sleepers where rail and ties are laid on. Next issue is the stations on the Congress branch, they will soon make the platforms wider to accommodate more room and add elevators at each stop for those who are handicapped. But at least they’ve replaced rail and ties at the Forest Park terminal. Since IDOT is planning on adding toll lanes to I-290 similar to the Dan Ryan, the CTA will end up deleting all the space you will see on the Blue Lines Congress Branch where grass was formally added when the line was originally constructed.

Dam those tracks are the same age as my OG. But I see why the 7000 dont run that much 

[NovaBusFan]

1 hour ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

at some point CTA will give up on IDOT and rebuild the congress im hoping this happens before the 7000’s enter service but at the same time i have doubts of it happening 

Same, this is a headache for us all.

[Brandon93]

On 9/24/2021 at 12:44 PM, NovaBusFan said:

True, the line hasn’t seen a rehab since it was first originally constructed along with I-290 in 1958. When the 3200-series was first assigned there, the line has finally got the attention it needed when it comes to newer train models and to alleviate crowding during rush hours. We are looking at 63 years of those tired tracks that trains run on that is why the 5000-series or 7000-series can’t fully run on that section of the line because they are heavier than the 2600-series cars and 3200-series cars. That is why the 2600-series and 3200-series mostly run down there because they are the lightest cars on the system. IDOT is taking a while to spice things up for construction for the I-290 we have seen a few cracks on the track sleepers where rail and ties are laid on. Next issue is the stations on the Congress branch, they will soon make the platforms wider to accommodate more room and add elevators at each stop for those who are handicapped. But at least they’ve replaced rail and ties at the Forest Park terminal. Since IDOT is planning on adding toll lanes to I-290 similar to the Dan Ryan, the CTA will end up deleting all the space you will see on the Blue Lines Congress Branch where grass was formally added when the line was originally constructed.

They really don't need to add elevators at most of the stations because majority of the stations have ramps, so they need to add handicapped gates up to Cicero on the Forest Park Branch. I agree the Forest Park branch needs major upgrades and the tracks need reconstruction just like Red in 2013.

[NovaBusFan]

On 10/5/2021 at 11:37 AM, Brandon93 said:

They really don't need to add elevators at most of the stations because majority of the stations have ramps, so they need to add handicapped gates up to Cicero on the Forest Park Branch. I agree the Forest Park branch needs major upgrades and the tracks need reconstruction just like Red in 2013.

Hmmm, we’ll see if they do add elevators that’ll make the stations look better tbh. But I agree on the other hand.