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Your New Blue - O'Hare Branch Rehab


BusHunter

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Since the New Blue isn't going to be that new, and isn't going to reach the promised state of completion until 2018, sure there will be new cars by then.

ITS JOKE IN MY OPINION! Thankfully I have Metra as another option! Id rather travel a mile up the road to the NW line and take that to downtown plus I arrive much faster instead of having to ride the CTAs oldest railcars.

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ITS JOKE IN MY OPINION! Thankfully I have Metra as another option! Id rather travel a mile up the road to the NW line and take that to downtown plus I arrive much faster instead of having to ride the CTAs oldest railcars.

Im hoping you live in a cheap fare zone lol. Back when I stayed east on 91st the main University Park line saved my ass when I woke,up late. But with that being Zone D ($4.75 one-way) that was.a last resort for only when I was too late to be able to get downtown on time on the 14 or Red Line lol. Now Gresham I can deal with for $3 and plus its pretty much in front of my door. But on the point of singling out the NW side, they are most likely gonna be the first to get the new Novas by the picks/moves. Might as well put the soon to be retired equipment at the garage thats due to recieve the newest equipment purcgased to replace it. It eliminates later trades and there's only one more month that FG's gonna be dealing with the oldest Novas. After that they'll have new ones to retire the real old ones and they'll have a lower fleet age save for the blue line and the remaining LED Novas. Its only a temporary thing :lol:

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@Busjack. Guess I missed my photo opp with the mayor. But by observing this project so far, this is beginning to look like an expensive patch job. In my opinion I would have preferred the Forest Park to have gotten this project but a bigger project is in sight for Forest Park. Kinda wish the shuttle would've just used the Kennedy to speed up service as almost nobody got off at California.

What was the real traffic killer yesterday was that all the cross streets under the "L' were closed from Sacramento through the side street before California. Traffic was all lined up through California SB. #74's were rerouting Milwaukee-Logan Blvd-Fullerton.

I did an experiment yesterday. I timed a bus on the #56 from Addison/Milwaukee to State/Washington versus taking the #152 via Blue line to/from the same locations. The #56 beat me by 10 minutes. Overall my regular commute was delayed about 20-25 minutes. But the faster way to get downtown is to use the Green line, that could have still beat the #56 by 10 minutes. See what I'm saying the #56 is faster for some folks than the shuttle.

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Since the New Blue isn't going to be that new, and isn't going to reach the promised state of completion until 2018, sure there will be new cars by then.

I thought there was a speculation that the Blue Line were getting the 3200s from the Orange Line after the 5000s infiltrate that line.
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I thought there was a speculation that the Blue Line were getting the 3200s from the Orange Line after the 5000s infiltrate that line.

Even if the speculation means anything, that's still not new cars. However, if they keep wrecking 3000s at this pace.....

Nonetheless, there still were supposed to be mild rehabs of 100 of the 2600s.

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I thought there was a speculation that the Blue Line were getting the 3200s from the Orange Line after the 5000s infiltrate that line.

I would be happy to see that! I wouldn't mind the Blue Line getting 3200s. But retiring one series of very outdated equipment only to replaced by new set of old equipment!!! That's just insanity!!! They may as well just kept the 2200s in service!!!

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This is some pictures I took from today as well.

attachicon.gifwestern blue line.png

attachicon.gifwestern blue line 1.png

And looking at the spoilers on the #4300's

attachicon.gif4300 overhead.png

attachicon.gif4300 spoiler.png

Jajuan was saying those spoilers were flush with the roof pods. Looks to me like the spoilers are about 1/2 foot higher, but they don't seem to have a problem going under the canopy at Logan Square.

No there were no UIC trains today, trains appeared to be on a 6-10 minute headway and if they were running to UIC it would be 4-6.

That's not what I said. I said they were probably about the same height as the battery pack of a 4000 series artic given that they don't have issues making it underneath underpasses on the routes they serve or trigger a need to alter the alignment of those routes as the 4000s' placement into replacement service behind the 7500s triggered the reworking of the 145's routing off of Damen because they were too tall to pass underneath the underpass over Wilson at Ravenswood.

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Even if the speculation means anything, that's still not new cars. However, if they keep wrecking 3000s at this pace.....

Nonetheless, there still were supposed to be mild rehabs of 100 of the 2600s.

Yeah tell me about it (2600s rehab). Seems like a long shot because of these wreckages.
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I would be happy to see that! I wouldn't mind the Blue Line getting 3200s. But retiring one series of very outdated equipment only to replaced by new set of old equipment!!! That's just insanity!!! They may as well just kept the 2200s in service!!!

Ha!!! You ain't lying!!! :D
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was looking on CTA's website and they list some of the details for this upcoming project as well as have a few station renderings. http://www.transitchicago.com/yournewblue/

I was actually surprised they want to give the stations so much attention. I noticed someone put up one of these banners on the subway walls of Division/Milwaukee.

attachicon.gifdivision blue signs.png

I was thinking why would they do that ahead of the project. That's going to get ruined at Division because the walls leak so bad there. I was thinking instead of doing that, they should just put up acoustical panels and put it on there to keep it from getting wet. To really get Division looking good again they could add marble/granite flooring tiles right over the red platform. (I saw the tile guy do just this at Clark/Lake (subway) 5-10 years ago). That along with some better lighting and you can see the difference between Clark/Lake (subway) and Division/Milwaukee.

Upon reading the project details, it sounds like they may be doing something similar, minus the acoustical panels. I wonder would they put the tile ceiling like what's being done at Clark/Division. (they do mention retiling)

Some things I needed to look up like an armor deck for California/Milwaukee.

http://www.armor-deck.net/transit-platforms

It appear Metra uses this already. A look at it's application to a wood surface can be viewed below.

http://www.armor-deck.net/gallery

I was also surprised they want to add a wavy ceiling at Jefferson Park similar to what is being built soon at Washington/Wabash. They want to remove all skylights Addison through Cumberland and replace those also. It would be nice to add some doors to some of these stations too, they get cold in the winter wind waiting for a bus. Overall it sounds like a nice upgrade.

About those banners...I kinda saw a damp Forest Park version at Logan Square once...

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  • 1 month later...

Man the Kiewit workers were really working gangbusters last weekend. They replaced the whole NB track from Armitage to just south of California station then they replaced the Nb from the interlocking north of California to just north of Fullerton. That's two weeks work in one weekend. They must get a bonus if they finish ahead of time. Too bad someone couldn't replace the track just south of Logan Square that's like the slowest part now NB.

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  • 3 weeks later...

On the CTA facebook page they put up photo renderings of what will be happening this fall for station upgrades between California/Milwaukee - Damen Milwaukee stations. The renderings have some eye popping details. They have NABI buses on Western, #5000's at California/Milwaukee and #2200's at Damen/Milwaukee. I can't seem to figure out either about Damen/Milwaukee Mezzanine floor. Is that a carpet?

https://www.facebook.com/thecta?hc_location=timeline

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On the CTA facebook page they put up photo renderings of what will be happening this fall for station upgrades between California/Milwaukee - Damen Milwaukee stations. The renderings have some eye popping details. They have NABI buses on Western, #5000's at California/Milwaukee and #2200's at Damen/Milwaukee. I can't seem to figure out either about Damen/Milwaukee Mezzanine floor. Is that a carpet?

https://www.facebook.com/thecta?hc_location=timeline

I wished they could have put up elevators at Damen and California. Western/Milwaukee's the luckiest of them all since it got rehabbed from late 2000-mid 2001.

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  • 1 month later...

,,, Will they be skipping rehabs then on this station and Medical district?

http://www.redeyechicago.com/news/cta/redeye-how-accessible-is-the-cta-20140714,0,102365.column

As the article pointed out, only 3 Dan Ryan stations got elevators, but didn't point out that's because the others already had them. I'm pretty sure that whatever IDOT does, it won't be to pull out stations recently rebuilt with TIF money.

The article repeats the point I think was made elsewhere that if the goal is to make all stations accessible, they are doing a poor job on the Blue Line, although Steele mentions the lack of sufficient property.

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As the article pointed out, only 3 Dan Ryan stations got elevators, but didn't point out that's because the others already had them. I'm pretty sure that whatever IDOT does, it won't be to pull out stations recently rebuilt with TIF money.

The article repeats the point I think was made elsewhere that if the goal is to make all stations accessible, they are doing a poor job on the Blue Line, although Steele mentions the lack of sufficient property.

that might be the excuse at damen but California has plenty of room. What they don't have air rights? Lol!!
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that might be the excuse at damen but California has plenty of room. What they don't have air rights? Lol!!

I don't think air rights are the issue. There has to be two pieces of land on which to plop the 2 elevator towers, sort of similar to what was done on the South Side Main stations

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I don't think air rights are the issue. There has to be two pieces of land on which to plop the 2 elevator towers, sort of similar to what was done on the South Side Main stations

They sort of have a long walkup at Cali if they pulled the northern wall of the station house out a bit and incorporated the towers in the station house they could probably squeeze them in. With no staircase there they probably have the space to put it but those things cost money.
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  • 4 weeks later...

They just announced on WGN news that CTA has announced the California and Damen station closure dates on the o'hare branch.

http://wgntv.com/2014/08/11/station-closures-planned-on-blue-line/

Cool though maybe WGN reporters need to be reminded again that neither of those stations are exactly considered west side stations. But then again local reporters who likely live in the suburbs aren't always going to get those types of details right? :lol:

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Cool though maybe WGN reporters need to be reminded again that neither of those stations are exactly considered west side stations. But then again local reporters who likely live in the suburbs aren't always going to get those types of details right? :lol:

The main thing on Channel 7 at 5:00 was interviewing people at the California station who seemed shocked that they would have to use something else, not that the Logan Square station is more than a couple of blocks away.

Again, it doesn't seem like this was posted on their site.

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