New Mid-city transit proposals

This is from today's Sun Times. So let me get this right--they want to build a truck-only crosstown expressway and rapid transit along this route? Mid-City transit options explored August 26, 2005 BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Advertisement Three years ago, Mayor Daley breathed new life into his father's unfulfilled dream of building a Crosstown Expy. The mayor talked about creating a mini-Crosstown for trucks only along railroad right-of-way to divert trucking behemoths now clogging Chicago expressways. A bus lane or rapid-transit line would also be studied, officials said. Now, consultants are fleshing out a portion of the mayor's vision. On Thursday, City Hall released studies examining the ridership and market potential for five mass-transit alternatives along what is known as the Mid-City Line. Three were CTA lines. One called for bus rapid transit. The fifth was a commuter rail line. The most popular alternative -- with a projected 95,280 riders a day -- would be a bus rapid-transit line between River Road and 95th Street. It would run along railroad right-of-way and surface streets using an "intelligent transportation system" to change traffic lights to green as buses approach. The high-speed bus line would be 29 miles long, with 35 stations. Seventeen of those miles would run along surface streets -- from River Road to Jefferson Park on the north and Cicero and 95th Street on the south. Truck route not included A close second, at 89,980 weekday riders, would be a CTA rapid-transit line from Jefferson Park all the way to 87th Street. With 20 stations and four park-and-ride lots, it would also be the "most effective" of the five alternatives in luring 28,500 motorists out of their cars. The one-way travel time would be 47 minutes. The north-south leg of the CTA rapid-transit line -- between Jefferson Park and Ford City -- would draw 48,000 riders on the average weekday. The east-west leg -- between Midway Airport and the USX site -- would attract 40,000 weekday riders. A commuter rail line between Jefferson Park and 95th and Cottage Grove would pale by comparison at 8,500 riders a day. That's apparently because there is no "fare integration" between CTA and Metra, there would be only 11 stations, and rush-hour trains would run at 15-minute intervals, compared with four minutes apart for the CTA. The $160,000 studies by Wilbur Smith Associates do not address construction costs, residential displacement or possible fares. Nor did the consultant analyze Daley's preferred alternative -- a truck-only route. A study on that is not expected to be done until early next year. Brian Steele, a spokesman for the city Department of Transportation, said the early results are encouraging enough to forge ahead. Roughly 760,000 people live within 1.25 miles of the right-of-way on either side. That's 26 percent of the city's population, the study shows. Fifty percent of the corridor's employment base is in the service sector; 30 percent is manufacturing. Fifty bus lines "cross perpendicular to" the Mid-City corridor. "The preliminary findings show there is strong potential for ridership," Steele said>