"There's no station on the Green Line between Roosevelt and 35th Street. That's a large span without a stop," said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney. "With ongoing development in the South Loop, there has been discussion about an in-fill station at either of those locations."
A new Green Line station at 18th or Cermak was part of a city planning report submitted to the Regional Transportation Authority on Tuesday. An 18th Street station would provide easier passage to Soldier Field and the lakefront.
According to the article there is no money for this yet, but our guess is that this will happen eventually. If Chicago gets the Olympics, expect it to happen quickly. If not, it might drag on a little.
Dear Higher Power:
ReplyDeleteIf it must be a Green Line stop, please also make it an Orange Line stop. People (read: me!) would plan on retiring at 18th street if we could just be assured an easy train ride to Midway for flights to Florida or Arizona.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Josh
PS: I like this for the Green line too. Easier to get to the Cell.
I think the issue is get what you can first to establish future need. While I agree Josh, An orange line stop would really be expensive to address the "Flyover" issue were the orange line stop is almost three - four stories high there. I can't think of two many stations that high; although, if it could be cantalevered off of new high-rise there, might not be so bad.
ReplyDeleteIt is not so bad to transfer back to Roosevelt and hop on the orange line.
If they somehow managed to build an orange and green line stop at 18th, it'd look pretty interesting since it would be two stations. Then they'd have to figure out how to connect the two (though they can just let people walk to the street to transfer). Anyway, an 18th Green Line seems easiest to implement.
ReplyDeleteThe City's Department of Transportation currently has a bid out for the design of the new station.
ReplyDeleteThanks 4:22, I think you have me pretty much convinced. It would be pretty high, and it also wouldn't be such a bad thing to take the Green to Roosevelt and then double back to Midway on the Orange.
ReplyDeleteThis station is literally my biggest remaining dream for the area around 18th street, now that the Ickes homes are coming down to the south.
In order to make everyone happy, what are the possibilities of adding the new stop at a location before the orange and green line tracks bifurcate? That way, those of us south of Roosevelt, wouldn't have to backtrack and the city could also use one of the vacant buildings at a stop...two birds with one stone in my mind. Plus it puts the Columbia students closer to some of there classes and using an old building as a stop would preserve some of the old architecture that makes the S. Loop great. Also, thanks for all your good work with this blog!
ReplyDeleteIt would be insanely expensive and nearly impossible to put a station anywhere between 18th st. and Roosevelt, aside from right around 18th Street. You'd have to exercise imminent domain since the area is surprisingly dense (buildings, land owned by people who actually use them, park around 16th Street). So yeah. Kind of impossible.
ReplyDelete