RAVENSWOOD EL SHOULD BE CONNECTED TO O'ARE.

An improvement in service on the NCS Metra line would be better, the trains are higher capacity, have more luggage space, and toilets. With Metra being about 10 minutes faster, the fact there are a lot more amenities on Metra trains, and almost every station between O'Hare and Union has a passing track of some sort (except for River Grove and Western Avenue), an express service on the NCS would be cheaper and make more sense in my eyes.

As someone who works in the Loop, the Metra NCS is amazing for the use-case of needing to get to O'Hare after work. The blue line is at capacity and fully packed during rush hour which makes it really inconvenient if you have luggage. The slightly faster time, especially if traveling to terminal 5, is a bonus as well. The NCS is really nice at providing extra capacity in the Loop->O'Hare direction during peak times and reliving pressure from the blue line.

We have a metra that goes to the airport. No one knows about it and it barely runs.

its hard to build extra track for the express trains when the blue line runs between the highway for a good amount of its route to ohare

Amtrak puts in so much padding into their long distance schedules.

RIP Capital Limited

Damen! Aaaaaaah fighter of the night man Aaaahhhhhhh Champion of the sun

The "Block 37" concept and unfortunate end result kinda reminds me of the 2nd Ave subway plan for the NYMTA in Manhattan, NY. Tunnel right-of-way started in the 1970s. However, progress came to a complete halt around 1975. It wasn't until around 2007-08 that funding for the first phase of this subway right-of-way became available; stations from 72nd to 96th streets were finally open for service in early 2017. The second phase, when and IF it's ever completed, will run north from 96th street to 125th street in Harlem. But, for what it's worth, at least a portion of it IS up and running, serving people on Manhattan's upper east side.

Have flown in/out of London a few times, and well, the "Heathrow Express" doesn't really work unless one is headed to Paddington or towards the East or South via the Bakerloo, Circle, or Picaddily lines . . . otherwise, 2 transfers and one might do better. Same with Chicago and the Blue line . . . great for getting to the Northern or Eastern loop, but otherwise, I often hop off Belmont or Logan Square and catch a bus to the North Side. So some of those intermediate stops are probably necessary.

I took the blue line to and from ohare when we took a trip back in 2018 and it worked great other than dealing with our luggage, I wouldn’t have paid for an express line if it was an option

The O’hare Tram should be extended to River’s Casino. Stopping at the Metra station along the way.

The Blue line has too many stops between O’hare and downtown. CTA should divide them up between an A and B train. Leaving O’hare minutes apart, and stopping at alternate stations. The empty station at Block 37 would be the end of the line for one of the lines

The idea of a Chicago Airport Express reminds me of Taipei's Airport Line. That is also a very metro-like service with both locals and expresses, proving that it can work if you install lots of passing loops for the Locals, which is very common in Taiwan and Japan. I think the main issue is capacity; the Taipei Airport Line runs 8 trains per hour, 4 Locals and 4 Expresses. That's good for what is essentially a commuter line that happens to use metro-style trains, but not really for a Chicago L-style service. I think that if you want express service on the Blue Line, you need to think of it as a whole line express with stops every 5-ish stations, and not just a direct airport to downtown link (which I suspect would be better as a METRA service than an L one). Maybe I am just an 'every railway should be like the Keihan Main Line' evangelist, but that's my thought on the issue.

Unnecessary use of the word wild! Ok!

Automated mass transit really is the future to this day at least in most of America. Meanwhile Vancouver and Montreal now have YUGE driverless metro networks with Skytrain and REM respectively but sadly not Toronto which scrapped the TTC Line 3 for the Scarborough Subway Extension project which is a shame since it was the first to adopt the UTDC/Bombardier/Alstom driverless metro technology worldwide and still a viable and busy line, just in need of some upgrading. Now? Downgraded to a future busway, not even an LRT line like it was originally envisioned before Ontario's government at the time decided to hastily convert the line into the UTDC public introduction line which lasted until recently as you might know... And of course Riyadh just opened the largest network of driverless metro's in the world and that was with only HALF of its planned 6 lines... I guess it just needs better economies of scale something PRT will probably always struggle with given its small cabin size and track profile... Much like The Boring Company tunnel projects. Expensive for what usage you get out of it since cars will always end up causing a ribbon effect and traffic snarls unless fully automated and we all know that probably isn't likely anytime soon despite Robotaxi and Robovan pronouncements from upon high...

Great video as always. Personally I think the solution is to contract The Boring Company to build tunnels but run conventional driverless metro trains in them. While it may seem like a loopy idea the 12' internal diameter is actually 4" larger than MOST of London's Deep Tube train network which runs in 11'8" tunnels. So in theory you wouldn't have to design new larger TBM's to get the job done if these things are actually revolutionary and faster than existing ones. Personally? I have my doubts for several reasons including the proof being in the pudding or not. Everywhere he proposes quick build tunnels? They seem to take much longer than traditional TBM's using existing off the shelf technology. Hell even in the seemingly ill-fated Valley Line project here in Edmonton? The TBM bored tunnel under the quicksand prone banks of the North Saskatchewan River was the least of the design and construction projects concerns. That was sitting empty and complete in like under 6 months. It was every other over-stressed section of pre-stressed concrete slab that was built to Tofu Dreg standards by mediocre contractors had the P3 project years behind schedule and over budget... BUT if TBC truly is real and effective it might just create a second renaissance is building affordable driverless train networks in cities for a fraction of the price of say SAS in NYC which is running at what $2B/mile? Even for NYC that isn't good value for $$...

This video was helpful when a friend and I decided to go see Canadian Pacific Railway 2816 at Franklin Park, as driving in would not have been very practical with the crowds. This station is also useful for avoiding an inconvenient walk with luggage from the C&NW terminal to Union Station for riding Amtrak long-distance trains.

We just need to go ahead and build more tunnels to many trains sharing the same lines.

I think what we need is a O’Hare - Midway is more necessary. I read something on Reddit on “The silver line” and I believe that’s a more viable option. The Blue Line should build noise-dampening stations instead.

Metra NCS being faster is half the story unfortunately. You still have to walk over the to the MMF to catch the airport tram system. When all things considered, Metra NCS and Blue line end being about the same time, yet with Metra you get a quieter more comfortable ride at the expense of an extra transfer

Flying cars will change that 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥

Another JFK failure!

I remember being so annoyed by the never ending proposals for the O'Hare express train, like most of them seemed like a waste of money for a nice to have service. The CTA still needs a lot of other things worked out before such a service would make sense IMO. I'm frustrated that the "superstation" removed a really nice 2nd transfer between the blue and red lines in the loop too for something that was just boneheaded. You are right about the musk tunnel being a dodged bullet too, I was overjoyed that both mayoral candidates then didn't want it. I did use airport expresses in both London and Tokyo, but those are cities that have way better transit networks than Chicago does, I feel like they've earned the rights to have it. The CTA should get better before it pursues these nice to have projects. Btw, I've argued for years that the NCS makes the most sense for an express train to O'Hare, I hope that's what it eventually gets used for, I'd love to see it fully electrified and have frequent service but that could be just a pipe dream...

At least Metra is doing a better job serving the airport than Metrolink's Riverside Line in Ontario. Those ex-Surfliner F59's that were left in the original livery are never going to not look funny to me 😄

Currently people from Huntley, Algonquin, Lake in the Hiils and surrounding areas use this station.....also this is the line that will be extended to Rockford with a few stops on the way including Huntley

The easiest solution is to upgrade the existing Metra line that drops you off at the rental garage and people mover. Increase the frequency and move the station closer to the terminals.

imagine how much worse this would have been than the skybridge every mff 😬

If Blue could be quad tracked, then the Pink line would become the express to ORD, freeing up capacity in the loop

Also, a buisness focused express could be made by constructing a tunnel from O'hare to the Metra North-Central Service, where there would be a 20-minute service every 15 minutes between the airport and Union Station.

I had no idea this was a thing! Interesting

What Chicago should do is to get rid of the slow zones on the blue line, which will make the journey from State/Lake to O'hare 30 minutes.

The Union Pearson Express costs 25 CAD for a return trip (currently ~18 USD), or 19 with a Presto card (~13 USD). When I visited Chicago for Midwest Furfest two weeks ago, I got a 7-day CTA pass for 20 USD (+ cost to purchase a Ventra card). It was super nice for sightseeing after the convention. Although it was definitely difficult to keep two large suitcases full of fursuits in place on the Red and Orange line (flew into MDW instead of ORD and took the train to Rosemont). (Meanwhile, Ottawa is building a 3-stop airport shuttle line that branches off from Line 2, which uses mainline tracks and does not directly pass through the CBD)

Master Planned Music!!! Incredible choice <3

Such a fantastic video Stormy! Great production!

The challenge is the lack of available track. Metra and CN (who owns the track) have such a bad relationship that any permanent connection would go along with a realignment of the entire line and the blue line doesn’t have the room to expand on either its highway or elevated sections. Maybe something like a special blue line express train running outside of rush hours would work but I don’t know how that would affect the system when it just saves 10-15 minutes. I agree that the CTA should expand connections outside of the loop rather than mess with existing track

great visuals!

*The CTA did have a "limited stop" express service until some time in the 1990s -- known as the A/B skip stop service.* They should bring back that service on the O'hare branch of the Blue Line, i.e., between the airport and the UIC/Halsted station. Just past UIC, there's a third track which could be used by some trains to reverse and head back to O'hare. So between O'hare and UIC, "A" and "B" trains would run, stopping only at designated "A" or "B" stations (or "All Stop" stations). Eliminating roughly half the stops along this portion of the Blue Line would cut travel time between O'hare and the Loop by 10 to 15 minutes. At UIC, half of the trains (either all "A" trains or all "B" trains) would reverse direction and head back to O'hare. Of course, this would result in more frequent service on the O'hare portion of the Blue Line, but that's OK because the Forest Park portion has lower ridership and doesn't need such frequent service.

My idea would be cheaper, if not controversial The express tracks to O'Hare should be built on what is currently the reversible lanes on the Kennedy Expressway Then 1. Express trains can make local stops from Jefferson Park to O'Hare, stopping at HO, Harlem, Cumberland, and Rosemont. Other than connecting the Lake Street tunnel to the express lanes, that's the biggest cost and reduces travel time as the express trains would have their own right of way for half the distance of the route. 2. For more money, express tracks can be built to Rosemont with one additional outer track in each direction. In exchange this would make a true downtown to O'Hare express train Obviously the controversial topic is removing the reversible express lanes. For Midway express trains the only way to make this happen is to build a subway following the current Orange Line to west of Ashland where it would arise into the median of the Stevenson Expressway to west of Pulaski where it would elevate and turn south to parallel with the CN tracks until joining the Orange Line tracks just north of 55th heading into Midway Station.

Hell yeah, new Stormy video

On the side of the highway there is space to build a sky train that could connect the O'Hare and Chicago stations.

I think the trains are awesome plan is still better than anything. The CTA tried to do. I just proposed that they make a spur off of the North Central service to go straight to the terminal

The Metra option makes by far the most sense. The freight companies allowed it for the DNC, I know it was temporary but that’s proof they’re willing to budge. So that just leaves the need for track and station upgrades, just do it, it’s clearly worth the investment, and if it was a freeway project trust me, they would have done it a long time ago.

The dnc ncs service having relatively low ridership really shows how inconvenient taking Metra to O'Hare is. The station is just too far from the terminals and it being only 5 minutes faster than the blue line (walk and ats ride not included) is the nail in the coffin. I think an express would be great and should be easy to do well but ofc isn't a priority right now

The most important thing missing in Chicago's transit system is the ridership... Where are the passengers? There are tramway lines in Europe with the daily ridership of the entire L network. Sure, it's not as low as LA Metro, but still, it's abysmal ridership for such a system. If there's one pressing issue, it is to restore the system's ridership by making services that are practical and attractive for people to ride.

2:15 and yes that same Mills Corporation that built Gurnee Mills. The Mills really tried too much, too fast and got dissolved out by Simon Malls in 2007.

I'll say this, as someone who lives relatively close to the Blue line I appreciate its existence despite its flaws. From my door to O'hare is about 45 minutes total ride time. However, I HATE coming home from visiting my family across the country, and after a 4 hour flight having to immediately jump onto a train that's absolutely crawling for those first handful of stops. I realize that's a very first world problem, hell not even New York City has a subway line that runs directly to any of the airports, but I feel like the CTA overall is a 7/10 system that *could* be a 10/10 with just a bit of care, planning, and resources.

NYC was close to having a good airport rail link similar to what was proposed in Chicago. Before they ended up with a peoplemover for the AirTrain JFK (which connects the JFK terminals with Howard Beach and Jamaica), when the MTA first proposed a direct rail link to JFK, they wanted it to serve both LGA and JFK. They wanted it to begin in Midtown, cross the East River into Queens via the Queensboro Bridge, travel to LaGuardia Airport, then make two additional stops at the former Shea Stadium and Jamaica before proceeding to JFK. This plan was cancelled in 1995 as it wasn't popular politically and involved increasing road tolls and PATH train fares to pay for the new link. The day the AirTrain opened in 2003, Senator Schumer and then Governor Pataki wanted to extend the AirTrain to Lower Manhattan using the LIRR Atlantic Branch and a new tunnel under the East River, and terminate at World Trade Center! This would've benefited not just those taking the AirTrain, but also LIRR riders as 100,000 LIRR riders were predicted to use it on an average weekday, and it would've reduced crowding on several subway lines However, it wasn't a top priority for the governors after Pataki, especially when compared to projects like the Second Ave Subway and East Side Access. The Bush administration approved 2 billion for the project in June 2004 as Pataki wanted to use unused federal funds aimed at rebuilding Lower Manhattan, but this approval was blocked by the Senate. And the projected total cost rose from $6 billion to between $8.6 and $9.9 billion.