How to Improve Chicago's Transit (CTA & Metra)

[@thehouseoftransit2719]

Hey, thanks for the shoutout! Can’t say we agree with everything on here, but overall great analysis! Better Metra service: Yes! BRT on Western: Yes, currently being studied Better station naming: a no-brainer Downtown Circulator: actually already exists, it’s called Loop Link and it’s not a single route but several routes that run together to form a circulator using bus lanes on Washington and Madison Fares: yep, need to be simplified Hadn’t thought about a Midway Express before, O’Hare probably needs the express more as the Orange Line is quite fast but I support infills on the Heritage Corridor Great video!

[@JkWillis]

Thanks for the response! In the case of the Downtown Bus, I agree that something like Denver's Mallride is not needed with the Loop Link in place, though better signage should be made for it as I as a visitor to the city had no idea this existed and would have used it if I did. Denver also faces a similar issue of having little information about its bus routes.

[@danukil7703]

Just today, riding UP North, I heard a conductor explain to a visitor the different fares for CTA and Metra. Hopefully if the plan to merge CTA, Metra & Pace comes to fruition, some arrangement can be made regarding free transfers

[@1234joshwatch]

The Red Line Extension is overdue for the south side and southern suburban communities. The redline extension connects so many neighborhoods and allows easier access to jobs. It's literally a shit show after the 95th Red Line. There are so many food desserts and communities cut off from the rest of the world because they barely have a bus service. I think Chicago has a huge opportunity to better connect the west & south sides of the city with trains!

[@mrAhollandjr]

The reason why the Pink line is separate from the Blue Line is that the ridership on that line was significantly lower than the Forest Park branch and both branches were significantly lower than the OHare branch. Essentially CTA was running long empty trains on the 54/ Cermak branch because the trains were thru routed. As a separate line CTA can run 4 car trains which is more efficient,

[@joltenio5713]

but its kinda useless tbh, while the pink line is the closest one to me, I rather have the blue line. but I think an extension to the mall would help the low ridership as its a decent mall.

[@eggballo4490]

What about re-extending to Green Line and Jackson Park and having a Metra Infill station at Irving Park instead of Montrose.

[@girldaddividendinvestor]

There is a Metra on Irving Park.

[@PeterGazis-iz9fe]

Where you’re planning to extend the green line, Stoney Island is basically a highway, and Jackson park is a forest preserve. Also going over the Metra tracks will make the project extremely expensive. While the road and sidewalk underneath the Metra tracks will be plunged into eternal darkness. Most importantly the people who live along 63rd don’t want it. Better to increase service on the Metra Electric‘s South Chicago line, and rerouting to Union station.

[@guillermo4687]

I would propose these changes: Red Line: none. The extension will do wonders. Purple Line: extend it all the way to Ashland/63rd or even creating a Western Station. With this, reopening Racine and building a station at 59th/State feels extremely necessary. Brown Line: I would merge it with the Orange Line. Pink Line: I would extend it to Harlem and close Kostner. Green Line: getting rid of the Englewood Branch and extending it all the way to the Obama Center while building an infill station at Dorchester or University. Yellow Line: opening one more station (maybe Asbury) would be great. Blue Line: I think it’s fine. I wish there was a line running from O’Hare to Midway, tho.

[@robbrad6144]

One problem our regional rail needs to overcome is freight congestion. Currently the said rail line i.e. BNSF dictates how the commuter rail can operate on their line. There were talks at some point of transit consolidation that could help overcome this.

[@qjtvaddict]

Build dedicated tracks simple

[@bruceperry8107]

Depending on how you count, Chicago has up to 5 trains to 5 airports: 1) CTA Blue line to O'Hare 2) CTA Orange line to Midway 3) Metra North Central Service to O'Hare transfer (connects to the airport's automated people mover, which counts) 4a) South Shore Line to South Bend Airport (station at airport terminal) 4b) South Shore Line to Gary/Chicago Airport (there's a station named after the airport but not immediately at the airport, also this airport hasn't had commercial passenger service in 10 years) 5) Amtrak Hiawatha to Milwaukee Airport (station named after the airport but requires bus transfer to terminal) Also based on your pronunciation of Cicero I guess you haven't watched Better Call Saul, which you should.

[@JkWillis]

Right, I forgot about the South Shore Line. My main comparison was with CTA, but I kind of left out the regional services. Also yeah, I haven't got around to Better Call Saul.

[@grtgamer6807]

CICERO- SIS-UR-OH

[@youwereprettylasttimeisawy1227]

i couldn’t help but laugh when he said it

[@WRS3DRUM]

Chicago needs to grow. the RLE has been a long overdue promise now being fulfilled. That area has a lot of potential. i was in that area a week ago. it is always interesting to see what ppl say who don't live here.

[@theevilmoppet]

Ok so comments from a Chicago resident's POV: 1: it's OHgilvie or ohGILvie (depending on who you ask) 2: it's CICero not cicAIRo 3: the red line should not take over yellow line service - the yellow line has pitiful ridership because (even with your proposed infill station) it goes barely anywhere; it is nowhere near worth the cost of expanding the stations from fitting 2-car yellow line trains to 8-car red line ones and increasing the strain on the operations of the already extraordinarily long and soon-to-be-longer red line. 4: the blue line should not take over pink line service - the pink line was spun off for a reason. it has always had much less demand and usage, and so in a very cash-strapped system with twin crises in both recruitment (not enough train + bus operators) and finances ( the CTA is about to hit a fiscal cliff), it is very much not worth straining the limited resources of the blue line to run (by CTA standards) high frequency, high capacity, modern cars and long trains on a pretty low performance section of the system. The only two options there are either running trains with way too much capacity and frequency than are justified (this is not a situation where larger, more frequent trains will increase demand - we know that when the blue line was running its trains on the pink line, they were still doing very poorly) or lowering the standards for the entire blue line instead of just letting the pink line run its own, smaller trains. 5: similarly, the purple line should not run through the state st subway all the way to the cottage grove branch. It's just not warranted - I agree the purple line express service should be extended, if not 24hr, but running it all the way that far south is just an unnecessary strain on the extremely strained resources of the CTA for very little benefit. 5: I really don't think it's necessary to review all the station names for repeats. It's not that confusing. If I'm on the brown line, and my stop is at irving park, I would never think "oh, is that the blue line or brown line irving park?" I'm already on the brown line. I know which station that is. Certainly for actual Chicago residents that's not necessary; as for tourists, who may not be familiar with the system, how would they even know to be confused - if you're not familiar with the system, and google maps tells you to take the blue line O'hare direction to western, you wouldn't know enough to confuse it with the 4 other stops on western at different points, and if you did somehow know that, you would still not be confused because google maps told you which western station you're going to. 6: western BRT would totally be great yeah. I mean an el would be better, and not that expensive by american transit price standards, but the funding for that is not going to be there unless there's a really different paradigm at a city-, state-, and nation-wide level regarding funding transit. And it would probably get sued into oblivion. But as for a loop line, the western line wouldn't have to be a full loop - you could literally just run it down western and to, say, midway or 95th, and it would be a massive connectivity win. The actual loop line, which was a real proposal that got as far as a fully finished phase 1 (which is what we now know as the pink line - phase 1 was repairs and modernization of track leading to the pink line's creation as a side effect) was supposed to run closer into downtown, and thus be a lot smaller and more feasible. Both of these would be great as elevated metro, and brt on western would be a great cheaper alternative, though I'd definitely be worried the alder system in chicago would cause the brt to get diluted to oblivion or just never happen.

[@dom7098]

Agreed. Nobody ever says a repeated station name without mentioning which line it’s on.

[@wtfareperfectplaces]

​@@dom7098that's exactly why the names should be changed. Also there's 2 stations called Western on the blue line so even that wouldn't work.

[@theevilmoppet]

@@wtfareperfectplaces it wouldn't take very much time or money to get those names changed, but it still would take time and money - manufacture the physical signs and have them replaced (and there are more signs for the station name than you might think at first); change the name on every website, and find someone to make sure you actually caught every online instance of the CTA using that station name; change the train/bus station announcement; probably a couple more things I couldn't think of. And for what? A very very marginal decrease in conversational redundancy. I have taken the blue line; I have friends who take it extremely regularly; not once have we been confused by the existence of two stations named Western. It's just not that big a deal. At the absolute worst you can just ask "forest park or o'hare?" or similar. Sure, if/when the CTA renovates those stations, it's a good opportunity to remove that potential confusion, but for now it just brings very little benefit so like... why bother. The CTA is poor enough as is without a comprehensive review of potentially confusing station names (because I promise you, if you want to see very slightly potentially confusing station names, it's not just Western, Western, Western, Western, and Western; for example, Sheridan on the Red line is on Irving and Sheffield, a block NORTH of Sheridan).

[@Oqweisha]

It’s pronounced Oh-Gil-Vee if that makes sense, it was named something easier before changing names. Great video by the way :)) and yes, the walk between stations is absolutely terrible in the winter, don’t be like me, bring a coat Also about the yellow line, it’s very interesting cause it was built for the late North Shore Line which operate service from the Loop and Indiana station to Milwaukee via either the mainline which branched off the Evanston branch or the Skokie branch known as the Skokie bypass, but shut down in 1963, originally up until the 40s I think the CRT operated rapid transit up until Niles center now known as Demeter. The CTA later started operating an experiment to create this sort of commuter rapid line nicknamed the “Commuters friend” and or the Skokie Swift, and started operating it in 1964 after closing basically all the station. An extension to old orchard would be awesome because it would serve the Mall and students at the nearby Niles North High School, but after 2011 it hasn’t since been studied as an option by the CTA. Also fun fact up until 2004 the Swift used overhead wire, so the 3200s assigned to the Skokie swift had pantographs (pretty cursed) now those trains usually operate on the brown and you can still see the remnants of the pantographs

[@tominator99988]

pretty good video. The walk to Union Station from Quincy, Clinton blue and Clinton Green is not bad. We don't need to spend a ton of money to make all the train lines touch Union Station. The better solution would be more frequency on the Metra lines. With trains every 15 to 30 minutes, riders would take metra instead of CTA if they were transferring to a different Metra line or Amtrak. Adding a Metra Station on the UP Northwest line in Logan Square would put most blue line riders in walking distance to a Metra station. And we don't need Denver's mall bus downtown. I have never not walked from the train when my destination is in the loop and theres plenty of bus routes for people that can't walk.

[@molly3455]

I disagree that the Red Line extension is not important, it is needed not just to increase transit access for the region but because basically every E/W bus route south of 95th terminates at 95th/Dan Ryan and it's a shitshow. They need the extension so they can reroute these buses as buses are currently the only way to travel E/W on the south side. Your ideas about the lines around MDW are interesting but I think more important is the proposed Orange line extension to 76th (which cta was going to do but cancelled). Metra 100% needs more frequency and it would fill a lot of CTA gaps but they are both underfunded and only own 4/11 of their lines, BNSF is one of the lines they do not own. In fact, they do not even have their own crew on BNSF line trains, BNSF crews fully operates this line. They really are just doing their best with what they have, unlike CTA, which is currently suffering greatly from mismanagement.

[@JkWillis]

I should have stated that I don't think the Red Line extension is unimportant, I just think it isn't as important as other things CTA could be doing, and a projected price of $3B+ is really high to build a line along already existing right-of-way. I knew that 95th/Dan Ryan was a major bus hub, but hearing that the bus layout there isn't doing so well means the RLE is even more necessary. An Orange line extension to 76th is a good idea, but if Orange is extended to 76th it might as well go all the way to Oak Lawn where it could meet the SouthWest Service.

[@molly3455]

@@JkWillis Ideally yes the Orange would extend to 95th, and a 95th BRT could connect all of the 95th Metra stations (SWS, RI, and MED) + the Red line. But they already failed to get it built to 76th and I'm sure getting a line built outside city limits would take ages. I believe they also studied creating a line on Cicero going north from MDW which would be good.

[@molly3455]

The extension was going to terminate at 76th specifically because there is a mall there, which is dead these days so it's not really relevant but the neighborhood still doesn't have nearby CTA rail access

[@iwouldliketoorderanumber1b79]

I’m glad those residents are getting that redline extension that was promised to them by Daley sr. It’s about time.

[@prazzlerazzle5565]

you can pry the 6 westerns from my cold dead hands they are a staple, if anything we need more of them other than that great video!

[@txquartz]

The BNSF frequencies are bad, But they are necessitated before the pandemic by trains that were so full they could not take the whole route. During rush hours, b n s f operates as a series of chunks where the train will go express to or from downtown and serve a selection of stations rather than the whole line

[@qjtvaddict]

Chicago has many corridors that have space for extra tracks that can be used for orbital services

[@vinnieramone4818]

I think we need trolley lines that aren't subject to traffic like buses are running east/west and a north/south El train on the west side

[@brosobro]

Appreciate you visiting and taking the time to evaluate our transit system. Though I have to say, much of what you've suggested has either been tried and failed, or hasn't been tried for good reasons. While the RTA is pretty good by American standards, there are numerous political and financial challenges that prevent it from becoming as robust and cohesive as area transit advocates would like. If the good ideas amongst yours were possible, they would already be done no doubt.

[@tayhonorable7421]

I saw myself holding my office lunch in this video haha, would’ve been great to chat. I *love* the CTA.

[@mentonerodominicano]

It really pisses me off that the Green Line does not go to Midway. And the Orange Line should be 24/7!

[@youwereprettylasttimeisawy1227]

wait it’s not, wtf, it needs to be, at least every hour inbound and outbound

[@txquartz]

With regard to station naming, The simple solution is to use both names as occasionally happens. "Clark and Lake" for example

[@PhyllisJerry]

A few possibly unpopular opinions: 1, the Red Line extension is a colossal waste of money that could be put toward an orbital route and extending the Green Line back to Jackson Park. 2, I absolutely think an orbital “L” line is feasible-the Pink Line already covers half the route. 3, the problem with Metra frequency is that all but the Electric District share tracks with freight trains. Chicago being the rail hub that it is, the only way to increase frequency is to add track capacity. Anything Metra does has the potential to impact freight operations across the country. I think they’re doing the best they can with what they have, and it’s still better than the complete lack of commuter rail in most North American cities.

[@theevilmoppet]

note: the reason the Pink Line covers a significant portion of a potential circle line (though *half* is overstating it - it was more like a third of the planned route) is because the Pink Line was literally phase one of the construction of the circle line in the late 2000s; the rest of the phases just never happened because of 2008 and funding cuts.

[@iwouldliketoorderanumber1b79]

Hey, the redline extension was promised to those residents by Daley sr. I’m glad to see that promise being fulfilled. Keep promises, we can always get more funding for these other projects. Don’t worry these other improvements will come, but promises should be kept.

[@sjd3l4l59]

Metra owns the Metra Electric, the Rock Island, the Milwaukee North, and the Milwaukee West. UP North and UP Northwest have almost no freight within the city.

[@FamilyWithoutHousing]

Cicero is pronounced "SIS-sir-row" after the Roman senator of the same name. As for the station names, it can be confusing to out-of-towners to have so many stations so far apart with the same names, but we homegrown Chicagoans are kinda used to it. Possibly, the only change I'd make is renaming the two Western Ave stations on the Blue Line to "Western/Milwaukee" and "Western/Eisenhower Expwy." Otherwise, people can refer to "the Western station on the Brown Line," or "the Western station on the Orange Line," etc.

[@AccessiblyUrban]

Awesome video!

[@ohdang8515]

"Oh-gull-vee"

[@tylerhendrix14]

Here's another idea. They should create a costal line that shares tracks with the metra and south shore rail. They can start at Navy Pier and continue south. They should also connect directly to the millennium station directly instead of having to walk. The CTA can also extend the loop over to Michigan Avenue. They can also make the red and blue line underground stations like Jackson, Monroe, etc more connected by merging the stations into one. They can add restaurants and stores as well between the two platforms of the merged stations. They can also have a line that connects directly with the metra and amtrak stations downtown. They could also add a blue line express to ohare airport. They can also extend the orange line and the green line to Ford City Mall.

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

EXTEND METRA TO DEKALB EXTEND METRA TO DEKALB EXTEND METRA TO DEKALB

[@johngrantham5508]

It's great Chicago has the only Interurban rail road line in North America. The Chicago South Shore and SouthBend railroad . It runs between Downtown Chicagos Millineum Park station and SouthBend Indiana Airport. A total of 90 miles.

[@miamora01]

The way Cicero was butchered omg

[@matthewreczek3198]

Run passenger trains on the old ej&e line from waukegan to joliet.

[@conner983]

0:15 OHARE AIR JUMPSCARE

[@diegokiwi1854]

I doubt the North Riverside Mall will be convereted to mix- use housing. would like the extension still.

[@arc4705]

9:49 It is not quite as confusing in conversation/practice, but it could be better. You just have to specify the stop+line, same as when multiple trains are at the same stop. So you'd say "I live by the Western brown line station" or something. PS, no offense at all but here is how you pronounce Ogilvie, Cicero, and Devon: OGLE-vee, SIS-uh-row, d'VAWN

[@calebingegneri6167]

Great video and ideas! What are you using to create the map you're adding lines and stations onto? I have always wanted to find a way to try putting my ideas into a map like that

[@JkWillis]

Thanks! I use Google MyMaps to draw the lines.

[@todayisyesterdaystomorrow6948]

The way he said cero as a native we say is (sis-aro)

[@girldaddividendinvestor]

Cero?

[@stevesummers2462]

Perhaps you should learn a little more about Chicago! The yellow line is on the North Shore Rail right of way most of which still is clear up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was only kept so that the CTA could get to a major maintenance shop. If you actually wanted to add stations, Dodge in Evanston already has a Connecting bus route, but you have less everything at Church Street than at Gulf Road and the next mall/ school/ medical center/ Circuit Court complex is already on the same abandoned main line at Old Orchard Road. The Pink Line was re- routed

[@PeterGazis-iz9fe]

Something Ella Fitzgerald may have said about Chicago’s SouthAsian cuisine: It’s Delightful. It’s Delicious. IT’S DEVON.

[@jeffreysmith85]

You can the pink or green to Clinton and walk to the concourse

[@qjtvaddict]

The pink line should not even bother going to the loop it should be a crosstown line and instead keep going north rather than east.

[@mic1240]

The four most densely populated municipalities in Illinois are suburbs (Chicago is #5), there are hundreds of thousands of people who live within blocks of transit, silly to call it car dependent sprawl (yes, there is sprawl on outskirts). Metra is primarily a COMMUTER rail line, not rapid transit. There would not be people hopping on Metra trains in most areas every 15 minutes. Some of your suggestions are how the trains used to run in the past. The CTA was only formed in 1940s, hobbled together from formerly private lines. You totally missed the pedway, an extensive underground system connecting many buildings, train stations, etc. and used often in the winter. On station names, Chicago is EXTREMELY easy to figure out, it is a big grid and always shows how many hundred blocks. Every eight blocks is a mile. No one would get confused about a street on total different sides of the city and most locals immediately know how far West/East/South/North of major streets (Western is 2400, or three miles west of State as example). Just by hearing an address it is easy to know where something is located. Is no different than multiple stops in NYC at same streets but different lines.

[@joshuafajardo5697]

The least used line of the L is Yellow, not Pink

[@jacobzehavi3279]

Great video! What site are you using to view the lines?

[@JkWillis]

I use Google MyMaps but I draw out the lines before recording.

[@jacobzehavi3279]

@@JkWillis can you do that on google maps or do you use a different software?

[@JkWillis]

@@jacobzehavi3279 It's through Google Drive, instead of clicking create doc you press create map.

[@eleids]

Western BRT is in the works.

[@cuppasteve]

So extending the red line to better serve a historically neglected neighborhood in need of more transit options is a bad investment, but extending the yellow to better serve one of the wealthiest areas in the entire state is fine? And we're going to move an entire station... two blocks? And dig an entire tunnel under a river between Quincy and Union so that people can walk in a tunnel instead of... on the sidewalk?

[@Burge97]

You can add all of these to the "shit will never happen in a million years" at the current rate.

[@jeffreysmith85]

Clinton blue line is 2 block to union station

[@king_br0k]

What is the program you used to map this out?

[@JkWillis]

Google MyMaps

[@ohdang8515]

"Sis-uh-row"

[@randyagui07]

0:15 bro put the business guy (Mr. O’hare) here, though we didn’t notice it, but we did.

[@1049mike]

No one will be paying billions for these recommendations. Metra trains are not full during the day. Why would they increase service ?

[@seanimal_rex]

Oh-gull-vee

[@Minelaughter]

Metra's new fare system is horrible. I think it was only made to make it cheaper to go from far cities like Aurora, Elgin, Naperville & Joliet to Chicago. but they clearly rushed it because it costs $2.75 to ride an entire branch of Metra Electric now!

[@txquartz]

Metra was very explicit that they wanted to focus away from downtown commuters and encourage suburb to suburb usage, to the point they no longer use "commuter rail" but rather "regional rail" to describe themselves

[@jeffreysmith85]

Welcome to chicago

[@jeffreysmith85]

Streetcar dude

[@leiny74]

It's Dev - On. Not Devin

[@ntatenarin]

9:43 I totally agree the stations shouldn't have the same name! I remember having to go to jury duty, and get off on the Western Blue Line stop. Well, I got off on the northern one, and it was the wrong one. I was so confused and went to the police station asking where I was. This was before I had a smart phone, so I took a bus all the way to the court room.

[@ohdang8515]

"Duh-von"

[@arc4705]

The number of times he mispronounced places was... 😭

[@girldaddividendinvestor]

Lifelong BNSF rider. It's an utter joke 😂😂😂 So. Many. Stops.

[@johnnelson8311]

I’m sorry this was not a respectful way of talking about Chicago. You did. O research and didn’t event validate any of your claims. Please retract this.

[@tylersouza6523]

This is one of the most brain dead videos

[@fuun17]

0:28 You don't need just bloody one more runway because it's a matter of managing existing 8 runways, and I find your rambling bloody disgusting. So, i give you DISLIKE. 0:35 Concourse C consists of just 3 gates, that's none of your bloody cheesy business. 0:48 Tampa has three airports, and that's none of your bloody disgusting business.

[@girldaddividendinvestor]

Thank you, gatekeeper. 🥴