So the
General Development thread doesn’t get too off-topic with talk about the
proposed tourism initiative, I’ve put my response here.
Where’s the extra capacity on the Blue Line? It’s crush-loaded during peak, and closing off the first carriage to tourists will generally annoy people along the line without bringing in any new revenue. I guess you could conceivably do some kind of ten-car thing, but you’ll still have a train ride that’s just as long as a regular Blue Line ride and won’t be able to get off at a number of stations. And again, if you’re going to add cars to the Blue Line, they’d be better put to use in general commuter service—the city and CTA are already looking into bringing more private money and stuff like DBOM—putting it towards regular service will have a higher ROI than a specific airport service.
Quote:
Originally Posted by k1052
Not even talking about that much money for this. 40M-ish worth of FRA compliant DMUs and a direct connection from the O'hare Transfer station to the new directly adjacent rental car facility and ATS. A crapload cheaper than the ill conceived and executed Blue Line express. However this would require Metra to pull it's head out of it's ass or the city/state to pay Amtrak to operate such a service
If they want to get ambitious and extend directly to the terminals some day that can always be done (but at much greater cost that isn't justified right now).
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This is basically my view—the only FRA-compliant DMUs are ancient or untested, so they’re not ideal, but if they’re determined to get an airport express quickly it’s the best option.