Quote:
Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright
Couldn't they route trains back and forth between the Red and Blue lines down there? It would be Amazing to have alternate routes connecting the two lines.
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2 problems with this.
One, there isn't actually a connection there right now. They only built the section inside of Block 37's slurry wall "bathtub". They never connected this to CTA's existing tunnels, which would have been the most complicated part of the job. What exists right now is less of a tunnel, more like a big weirdly-shaped room in the basement.
Don't ask me how they managed to piss away $217M on some framing changes to the basement. It's almost like Daley conned the Federal government into subsidizing a boondoggle shopping mall in order to avoid political embarrassment for clearing Block 37 in the first place...
But suppose CTA spent another $300M to finish the job. The track connection wouldn't really be useful, because train service is a zero-sum game. Every train you route through Block 37 is a train that can't serve the Blue Line's Forest Park branch, or a train that can't serve the North Red Line. The North Red Line is almost at capacity, so by diverting trains you're basically screwing over the North Side. There would also be knock-on effects, since you're adding a flat junction to the busiest part of both Red and Blue Lines (after CTA just spent $1B to eliminate the last flat junction on the Red Line up at Belmont). The flat junctions reduce the absolute number of trains you can run.
