Quote:
Originally Posted by nomarandlee
I see Blue Line access out to Schaumburg as practically useless. A ride from Woodfield to downtown Chicago would take well over an hour in such a scenario. At that point, any trains from the Schaumburg Metra beat it in terms of travel time. Granted that Schaumburg Metra isn't anywhere near Woodfield but oh well. Then there would still be a good many last-mile trips to Schauburgs auto-centric hell office buildings and retail. Thereby adding to the trip time. Meanwhile draining the CTA of valuable fuel and operations dollars to extend another 8 miles from O'Hare to Schaumburg. I see very little benefit for the city or even the metro as a whole.
With the possible southern extension of the Red Line being the exception the limits of the CTA should be regarded as established in my opinion. Focus on further inter-CTA connectivity and build-out.
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Disagree, traffic isn't just to downtown, trips between Woodfield and the O'Hare area could also be significant.
As always the key will be what planning accompany's it. If you just run a heavy transit line through strip mall parking lots, you will never see ridership. If the adjoining suburbs take it upon themselves and an oppurtunity to increase residential density (and therefore tax base) in areas that are already very high denisty commercial uses, then it could work fantastically. There are a number of suburbs encouraging the "Texas Donut" style construction of dense, 4-5 floor, apartment blocks. If you put a few dozen of those along that 8 mile stretch, it could go a long ways in making areas West of O'Hare significantly more vibrant and pedestrian oriented.