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Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007
4. I kinda get The El, but really, I don't get The El. NYC tore down its elevated rail lines decades ago (at least in Manhattan). Was there some technical reason why they couldn't have subways in those routes instead? After all there are subways elsewhere in downtown. I almost get the impression they've left them up because, well, it's a signature Chicago thing and what would downtown Chicago be without The El? Or something along those lines. But really, like all elevated rails it's ugly and noisy. I think they should bite the bullet and do a gradual process of getting rid of the thing. If I've committed blasphemy by saying that, too bad.
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You are entitled to your opinion of course, even if you're dead wrong.
Just like in NYC and Boston, there was a strong desire in Chicago to push the L underground in the early-mid 20th century. The city/CTA drew up plans several times, they even got very close to construction during the 1970s but they never quite raised enough money before stagflation put the pricetag out of reach. The funds they did raise were re-directed into cheaper, outward extensions of the system to O'Hare and Midway airports, refurbishing the Loop structure and some of its downtown stations, and the short subway link in the South Loop that created the Red Line (between Roosevelt and Chinatown).
Also during the 1970s/80s, we kinda learned to love the L tracks and embrace them. Ever see Risky Business? They became an emblem of the city. Unfortunately, there are certain operational problems you get when 5 rail lines converge to circulate around a flat loop of track. CTA has squeezed as much efficiency as they can with modern signals on an 1890s structure, but there is definitely an upper limit that CTA will reach very quickly if the city ever starts to grow again.
The answer is not to tear down the Loop, but probably involves building a 3rd downtown subway, maybe for a Brown-Orange or Purple-Orange routing. The downtown has also grown substantially to the north, west, and south, and the downtown transit system has not grown along with it. It's basically the same transit system we've had since 1951, and it was designed to pick you up in a neighborhood and drop you at the very epicenter. It is not especially convenient to get around downtown, with poor connections between lines and recently, low service frequencies making any kind of connection a very painful/slow experience.
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14. Speaking of Wrigley, and back to my discussion of the El, I saw that the El goes all the way up there, too (and no doubt much farther north). I suppose it would be impractical to build a subway all the way up there so I got the idea ... if they ever got some money to replace it, they could replace it with a monorail! They could replace all that steel stuff with a nice, more compactly-built concrete doohicky and have monorails with rubber wheels. Like in Disney World. Would be much nicer-looking, be a lot quieter, and be futuristic-looking too boot! They could do that downtown, too.
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With the exception of Lake Street, the L lines outside of downtown tend to run along alleys or in the middle of blocks. They don't run directly over streets like in NYC outer boroughs. So they are screened by buildings and aren't a big deal visually. They're still noisy, but you can learn to live with it. Getting an apartment next to the L is actually a nice way to knock a few hundred off your rent... anyway, you can even fix the noise problem for a fraction of the cost of burying. CTA is rebuilding an older section of L with a
modern concrete viaduct and the result is already much quieter.
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