CHICAGO: ORD & MDW discussion

[F1 Tommy]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Stupid move. But just because they would not allow the diagonal runways to be closed doesn't mean they have to use them. So keep 'em open on paper, just never use them.

Well there are some days they can use them due to crosswinds. I think they should have kept them in the first place, but not due to noise.

[N830MH]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#sectio.../p2p-83317669/

Any new terminals yet?

[F1 Tommy]

Finnair will fly to Chicago O'Hare starting next month, launching seasonal service to its hub in Helsinki.

Beginning June 15, the airline will fly three weekly flights on the route using Airbus A330 aircraft. Finnair will operate one round-trip flight each Monday, Thursday and Saturday through Oct. 17 replacing One World partner AA on the Chicago-Helsinki seasonal route.

[N830MH]

She is at again!!! This time she went to Chicago. She's trying to get past at security checkpoints without tickets. She has been arrested for loitering & trespassing and within 10 days she got arrested again at MDW.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/05/...ohare-airport/

[BrownTown]

Originally Posted by N830MH

She is at again!!! This time she went to Chicago. She's trying to get past at security checkpoints without tickets. She has been arrested for loitering & trespassing and within 10 days she got arrested again at MDW.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/05/...ohare-airport/

Lol, she's lucky she is trying to in places that have pretty lax laws. I bet if she tried it somewhere in the south like Atlanta she would be getting serious prison time. Committing the same crime 10+ years makes one a habitual violator which is a minimum of 5 years in prison around here.

[jpIllInoIs]

People Mover extension

The City of Chicago Department of Aviation has awarded a $310 million design-build contract to Parsons to replace and expand O’Hare International Airport’s Automated Transit System (ATS) on a basis.

Parsons will manage construction of the project, which involves replacing the existing ATS between terminals, constructing a 2,000-foot extension to service the new consolidated rental car station, expanding the maintenance and storage facility, and replacing the existing 15-vehicle fleet with 36 new railcars with automated vehicle control, traction power and communications improvements. Parsons will also design the traction power, communications and trackwork while performing systems integration and commissioning work for the entire project.

[nomarandlee]

About darn time. I wonder how fast they will start working on it. Hopefully at least by the end of the summer.

I would also hope that they build the new terminal ATS station at Parking Lot F to readily incorporate an enlarged intermodal station providing quick transfers from to future downtown express trains, Metra, or Amtrak.

[k1052]

Now clear of the election, Rham has hired a new aviation commissioner.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news-chi...on-commisioner

Hopefully a lot of pending projects will break loose in short order like the CONRAC, people mover (as mentioned in posts above), further stages of the OMP, and concessions contracts. Westfield has been killing it out at T5 and I'd like to see some of that action over in the rest of the airport.

[ardecila]

Interesting that they are "replacing" the existing APM. Possibly this means replacing the existing VAL technology with Mitsubishi's newer Crystal Mover technology, while leaving the major structures and stations intact. Miami just finished a new system using this technology, it's pretty sleek. I believe ATL and IAD have the same system as well.

[N830MH]

Wow! That's great news! I think O'Hare needs to get a new terminals, extension the entire terminals 5, more new parking garage, more new inline baggage screening system, terminals modernization and final, the entire terminals 1/3 will have new CBP facility, That way they won't be towed from entire terminal 5. Those aircraft will be at the same terminals only for international arrivals. I think it's right choice for everyone. They can connectivity the domestic flight. It's much easier and also, baggage claim needs to makeover.

[nergie]

Dept of Aviation just emailed me that in spring '16 Icelandair will start ORD.

[F1 Tommy]

Originally Posted by nergie

Dept of Aviation just emailed me that in spring '16 Icelandair will start ORD.

Back after 25 years. They used to have several flights a day during the summer and 1 flight daily year round using DC8-63's and 71's.

[nomarandlee]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...=outfit&page=1
Rahm Emanuel faces daunting second-term challenges
May 16, 2015
........The mayor then said one of his goals is to provide express passenger rail service to O'Hare from downtown, his first mention of what certainly would be a costly project. Emanuel touted Mayor Richard J. Daley's decision to develop O'Hare as one that "fundamentally changed the landscape of Chicago for the next 50 years."

"Without O'Hare," Emanuel observed, "we could have been Cleveland."

Similarly, the mayor said he hopes his drive to create a stronger tech economy here would lay the foundation for decades of future success.

There is no 'Chicago versus suburbs, Chicago versus the rest of the state, or Chicago is the burden.' The people of Illinois know Illinois without a vibrant Chicago is a problem.
- Mayor Rahm Emanuel
As for monument building, Emanuel said his expanded Riverwalk will be completed in his second term, and opening up 26 new miles of the Chicago River for recreation, he predicts, one day will lead to highly-sought development and increased home values in the city's neighborhoods that abut the river........

..

[ardecila]

^ The O'Hare Express, the idea that just won't die. The cold hard truth is that there are so many better ways to spend that money improving service to Chicago neighborhoods instead of spending it on trains for the elite.

To the extent that this goes forward, it should be structured as a PPP and completely privately-funded (probably this means a mainline railroad line using Metra stations on the Milwaukee-West or CSX Altenheim line). Unfortunately, I doubt such a thing is possible. It didn't pencil out in Toronto and probably won't pencil out in Chicago.

Add that to Metra's retarded leadership and we end up with a hugely-expensive, half-assed solution on the Blue Line that wastes valuable public money and slows down Blue Line commutes.

[N830MH]

Any new terminals? When they will extension the entire terminals 5 or they can build a new terminal 4 or someplace else.

[Mister Uptempo]

Originally Posted by ardecila

^ The O'Hare Express, the idea that just won't die. The cold hard truth is that there are so many better ways to spend that money improving service to Chicago neighborhoods instead of spending it on trains for the elite.

To the extent that this goes forward, it should be structured as a PPP and completely privately-funded (probably this means a mainline railroad line using Metra stations on the Milwaukee-West or CSX Altenheim line). Unfortunately, I doubt such a thing is possible. It didn't pencil out in Toronto and probably won't pencil out in Chicago.

Add that to Metra's retarded leadership and we end up with a hugely-expensive, half-assed solution on the Blue Line that wastes valuable public money and slows down Blue Line commutes.

On the same subject from the Chicago Sun-Times-

Rahm's big plans for second term might include cleaning house at Board of Ed.
Posted: 05/16/2015, 08:24am | Fran Spielman

-SNIP-

Q: You have big plans for O’Hare.

A: Concessions, routes, transportation. And the biggest piece, the last piece, is negotiations with the carriers as it relates to expansion, which is essential to the city.

Q: What about concessions?

A: There’s a lesson to be learned by what I did at the international terminal. Today, O’Hare has the single best international terminal in the United States . . . I want the domestic terminals, when we do the concessions, to look and feel like the international so people have an experience. I want them to be like Chicago so the 60 million people coming in and out say, “That’s Chicago.” Look at Rick Bayless in there, and you have a feeling of Chicago. Can we bring some of the culinary experiences that people have in the city to O’Hare? A lot of our top chefs want to have something there.

Q: Routes?

A: We’re well-positioned in Europe. We’re well-positioned in North America. We’re well-positioned in Asia. [But] the fastest-growing market in Latin America, we’re not. I want them to start working on the Latin-American routes.

Q: What about high-speed rail from downtown to O’Hare?

A: An express service from the city to the airport would be a game-changer to the economics of the overall region but most importantly for Chicago . . . I want to get that eventually started.

Q: Do you do that from that expensive hole in the ground at Block 37? Or are there other ways?

A: There’s one other way. That’s [Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans’] job to explore some ideas kicking around in how to do it.

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by ardecila

^ The O'Hare Express, the idea that just won't die. The cold hard truth is that there are so many better ways to spend that money improving service to Chicago neighborhoods instead of spending it on trains for the elite. .

I'd agree if it was a billion dollar plus project. However if it could only cost a few hundred million for example I think that is a pretty worthwhile investment. And I don't think that it is potentially a train for the "elite" anyway. What I think is for the elite are $30-50 dollar taxi fares into the city compared to $15-20 fares by hypothetical trains. Right now I feel forced to take the Blue Line to O'Hare because I don't want to sit in a $40 cab ride for +1 hour plus rush hour ride to O'Hare. Certainly there is a market for a happy medium that combines comfort, convenience, and cost?

To the extent that this goes forward, it should be structured as a PPP and completely privately-funded (probably this means a mainline railroad line using Metra stations on the Milwaukee-West or CSX Altenheim line). Unfortunately, I doubt such a thing is possible. It didn't pencil out in Toronto and probably won't pencil out in Chicago.

I agree with as much about that. Don't know why you are down on the Toronto model yet though given as it hasn't even taken off. I am very intrigued by the new service that is about to start in Toronto with Union/Pearson service. It seems like it has the potential to be a template on how to do Union State to O'Hare service.

[ardecila]

I'm down on Toronto because they couldn't make it work as a private investment. And unlike Chicago, Toronto doesn't already have a subway line going to the heart of the terminal complex. How is the Blue Line inadequate again? What's wrong with it that we need to spend hundreds of millions on a competing service?

As Mr D noted before, an express train from Union Station to O'Hare Transfer is not necessarily any faster than a local Blue Line trip, because most downtown travelers aren't staying near Union Station and at the O'Hare end, you'd have to make a slow transfer to the People Mover. If you're a Chicago resident and you live on the North Side, the express train is borderline useless to you.

The CrossRail plan is a little better - because it's not a premium express service, airport workers could use it, and the long term plan calls for a new tunnel under the airfield with a station at the terminals.

[chiguy123]

Are there quicker fixes that can be brought to life? For example, I know the new L cars are capable of traveling 70mph....and the max on the blue line right now is 55. Are there segments in the highway median portion that can be tweaked for maximum speed? There are quite a few long stretches when you get close O'Hare where I think this could work.

I know this isn't as revolutionary but could cut maybe 5 minutes or so off the total travel time.

[ardecila]

Actually, the latest round of renovations and track work on the Blue Line was supposed to do exactly this, trimming the travel time from 45 minutes down to 40.