Olympics in Chicago take a major commitment for mass transit improvement

One of the biggest obstacles Chicago officials face in terms of bringing the summer Olympic Games to the Second City come 2016 is the condition of the mass transit system in the metropolitan area.

Moving people about the area is a problem in that the system of elevated and subway trains and buses are usually intended to keep people within their respective portion of the Chicago metropolitan area. The idea of someone being able to go anywhere within the six-county Chicago area without having an automobile is absurd.

THERE’S ALSO THE fact that the mass transit system in our area is old – more than a century. Portions of the elevated train track used by the Chicago Transit Authority date back to the 1890s, which may have made them state-of-the-art for Chicago’s aborted attempt to stage the 1904 Olympics (which were shifted to St. Louis is a bit of intercity intrigue).

Now portions of the system are new (such as the elevated trains running from the Loop to Midway Airport), and overall, the “el” and subway system is in good condition for something so old.

But the few upgrades that have been made to the system throughout the years are not sufficient to provide a system for moving an influx of Olympics-related people from place to place throughout Chicago.

That ought to be obvious to anybody who has observed the reactions of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is in Beijing to witness the ’08 summer Olympics out of hope he can steal a few ideas that will give our home city an advantage in gaining the ’16 games over Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo.

OFFICIALS IN BEIJING literally opened two new subway lines, and another line directly linking the airport to the Olympic stadium, in order to accommodate the masses of people who will want to get around the city in order to witness world-class athletics.

Officials say they expect up to 1 million people per day to use those new routes as part of Olympics-related transit.

Just imagine how swamped the CTA would become if that many people were to try to ride the Jackson Park elevated train line (the Green Line “el,” to those who are too young to remember the names that used to be given to the various CTA train lines), which is the one that comes closest to the South Side site where Daley dreams of erecting a temporary stadium to stage opening ceremonies and other athletic events.

Any attempt to upgrade the CTA train lines is going to have to be a virtual reconstruction of the system with origins going back more than a century (the CTA itself was not created until 1943, but it uses the remnants of transit systems that used to connect neighborhoods to downtown).

ANYTHING SHORT OF a reconstruction is going to be perceived by Olympics officials as second rate. In that case, we might as well give up our efforts now to get the games.

For his part, Daley seems willing to consider such a massive upgrade, telling reporter-types on hand for the Olympic Games that, “if you can put a man on the moon, then we can really fix this up.”

The trick, as he sees it, is bolstering the existing infrastructure so it can accommodate the newer rail cars of the 21st Century that are used in places such as Beijing, which allow for faster-moving trains that can actually maintain something resembling a schedule.

Gee, what a radical concept, a CTA whose trains (and buses) aren’t ridiculously late all the time!

OF COURSE, OLYMPICS officials have questioned the city’s estimates that such an upgrade of transit and highways would only cost $27 billion. So who knows how legitimate the city’s Olympics bid ought to be taken.

The reason I do not dismiss the concept of a summer Olympiad coming to Chicago eight years from now is because I realize this is probably the best shot we, the people of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, will ever have to motivate our political people to make the major upgrade of mass transit that will benefit all of us who live in the region.

The political maneuvering that will need to take place in order to get the local officials to back the project will need the promise of an event of “historic” proportions such as an Olympiad.

The fact that it would be a scheduled event with deadlines that must be met would be the only thing to pressure political people who normally view construction of any type as an excuse to enrich themselves or their allies, rather than to better the facilities used by the public.

LEAVE IT TO the political people to approve a plan to engage in a massive transit improvement, and we will be here in August 2016 watching the Olympics take place in Rio de Janeiro because our officials still will not have approved anything in the way of construction.

Think I’m exaggerating?

Consider how long officials have been debating construction of a third major airport for the Chicago area. The need for such a facility (with O’Hare International and Midway airports now operating at capacity) has been known for decades.

But the political people of our region have never approved anything airport-related because they are taking former House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s maxim of “All Politics is Local” to a ridiculous extreme, placing their respective neighborhoods’ needs over those of the region as a whole.

IT MAY BE sad that it would take an Olympics to get us improved mass transit. It probably is something that the political people would want to do for those of us who live here year round, rather than for visitors who will come here for a couple of weeks eight years from now – then never return again.

But I will take it. The promise of improved transit, particularly in this age of ridiculously priced gasoline and public parking (and overly strict attitudes toward the “booting” of illegally parked cars), ought to make Olympics fans out of all of us.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Mayor Richard Daley is making a priority of seeing how much nicer Beijing’s subways are than Chicago’s (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chicago-daley-transit-beijing-olympics-aug6,0,5395155.story), and how much money will have to be spent to upgrade the Chicago Transit Authority so that International Olympics Committee officials take seriously the city’s bid to host the 2016 games.

Would Gov. Rod Blagojevich be willing to play politics with state government support (http://www.pjstar.com/news_state/x806577678/Frustrated-governor-says-he-needs-Daleys-help) for Chicago’s Olympics bid? Did anyone seriously take longer than three seconds to answer, “Yes?”

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has talked lightheartedly about how nice it would be (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/63ec4b34-602d-11dd-805e-000077b07658.html) to walk from his Hyde Park neighborhood home to the Olympic Stadium in 2016, but some U.S. officials believe the international presence he has developed gives Chicago’s bid some credibility.

Chicago lost its last bid for the Olympics in 1904 when officials engaged in intercity (http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1904) politicking and shifted the games to St. Louis to coincide with the World’s Fair that year.