How long until proposed Red Line extension turns local tempers all “red?”

It is one of those projects that has been discussed for years – extending the Chicago Transit Authority elevated commuter train lines deeper into the city’s South Side than they already go.
 

Proposed route for Red Line extension

On a certain level, the project makes too much sense. The commuter trains that help city residents get from place to place and are a common fact of everyday life in most of the city only go as far south as 95^th Street.

WHILE CHICAGO ITSELF usually considers 119^th Street to be its southern boundary and there are parts of the city at the southeastern corner where 138^th Street is the end of life as we know it and where suburbia begins.

Now as somebody who actually originates from that part of the city (born in South Chicago and with relatives scattered across the neighborhoods that comprise the 10^th Ward), this is a project that I have long followed.

Because for people in the southeast part of the city, there are a few bus lines that pass through that eventually can take you to a place along the Dan Ryan Expressway where you can catch a Red Line train.

But it can be a slow, plodding trip (what with all those bus stops) and it can result in an hour-and-a-half journey to get downtown. There are parts of Will County or Gary, Ind., that have quicker connections to downtown Chicago via suburban commuter trains.

IT’S NO WONDER that those people who live near a Metra Electric line station in the South Chicago or South Shore neighborhoods, or in the Hegewisch neighborhood where the Indiana-based South Shore commuter line keeps its lone Illinois-based station, prefer to use those suburban-influenced services even though they're very much urban residents.

Which is why the idea of extending that Red Line train that now runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan to 95^th Street would be a life-altering experience for the Far South Side.

 

Metra lines more a daily life reality in Far South Chi

A direct CTA el train extension going to 130^th Street? Actual stations in the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods – instead of having to take a bus to the west to catch a Metra Rock Island line commuter train in the Beverly or Morgan Park neighborhoods.

It sounds like nirvana (and I don’t mean the 90’s era rock band).

EXCEPT TO THOSE people who, while complaining about how isolated their part of Chicago often feels, will also be the first to complain about anything that brings about change.

They’ll be the ones who think of el trains as being something associated with “the ghetto” or artsy-fartsy North Side neighborhoods – and something they’ve managed to do without all these years.

I have heard from some of these people already. Although they have been muted largely because of skepticism that the city will ever get its act together and actually build the extension!

But will they get louder, now that talk is progressing to the point of figuring out where exactly new track would have to be built. City officials this week said they would allocate some $75 million for engineering studies. Which means figuring out what structures would need to be torn down.

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS reported Thursday about the project – pointing out that 82 single-family homes and 19 multi-family properties are on a list of things that would need to be torn down to make room for 5.3 miles more of train track for the el extension.

The weekly business newspaper already has some comment from people who admit train service would be nice, but not necessary if it means they have to move.

Personally, I became an el proponent back during the stints I lived in North and Northwest Side neighborhoods, and I often wonder how it is that my home base neighborhood, so to speak, has never been willing to demand such equal service.

May someday no longer be distant southern CTA outpost?

Except that too many people living out in the land where Indiana isn’t an esoteric concept but is the place at the other end of the Chicago Skyway have become too used to their sense of isolation from the rest of Chicago – a concept whose time truly ought to come to an end.

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EXTRA: No major complaints from Red Line riders. Not yet, anyway!

This is encouraging. Now can the Chicago Transit Authority keep it up?

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Some people compelled to complain

Soon to be undergoing long-overdue repairs. Photograph provided by LHOON

I write this during the weekend anticipating all the rants and rages we’re going to hear Monday from South Side residents who have to rely on the Chicago Transit Authority’s “Red Line” trains.

That, of course, is the line that was shut down completely beginning Sunday so that crews can work around the clock (instead of in shifts around “el” trains) for the next five months to upgrade the track.

IF IT HAD been done in shifts, it would take years to complete the work. Which would mean years of inconvenience.

By doing an outright shutdown, the work can be completed sooner and the benefits to be derived from upgrading the train that runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan Expressway to 95^th Street will be felt sooner.

For what it’s worth, CTA officials claim that improved tracks will allow for the “el” trains to speed through the area faster – possibly reducing as much as 10 minutes off the total commute for anyone who goes from 95^th Street all the way to downtown.

Now as one who has, from time to time in my life, had to rely on commuter trains for transit (and still uses them on occasion), I comprehend that it’s going to be a pain in the behind for those people who are used to relying on the Red Line (which, in a sign that reveals my age, I still think of as the Dan Ryan Line).

THEY’RE GOING TO have to find an alternative. And I’m sure there are some for whom shifting to a Green Line (a.k.a., Englewood/Jackson Park Line) train or using the Metra Electric trains that make stops on the Sout’ Side between Michigan Avenue and Blue Island is not going to be practical.

Some people may have their livelihoods seriously interfered with by this repair work.

But the simple fact is that all things eventually wear down. Eventually, everything needs serious upgrades in order to keep them in use. Unless we want them to deteriorate to the point where they become unusable – if not downright hazardous!

Now some people want to see a racial angle in this move because of the fact that this repair work is going to impact overwhelmingly African-American neighborhoods – since the reality is that many of the white people who use the southern extension of the Red Line (they think of it as the train that goes north to Howard Street and cuts through the Lincoln Park and Lake View neighborhoods) are off the train by 35^th Street.

WHICH MEANS THE Chicago White Sox may be impacted – although many fans I talk with say they already try to avoid the Red Line crowds and prefer other ways (I’m inclined to try the Metra Rock Island line train with its nearby stop named for one-time state Rep. Lovana Jones) of getting to U.S. Cellular Field.

JONES: No, she didn't play for the Sox

I’m not sure I buy that angle. Although if there is a racial angle to this issue, it may well be that CTA officials were willing to let the southern part of the Red Line deteriorate to its current condition without having done these repairs much earlier.

The Red Line dates back to the 1960s, and there are parts of the track that are now going to be replaced that literally date back to the opening.

Although I suppose compared to how old the Green Line extensions to neighborhoods on the West Side were (just over a century) when CTA officials finally got around to doing upgrades on that track in recent years, the Red Line might be considered in prime condition.

THE POINT BEING that this work is long overdue. We never hear of the elevated train lines running through North or Northwest Side neighborhoods going that long a time period without repairs.

And if it had been done in a more-timely manner, the commuter inconvenience would be long past – a thing of history.

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