MDW/ORD | Chicago Area Airports

[krnboy1009]

It would be better to extend People Mover to link up Metra OHare station to the airport and start new Union Station to Airport express Metra service.

[bewilder2]

Originally Posted by krnboy1009

It would be better to extend People Mover to link up Metra OHare station to the airport and start new Union Station to Airport express Metra service.

That's a good idea actually.

[skyduster]

It's an excellent idea.

Extending O'Hare's people mover to Metra's O'Hare transfer station (and rebuilding that station into a nice, big building, instead of the crappy shed that it currently is), is an excellent idea. In fact, it makes a lot of sense. But things that make the most sense are not always implemented.

All you would need to do is introduce express trains between Union Station and O'Hare Transfer...trains that make very few or no stops between Union Station and O'Hare, and you have a cheap express service that would hardly be any slower than Daley's costly high-speed train would have been.

Additionally, they can introduce some bypass tracks on the O'Hare branch of the CTA's blue line, so that some CTA trains can skip stations and knock maybe 15-20 minutes off of the commute between O'Hare and the city core. Chicago can take a cue from New York, and introduce a double service on some lines; one local and one express. The Blue and Red lines would be perfect for such a service.

My third suggestion...again something painfully obvious and that makes perfect sense but will never happen...is to extend the brown line westward to join up with the blue line, somewhere between Jefferson Park and Harlem. Brown Line trains would then continue to O'Hare. And before joining up with the blue line, the brown line would share stations with Metra's MD-N Forest Glen, allowing transfers, and then both the blue line and brown line can share a station with Metra's UP-NW Gladstone Park, allowing transfers there. This would facilitate transit between O'Hare/the far northwest side/northwest suburbs/north-central suburbs and the north side, without needing to transfer downtown.

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by krnboy1009

It would be better to extend People Mover to link up Metra OHare station to the airport and start new Union Station to Airport express Metra service.

Indeed it would be and I and most other Chicago forumers on this forum have been banging that drum for years now. O'Hare is farther away from the business districts compared to most other major cities in the world. During much of the day it can easily take an hour (even 1 1/2) to get from downtown to O'Hare and can be completely unpredictable. Eventually a train from Union to O'Hare within 20-25 minutes seems feasible. Something that even Daleys plan wasn't likely to accomplish. Price it between 10-20 dollars and I can't see how most business travelers wouldn't prefer it sitting in a cab in traffic.

An intermodal station connecting Metra O'Hare Station, Amtrak, O'Hare ATS, and O'Hare express (likely from Union Station) like Miami and Denver are building or that Frankfurt has would be perfect. In fact I would even be happy with something more modest then those.

The where of where an express train using Metra tracks would end up be it at O'Hare Metra Station/remote parking, or into one of the terminals (more money obviously) or ran into an eventual West Side Terminal Complex is more up for debate.

Daleys Blue Line express to O'Hare was an ill thought out waste. Such a fiasco is a reminded of why the endless bureaucratic EPA and cost-benefit analysis that our government planners go through can actually be a good idea. It could have pushed the better option to come along sooner and saved hundreds of millions of dollars.

.....As far as express service to Midway I don't think its really needed. It now takes about 20 minutes on the Orange Line which really isn't too bad. Of much more importance is to build a proper L station and pedestrian connection at Midway so travelers don't have to traverse a dark parking garage to get to the airport to the station.

[krnboy1009]

I dont think thats true. A lot of airports are at least 15, 30 miles away from the business center, because they require huge empty land to build on. Cant think of any major airports thats nearby downtown.

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by krnboy1009

I dont think thats true. A lot of airports are at least 15, 30 miles away from the business center, because they require huge empty land to build on. Cant think of any major airports thats nearby downtown.

The biggest ones do tend to be fair away true. However even for the largest airports O'Hare is amongst the most distant from the city core. Then you consider that the Kennedy is Chicago's most congested expressway and I believe one of the most congested in the U.S. and its nightmare.

Look at the numbers of hours of weekly congestion compared to even the other worst commutes on the list...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-commutes.html
#9, Kennedy Expressway, Chicago
Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 712
Worst bottleneck: Westbound, I 90/I 94/Edens Expressway
Length of worst bottleneck: .2 mi
Weekly hours of congestion on worst bottleneck: 64
Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 17.2 mph


Airports to downtown(s) -

Chicago O'Hare - 19 Miles
Chicago Midway - 10 Miles
Atlanta - 8 miles
Boston Logan - 3 miles
Dallas - 17 Miles
Denver - 23 Miles (building rail to airport)
Los Angeles LAX - 17 Miles
Miami - 5 Miles
NYC-JFK - 15 Miles
NYC-LaGuardia - 8 Miles
NYC-Newark - 10 Miles
Philadelphia - 8 Miles
Phoenix - 4 Miles
San Diego - 3 Miles
San Fran (SFO) - 15 Miles
Washington DC - Reagan Airport (3 Miles) - Dulles (26 Miles)

International
London Heathrow - 14 Miles
Paris CDG - 16 Miles
Frankfurt - 7 Miles
Madrid - 6 Miles
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol - 6 Miles
Tokyo Haneda Airport - 9 Miles

[skyduster]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

Chicago O'Hare - 19 Miles
Chicago Midway - 10 Miles

Paris CDG - 16 Miles

Interesting...I always felt like CDG is so far away, but I guess this highlights the difference between US and European cities. CDG is on the very edge of Paris metro, whereas ORD is deep inside the metro (coming from downtown, when you pass ORD, you still have another 45-60 minutes of driving before you exit the metro). Metro Paris has more people than Chicago, packed into a more compact area.

[krnboy1009]

I dont think any Amtrak services run on routes that O'Hare station is located on. It would be cool if such Intermodal station existed.

BTW airports like Narita and ICN is over 40 miles away from downtown.

[skyduster]

krnboy,

Rail gets very little love in this country. In Asia and Europe, people have realized rail's potential as a mode of transport that complements airports, and has a new-found niche in areas where auto and air travel are impractical. But in the US, it's still viewed as an outdated mode of transport that was replaced by "superior" auto and car travel. Most Americans think of the old 1920s clunky smokey trains, when they think of "rail", and the Republican Party feeds off of these misconceptions.

[krnboy1009]

Not in most places but passenger rails are pretty important in Northeast region, and Chicagoland to a lesser extent.

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by krnboy1009

I dont think any Amtrak services run on routes that O'Hare station is located on. It would be cool if such Intermodal station existed.

BTW airports like Narita and ICN is over 40 miles away from downtown.

Depending on agreements with the railroads involved and some relatively minor infrastructure swtiches you could have the Amtrak trains that go up to Milwaukee to O'Hare. The key as far as I understand it is at a potential rail juction in Northbrook where the current Amtrak Hiawatha line runs and another E-W railroad line (Union Pacific I beleive) that hooks up with the Metra NCS/Canadian National line that runs right east of O'Hare transfer station. Another former over on SSP I beleive even said that Union Pacific plans to even phase out their rail line which would be perfect to serve up a link with few or any freight obstancles. Altogether the detour would add a few miles and minutes on Milwaukee-Chicago Amtrak service.

Fast Map I drew up that shows the connection
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=42....12&form=LMLTCC

Having said all that I think the best approach to focus on connecting up any express O'Hare trains right next to the Amtrak platforms at Union Station and perhaps include some discounted pricing or inclusving tiketing for Amtrak users that includes O'Hare express service from Union in it.

......Also in regard to the North suburbs eventually I think there could be an O'Hare train express/Amtrak station at Lake-Cook road to serve the North suburbs that would also would have a lot of potential for success but there be some political hurdles to work out and would probably involve changing the Amtrak station from Glenview. That obviously falls back in priority though.

Here is a good article from a year ago.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...passenger-rail

Amtrak exploring O'Hare service
Proposal would link airport with Union Station, points downstate
February 20, 2011|

By Jon Hilkevitch | Getting Around
In the future, one of the carriers serving travelers at O'Hare International Airport may be Amtrak.

Gov. Pat Quinn has asked Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman to conduct a study examining what it would take, logistically and financially, to commence fast, nonstop passenger rail service between Chicago Union Station and O'Hare, your Getting Around reporter has learned.

The governor envisions the proposed rail line, which at this point is strictly conceptual, as offering a more extensive reach than the O'Hare branch of the CTA Blue Line, which runs between the Loop and the airport, and Mayor Richard Daley's plan for premium "Airport Express" service between the uncompleted Block 37 "super station" downtown and O'Hare.

Quinn's plan certainly would not resemble the impractical idea for a bullet train to O'Hare that Daley toted home last year after he rode a magnetic levitation train in Shanghai. The Shanghai Transrapid maglev train must start braking shortly after reaching its top speed of 268 mph, and it doesn't even go into downtown Shanghai.

But Quinn does see opportunities to build a synergistic connection between O'Hare, which serves tens of millions of air travelers each year, and state efforts to draw customers to the 110 mph passenger rail corridors it is constructing, beginning with the 284-mile route between Chicago and St. Louis.

Downtown Chicago and O'Hare represent the two largest employment centers in Illinois, creating a perfect setting for a premier trains-to-planes service that would attract new employers and riders, Quinn said.

"This connection would also provide better access to downstate cities and significantly boost ridership" outside the Chicago area, the governor wrote in a letter to Boardman this month.

"Advancing this connection would also establish O'Hare as a central — and connected — component of the nine-state, 110-mph Midwest Regional Rail System," the Quinn letter said.

The Midwest High Speed Rail Association already has supported an express rail link connecting O'Hare and Union Station. The association also has proposed that the higher-speed routes planned for the Midwest be linked directly to O'Hare to accommodate Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana travelers who will be able to ride trains to and from O'Hare.

The governor asked Boardman to complete the study this summer. The initial questions he wants answered include how quickly service could be introduced, where Amtrak would accommodate the airport trains at Union Station, where the O'Hare station might be located on airport property and "how we would make rail-air ticketing and baggage connections seamless for passengers."

One of the biggest problems is developing a route to O'Hare from tracks Amtrak uses. Metra's North Central Service to Antioch operates limited weekday-only service from Union Station with stops at the O'Hare Transfer Station, which is on the fringes of the airport near Economy Parking Lot F and the Cell Phone Lot. Metra uses the Wisconsin Central Railroad tracks, which are owned by the Canadian National Railway. One reason Metra has not increased its North Central Service schedule is that CN has refused to expand the commuter railroad's track privileges, officials said.

The Amtrak study that Quinn requested will include discussions with CN/Wisconsin Central and Metra, said John Webber, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Another potential setback for the rail link is that the Chicago Department of Aviation has at least temporarily shelved plans for a western airline terminal under the city's O'Hare Modernization Program. In addition to providing aircraft gates, the western terminal was envisioned as including facilities for rail connections to Metra and the Blue Line, as well as to a proposed extension of the People Mover airport transit system that would link the western terminal to the main terminal complex.

Despite the hurdles, Amtrak officials are enthusiastic about exploring the proposal, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

"We know that on several of our routes, downstate people hop off the train at Joliet or Naperville to take taxicabs to O'Hare or Midway Airport," Magliari said.

Noting that the number of airline flights in Illinois outside the Chicago area has decreased and airfares have increased, Magliari said, "If there were a way to get more people downstate connected with air, it would strengthen our already strong ridership."

Amtrak provides more than 150,000 rides each year on its Hiawatha service from Chicago Union Station to General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee. Amtrak also shares a station in St. Louis with light-rail trains serving Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Trains-to-planes partnerships have become common between rail operators and airlines in Europe and other parts of the world. Such collaborations offer the most efficient and pleasant way to travel on trips of 500 miles or less.

It's begun to slowly catch on in the U.S. For instance, on the Continental Airlines website, travel can be booked from Philadelphia to Lyon, France. The trip begins at Philly's 30th Street rail station, where passengers board an hourlong train to Newark Liberty International Airport. The rest of the trip is via air.

Contact Getting Around at jhilkevitch@tribune.com or c/o the Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Read recent columns at chicagotribune.com/gettingaround.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...e-rail-experts

Daley lays tracks for high-speed rail to O'Hare
City seeks proposals for system to rival those in Europe, Asia

May 02, 2011|By Jon Hilkevitch

Still itching to build something big for Chicago even in his final days in office, Mayor Richard Daley has invited technology experts from around the world to submit concepts for an express rail service to O'Hare International Airport.........

The mayor frequently mentions as a potential model for O'Hare service his ride last year, aboard a magnetic levitation train in Shanghai. The Chinese maglev train briefly reaches a top speed of 267 mph on the short trip between Pudong International Airport and the outskirts of central Shanghai.

Members of the mayor's O'Hare express rail committee, however, said it's more important to focus on travel times than speed and on developing a premium-level service that handles baggage and delivers passengers directly downtown and into the airport terminals..........

Skinner said identifying the best route will be key and using an existing right of way "would be a big plus." The route mentioned most prominently by rail experts is the right of way along Metra's North Central Service between Chicago Union Station and the O'Hare Transfer Station near the airport's remote parking lot F.

From a broader perspective, the project offers opportunities to connect the O'Hare service to Illinois' high-speed rail program, which is being coordinated with other Midwestern states, and other local mass-transit projects of the future.

Long-term transit projects include the proposed Metra STAR Line, which would provide expanded suburb-to-suburb connections; a proposed extension of the CTA Blue Line, possibly to DuPage County; and commuter rail service to Rockford...........

While there are strong signs that investors interested in public-private partnerships are looking for viable projects like O'Hare express rail, "on the public sector side, we don't have the money to make major investments in transit projects right now," said Leanne Redden, senior deputy executive director for planning at the Regional Transportation Authority.

Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino accompanied Daley to China last month to learn about rail technologies there and to drum up interest in the O'Hare proposal. During her tenure running Chicago's airports, Andolino has traveled extensively throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe touring the most sophisticated airports and studying train-to-plane links.

"Hong Kong was our last stop with the mayor, and I went on to South Korea," Andolino said. "Before I got back home, we had interested parties coming to Chicago to have conversations about the airport rail project."

Skinner said he, too, has received calls from "big players."...........

They also steered clear of offering ideas about whether to base the new service downtown at Chicago Union Station; the partially built Block 37 station, which under a former concept was to house a premium version of the CTA Blue Line to O'Hare; or a new location.

"We have some thoughts, but we want to hear what the experts have to say," Andolino said. "Our biggest thing is that we don't want to stifle anybody's creativity."

In the interim, meetings are set on Gov. Pat Quinn's recent request to Amtrak for a study on what it would take to introduce O'Hare express rail service between Union Station and the O'Hare Transfer Station. Metra's North Central Service, on the Chicago-to-Antioch route, makes 11 round trips each weekday with stops at O'Hare, but it doesn't operate on weekends. In addition, Amtrak offers the opportunity to bring train travelers from other parts of the state and the country to O'Hare, officials said.

"Hopefully we will be able to put a plan together for expanded O'Hare service in the relatively near future that does not require the kind of investment that Mayor Daley's high-speed plan calls for," said Joseph Shacter, director of public and intermodal transportation at the Illinois Department of Transportation.

"Both plans are about improving choices. Ours is to do something in the much more immediate future," he said...........

[skyduster]

Originally Posted by krnboy1009

Not in most places but passenger rails are pretty important in Northeast region, and Chicagoland to a lesser extent.

But unfortunately, national politics affect areas where there is high local support for rail improvement.

In the United States, as in most countries, wealthier areas of the country such as the Northeast (especially New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut), and some Midwestern and Western states (like Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, and California) subsidize poorer areas especially the South, but also states like Arizona, Montana, and Alaska. So, when these wealthier areas ask for some of their money back to build, say, high-speed rail from Boston through NYC to Washington (DC), or to expand Chicago's and Los Angeles' metro systems, it has to go through the federal government, and the answer is always "no".

You also have some local leaders, like New Jersey's Republican governor (Chris Christie), who canceled a much-needed project to build additional rail tunnels underneath the Hudson River to connect northeast Jersey with New York City. For the NYC metro area as well as for the state of New Jersey (the majority of whose population lives within Metro NYC), this project is sorely needed, but Christie is trying to appear like a "money saver" fighting an "outmoded form of transport" to a national audience. It's quite obvious he's aiming for some sort of national office.

People in Arkansas don't understand how impractical it is for most people to enter Manhattan by car, and that millions of Jerseyites that work in Manhattan spend waaaayyy too much time commuting to work because of the limited trains that can cross the Hudson. But what they do see is Christie promoting a "Republican" mindset, and they like that, without understsanding how impractical that mindset is for the big city.

Rural areas run the country here, not the big cities. Rural areas are overrepresented in the Senate, and they're also slightly overrepresented in the House of Representatives, and they're also overrepresented in the Electoral College which decides who becomes president. The big cities are the cash cows, and they're hated for it.

[nomarandlee]

Chicago Department of Aviation

LOT Polish Airlines Announces It Will Fly New B-787 Dreamliner to Chicago O'Hare

CHICAGO, March 28, 2012 -- LOT Polish Airlines, which offers nonstop daily flights between Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Warsaw Chopin Airport, today announced it expects to begin flying the highly anticipated new Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane between Chicago and Poland's capital city in January 2013.

At a Chicago press conference, LOT CEO Marcin Pirog announced the new aircraft, which is expected to consume 15 percent to 20 percent less fuel compared with similarly sized aircraft, flies faster and is anticipated to provide passengers a more comfortable cabin experience. He said the airline will eventually replace its B-767-300 fleet with eight Dreamliner aircraft. LOT will be the first European airline to fly the Dreamliner to Chicago.

[nomarandlee]

Thanks ti Airliners.net

early O'Hare in the 60's. Now where United Terminal 1 sits.









Terminal 1 - United




Terminal 3 - American Airlines


Terminal 5 - International

[nomarandlee]

[diablo234]

[bewilder2]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

The biggest ones do tend to be fair away true. However even for the largest airports O'Hare is amongst the most distant from the city core. Then you consider that the Kennedy is Chicago's most congested expressway and I believe one of the most congested in the U.S. and its nightmare.

Look at the numbers of hours of weekly congestion compared to even the other worst commutes on the list...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-commutes.html
#9, Kennedy Expressway, Chicago
Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 712
Worst bottleneck: Westbound, I 90/I 94/Edens Expressway
Length of worst bottleneck: .2 mi
Weekly hours of congestion on worst bottleneck: 64
Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 17.2 mph


Airports to downtown(s) -

Chicago O'Hare - 19 Miles
Chicago Midway - 10 Miles
Atlanta - 8 miles
Boston Logan - 3 miles
Dallas - 17 Miles
Denver - 23 Miles (building rail to airport)
Los Angeles LAX - 17 Miles
Miami - 5 Miles
NYC-JFK - 15 Miles
NYC-LaGuardia - 8 Miles
NYC-Newark - 10 Miles
Philadelphia - 8 Miles
Phoenix - 4 Miles
San Diego - 3 Miles
San Fran (SFO) - 15 Miles
Washington DC - Reagan Airport (3 Miles) - Dulles (26 Miles)

International
London Heathrow - 14 Miles
Paris CDG - 16 Miles
Frankfurt - 7 Miles
Madrid - 6 Miles
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol - 6 Miles
Tokyo Haneda Airport - 9 Miles

By distance to prototypical spot of city center, sure. But Haneda is more like 5 miles to the urban core, being so humungous that Tokyo is.

And it isn't always linear distance. Boston can be a pain in the neck to get across the bay at rush hour. (albeit the big dig has improved flow of the entire freeway network downtown.)

I think time to city center would be a better comparison.

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by bewilder2

By distance to prototypical spot of city center, sure. But Haneda is more like 5 miles to the urban core, being so humungous that Tokyo is.

And it isn't always linear distance. Boston can be a pain in the neck to get across the bay at rush hour. (albeit the big dig has improved flow of the entire freeway network downtown.)

I think time to city center would be a better comparison.

True enough. What is not in dispute is that O'Hare can definitely be regarded as one of the farther out major airports in the world.

Couple that with the Kennedy expressway as the primary connection between O'Hare and CBD that has an obscene amount of weekly bottleneck hours and congestion as the post I linked to pointed out (the worst or second worst in the nation by some measures) and the need for an express transit for much of the world is plainly clear.

For much of the day the time to the Loop to O'Hare is an hour if not 1 and half hours in absolutely dead stop clogged traffic that goes on for miles.

[diablo234]

Air Berlin is set to start nonstop service to Berlin-Brandenburg from Chicago-O' Hare on March 23 of next year.

airberlin.com - Further USA premieres for airberlin: inaugural flight from Berlin to Chicago

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

True enough. What is not in dispute is that O'Hare can definitely be regarded as one of the farther out major airports in the world.

Couple that with the Kennedy expressway as the primary connection between O'Hare and CBD that has an obscene amount of weekly bottleneck hours and congestion as the post I linked to pointed out (the worst or second worst in the nation by some measures) and the need for an express transit for much of the world is plainly clear.

For much of the day the time to the Loop to O'Hare is an hour if not 1 and half hours in absolutely dead stop clogged traffic that goes on for miles.

Isn't there a direct rail connection to O'Hare? How long would that take and I presume that's congestion-free?