When I rode the Red Line from Uptown to downtown during the morning rush last week, my rail car was as packed as a sardine can by the time we left the Belmont stop. Damon Lockett, a copywriter who commutes daily from Edgewater to River North, told me that overcrowded trains are typical during peak hours nowadays.
The flyover, and the rest of the modernization plan, recently got the federal go-ahead after passing an environmental review by the Federal Transit Administration. Construction could start as early as late 2017. But hurdles to the project remain: the CTA still needs to find $1.9 billion in funding for the first phase of plan, and many central Lakeview residents are bitterly opposed to the flyover, which would require the demolition of 16 buildings.
In addition to increasing rush-hour capacity, Chase says, the flyover would eliminate the crossing delays that affect at least 40 percent of Red, Purple, and Brown Line trains.
But the CTA stands by the project’s necessity. “We’ve always talked about it being about the capacity as well as the congestion,” Chase says.
The price of the bypass, originally stated as $320 million when the city announced the initiative in 2014, was bumped up to $570 million last year, because the scope was expanded to include new signals and reconstruction of nearby track structures. The latter would involve straightening a curve in the Red and Purple Line tracks between Roscoe and Newport, increasing maximum train speeds.
But with the number of additional new trips made possible by the flyover, the $570 million price tag breaks down to just $2.65 per additional ride when spread over two decades.
