RAIL PROGRESS
City taking steps to make Rahm’s dream of high- speed rail between downtown and O’Hare a reality
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is forging ahead with plans to provide high- speed rail service between downtown and O’Hare Airport but steering clear of the Block 37 superstation his predecessor spent $ 200 million to build.
“There are a couple of alternative routes we believe have merit. I’m not at liberty to discuss them. But we have determined fairly clearly that Block 37 is not a feasible terminus,” Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans said Friday.
“It would completely disrupt the existing CTA service that uses that area. Even to get into that space, you have to use those rails lines on either side of it. Trains entering and exiting create conflict.”
Emanuel has characterized high- speed rail from downtown to O’Hare as an economic “game changer” and a must for an international city.
Now, he’s turning that talk into action in hopes of delivering progress on the project during a second term and coordinating it with O’Hare’s ongoing gate expansion and terminal remodeling.
Next week, Evans will ask a “world- class engineering firm very knowledgeable about airport transit systems” to spend 10 months analyzing alternative routes, developing conceptual designs and finalizing a cost estimate and timeline.
That study will determine whether the Kennedy Expy. corridor is the most desirable route, whether Evans’ idea of building a second deck above the CTA’s Blue Line is feasible or whether an alternative route in the West Loop will get the nod.
It will also determine the location for a new or modified downtown station and whether it makes sense to build a station on the way to O’Hare.
“If an intermediate station helps the business proposition, it’s possible there could be one, but not many. The idea is to have true express service,” the commissioner said.
Already, the city has asked a “pre- qualified pool” of companies with existing city contracts to submit potential designs for the project. Three proposals have been delivered, including futuristic renderings of what a high- speed rail station at O’Hare might look like, potentially built around the O’Hare control tower near the O’Hare Hilton.
“Typically, the airport finds a way to provide the on- airport station. And the general rule is that fares pay operations and maintenance costs,” Evans said.
Evans said she’s confident business travelers would be willing to pay a premium fare — in the $ 25- to-$ 35 range — for express service that would whisk them between downtown and O’Hare in 20 or 25 minutes. That’s roughly half the time it takes to take the Blue Line.
“I pushed some of my lawyer and banker friends to take the Blue Line. They want a quiet space where they can talk on the phone and pull out a lap top. They want to keep working. They’re traveling on expense accounts. They’re willing to pay a little bit more to be productive en route,” she said.
Former Mayor Richard M. Daley once hoped to persuade Chinese investors to build a high- speed rail system to O’Hare that would originate from the Block 37 super- station the CTA spent more than $ 200 million to build.
It never happened, leaving the underground station looking like little more than an unfinished basement.