An ongoing discussion led by the Midwest High Speed Rail Association on creating a modern, high-speed passenger rail network. We also discuss national and international transportation policy.
Meanwhile, this past Thursday, May 6th, Amtrak CEO, Joseph Boardman appeared on Fox Business to reaffirm Amtrak's role in the national transportation landscape.
"Union Station is a poor candidate to serve as a high-speed rail hub.
Despite the soaring image of its barrel-vaulted Great Hall, the passenger concourse east of the hall is confusing and confining, a warren trapped within the structural columns that hold up the office building above it. Going forward, Union Station lacks adequate space to marshal more passengers and handle more trains. Nor does it connect to the Chicago Transit Authority’s express service to O’Hare. Its fundamental problem, though, is that it isn’t really a station. It’s a terminal.
Almost all of Union Station’s tracks, whether northbound or southbound, stop at the station instead of running straight through. That’s no good if you’re a high-speed rail passenger traveling, say, from Milwaukee to Cincinnati. You’d have to change trains in Chicago. Who has time for that? You’d fly instead."
Today, the Tribune's Blair Kamin reported on the Amtrak sponsored contest to redevelop Chicago's Union Station, one of Amtrak's most valuable assets, for the first time since it's 1992 renovation by Lucien Lagrange Architects of Chicago. The firms chosen to compete are:
Today's announcement arrives on the heels of last week's TIGER grants, which will support high impact CREATE programs, such as the 75th Street Corridor project, that will shift Metra SouthWest Service trains to LaSalle Street station in order to free up Union Station for increased Amtrak and Metra service.
You can help the cause for a modernized Union Station by sending an email to Mayor Daley, via the Midwest HSR Association's proposal for Union Station as Chicago's downtown airport.
The Chicago Tribune's Blair Kamin examines an Architectural point of view of high speed rail in the midwest and making stations "proud gateways", rather than "eyesores."
Discussed are upgrades to Chicago's Union Station and "the proposed $2 billion West Loop Transportation Center under Clinton Street, which would connect Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center with CTA buses and rail lines, Pace buses and high-speed rail."
The article goes on to state, "When the first members of the team emerged from Penn Station on the corner of 32nd Street and Eighth Avenue, they were greeted by a couple of Phillies fans. Their voices were soon overtaken by more lusty locals chanting, “Let’s go, Yankees.”"
What a shrewd move it would be for Amtrak and Major League Baseball, the NHL, the NBA and possibly the NFL, to utilize Amtrak for travel and marketing purposes. Hannah Kirkner, a native Philadelphian living in New York, was delighted to see her team on a Manhattan sidewalk. “It’s very representative of our city to take the train. It’s so human.”
Hannah is absolutely right! Making players accessible to their fans in a great public space like a train station is a win-win-win for the sport, the fan and the profile of passenger rail. Imagine Cardinal fans greeting their team in Chicago's Union Station as they arrive for a series against the Cubs, or Twins fans wishing their team well before leaving from St. Paul's Union Depot before a divisional series against the White Sox.
Professional and collegiate sports are a key part of American culture, especially in the Midwest. Amtrak/passenger rail must become a larger part of our culture and a stronger public relationship with major athletics is an excellent place to start.
The Association of American Railroads, Federal Highway Administration, Illinois Department of Transportation and Chicago Department of Transportation recently agreed to modify the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) program to meet Canadian National’s needs.
The parties eliminated the full Central Corridor between CN’s Waukesha and Chicago subdivisions because CN no longer requires the route after acquiring an alternate corridor through the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway transaction.
Major portions of the Central Corridor’s southern half will be retained to provide a new direct route — over the NS Chicago Line — for Amtrak trains traveling from New Orleans and Carbondale to Chicago Union Station. The route portions will minimize impacts to Amtrak and freight trains already using the line, according to CREATE organizers, who are seeking federal stimulus dollars for the more than $1.5 billion program. The program calls for developing one passenger-rail and four freight-rail corridors to reduce train delays, relieve rail and highway congestion, shorten commuters' travel times, and improve Chicago’s environment and public safety.
Second only to the safety and efficiency that rail travel offers passengers is the sense of awe that can humble any one of us when entering the grand station of a major city and looking up at it's vaulted ceiling, while surrounded by massive Corinthian columns. Entering or exiting a city through any portal that astounds you with it's beauty and sheer size is just part of what makes rail travel not only enjoyable, but in many ways magical.
However, as important as large stunning train stations are, the location of them in the middle of our downtowns and connectivity to local mass transit is just as crucial. A beautiful station can be an inspiring beginning or end to any interstate journey or daily commute as long as the traveler takes the train in the first place. Trains are appealing for their ability to deliver you right to the city center of your choice. A city's main train station on the outskirts of town might as well be an airport that leaves you needing yet another form of transportation to get to the heart of the city. Planners and Legislators must keep this in mind when selecting the main station for each city along the Midwest's High Speed route and the people of St. Paul, Minnesota have done just that!
Below is a great video from OnBoard Midwest about utilizing the grandeur and central location of the St. Paul Union Depot and it's connectivity to the Twin Cities' light rail system that will carry travelers right to their metropolitan destination.
Excellent location and an inspiring station. CONGRATS citizens of the Twin Cities!
Other Midwestern cities with beautiful stations in central locations are: Chicago (Union Station needs connectivity to the CTA and nearby Ogilvie Transportation Center)
Milwaukee and it's beautiful new Milwaukee Intermodal Station (renovated in November 2007) is right along the Menomonee River in downtown and walking distance from Marquette University.
Honorable mention: Cincinnati (Cincinnati Union Terminal, although now a museum now with active tracks behind it, has one of the most beautiful facades of any station in the country)
Cleveland (the current Amtrak station is not much to look at, but the location is terrific with Cleveland Browns Stadium, the Rock & Roll HOF and the water front all within walking distance)
St. Louis (St. Louis Union Station is a stunning building that is unfortunately now a hotel and shopping mall instead of a train terminal, however I should be grateful that it is still standing and being used)
Love or hate the 2016 Olympics, they'll leave Chicago and the Midwest in better shape
Yes, I am not a fan of the slogan "Let Friendship Shine" either, but I am in favor of the lasting impact the 2016 Olympics could have on Chicago and the Midwest as a whole.
In late April of this year, the Chicago Tribune reported on a massive $15.5 billion plan to rejuvenate and expand transportation, parks and commercial space downtown. Besides fixing the glaring problem of no CTA trains directly connecting to the Ogilvie Transportation Center or Union Station, the plan would also provide a train from the United Center to Millennium Park via Monroe St. The real key would be connecting Ogilvie and Union Station, which are only 2 blocks apart, so that passengers could easily transfer between the stations without having to face the fantastic weather that Chicago is notorious for most of the year.
The Olympics and Chicago will make big money, not on parking garages, but on accommodating as many visitors as possible from the surrounding Midwestern states, the rest of the country and the world (Thank you O'Hare) in a clean and walkable city that is not choked with traffic jams, but bustling in, out and all over with fast, expansive and seamlessly integrated public transportation, including one of my favorite proposed projects, the CTA Circle line.
When the Olympics pack up their big top and head back to Copenhagen, Chicago will be left with just that. A fast, expansive and seamlessly integrated public transportation network that serves not only the City of Big Shoulders, but all travelers and freight coming to or passing through Chicago.
I am not ecstatic about the crowds or craziness that the 2016 Olympics could reign down upon Chicago and it's fair citizens, but for tolerating one wild summer, Chicago and the entire region could be rewarded with billions of dollars of lasting infrastructure improvements that must hit an immovable deadline, rather than so many worthy public works projects that keep getting pushed further and further down the line -- I'm am looking at you 2nd Ave Subway.
Support Chicago's bid for the 2016 Games... even if you don't plan on being here for them.
As they say, BACK THE BID (If you live in Chicago, please email your Alderman if nothing else)
