Visit the CTA Gray Line Project

The Regional Planning Board will be hosting a Walkable Communities Workshop on May 18th, 2006, in the vicinity of the 71st & Stony Island Metra Electric Station: http://www.rpbchicago.org

The Gray Line Project will be a particpant: http://www.tinyurl.com/cwx8v

The public is invited, more detailed time and location information will be posted when it becomes available.



The Gray Line will also be a Poster Exibitor at the Transport Chicago Conference on June 2, 2006 at the Illinois Institute of Technology; the public is invited, please plan to attend: http://www.transportchicago.org

I've always been of the opinion that the Metra Electric mainline, at least as far south as 115 St., and the South Chicago branch, were more like an urban rapid transit than a suburban operation. Up until the late 1960s, they even ran close-to rapid tranisit type frequencies (I recall 20 min headways in weekday non-rush periods). I think that it would be a great idea to restore these lines to a rapid transit type of operation.

CTA Gray Line Website wrote:Under this proposal, CTA would pay Metra to operate the existing two-level Highliner I electric trains on rapid transit headways of every 5 to 20 minutes (depending on time-of-day, and location), through a purchase of service agreement.

That's all the CTA needs is to give away money that they can't afford to spare to fix dead spots in Metra's rail line.

I have no desire or intention of using any money at all to "fix" Metra (or CTA), the goal of the Gray Line is to attract new Resident and Commerical Development IN the communities along the line, and create new jobs WITHIN those adjacent communities.

The present Metra Electric operations loses money for Metra, and offers VERY LITTLE benefits to the communities it passes through, and it costs both Metra and CTA scarce operating moneys by having two sibling RTA Agencies running in direct competition with each other.

If you live in Chicago, and you want to help me, or tear me down; attend this Workshop and do something about it:


CATS (the Chicago Area Transportation Study) invites you to it's Walkable Communities Workshops running May 15th to 22nd, 2006.

Workshop information is available in PDF format on CATS website at:

http://www.catsmpo.com/announcements.htm or
http://www.tinyurl.com/q6sge


The May 18th South Shore Workshop will be at the ABJ Community Services Center at 1818 E. 71st St, registration starts at 1 pm and the workshop will run until 5 pm.

While the Gray Line is not part of the Program Agenda of the South Shore Workshop; there will be many question and answer periods, and a walking tour of the 71st & Stony Island area.

During those times I have been invited by CATS to describe and demonstrate how the Gray Line would operate, answer questions and criticisms, and distribute project literature: http://tinyurl.com/8j9ey


Please reply with any comments or suggestions on how to make this a more profitable event for the South Shore community; and please plan to attend and participate if you can.


Mike Payne