Goodbye Englewood, Hello CP 515 (Englewood Flyover)

[Alcochaser]

As of 10am Saturday 10/5, the remnants of Englewood (the crossovers on the NS side) were turned over to the NS as CP515.

Metra is now 100% running over the Emglewood flyover now.

Hooray Create!

[lpetrich]

▶ Metra Rock Island Englewood Flyover - YouTube -- someone's video of riding across it. The view is westward from a northbound train on the Rock Island line, with the train running left-handed. It goes over the bridge.

At 1:55, you can see I-90/94, and at 2:22, you can see the Norfolk Southern line. Toward the end of the video, the train's track departs from the west side, and one can see construction crews there, apparently for building some track there.

Audiofyl - YouTube is the channel of the videographer who took this video. That channel contains several other videos of the flyover as construction progressed.

[byte]

I saw an outbound train on the flyover yesterday during rush hour (from the Dan Ryan) operating at what seemed to be a reduced speed - maybe 30-40mph. Today, while driving in on the Ryan at about 1pm, there was a MOW crane up there. Must still be a few leftover items to finish before they can "cut the ribbon." Nice to see trains running over it though. When I used to ride the RI I remember the clattering across diamonds at Englewood being the only impediment to an extra 20 minutes of sleep on the way to work.

[doepack]

Rode inbound Rock main line rush hour train 416 over the new flyover a few days ago. A very impressive sight while looking out the front cab window, did about 35 over it by my estimation, so we didn't exactly "fly" over it.

Good to see another Chicago area rail bottleneck removed...

[ExCon90]

No doubt the ribbon-cutting will be scheduled after they locate a camera with a wide-angle lens sufficient to include all the politicians who will wish to be associated with the project.

[TrainManUPRR]

Doepack- 416 usually runs on track 1 (right hand track when going inbound) which currently has a 30mph speed restriction on it. Track 2 is currently good for 60 mph. Both tracks will eventually be good for 79mph, once the new track settles in.

[lpetrich]

▶ Metra Rock Island Englewood Flyover - Looking East - YouTube - also from a northbound train running left-handed.

At 1:00 one can see some track workers doing something to the tracks where the old ones diverge from the new ones. Adding new track? Removing old track? Some of them are using the east-side track.

At 1:26 is I-90/94.

At 1:47 is the NS line.

At 2:20 one can see where the old tracks meet the new ones. The old tracks are still present, though no longer connected. Will all the old track be removed? The NS line's crossing diamonds also?

The CREATE site has still not been updated with the Englewood Flyover news. It's project P1 at the site.

[justalurker66]

I was expecting a connection would be left ... but it appears that all is being removed.

[lstone19]

There hasn't been a connection there in a while so why would they add one? Looking at the latest Google Earth view (from 4/2013), the NS (ex-NYC) tracks parallel the Metra tracks for a short distance but there is no connection. What was still is - two railroads crossing with no way to get from one to the other.

[justalurker66]

There hasn't been a connection there in a while so why would they add one? Looking at the latest Google Earth view (from 4/2013), the NS (ex-NYC) tracks parallel the Metra tracks for a short distance but there is no connection. What was still is - two railroads crossing with no way to get from one to the other.

There was a connection 3/12/12 ... the 4/2013 update was taken after the RI mains were shifted over to clear space for the new construction.

I believe the bridge where the connection is shown cut at 60th St was filled in with the connection to the RI under the L line just south of 59th.

[lstone19]

There hasn't been a connection there in a while so why would they add one? Looking at the latest Google Earth view (from 4/2013), the NS (ex-NYC) tracks parallel the Metra tracks for a short distance but there is no connection. What was still is - two railroads crossing with no way to get from one to the other.

There was a connection 3/12/12 ... the 4/2013 update was taken after the RI mains were shifted over to clear space for the new construction.

I believe the bridge where the connection is shown cut at 60th St was filled in with the connection to the RI under the L line just south of 59th.

Interesting. And comparing the 3/12 and 4/13 views, it looks like all they did at 60th Street at that time was remove the "NYC" bridge along with two others west of the RI mains. So perhaps the connection will or already has been restored although it's not clear what benefit it would serve other than for a really unusual detour. Would be real nice to have a newer Google Earth picture of the area.

[lpetrich]

'Flyover' intended to cut Chicago rail congestion - Chicago Tribune has a picture of the flyover from the old crossover, complete with a Metra train and a Norfolk Southern one.

The flyover's completion lays the groundwork for two more CREATE projects. The planned 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project will divert trains on Metra's Southwest Service to the Rock Island District at a point south of Englewood, officials said. Also, the planned Grand Crossing Project will shift six daily Amtrak trains to Norfolk Southern tracks east of Englewood.

CREATE Press Releases and Metra Newsroom mention it also, though the Chicago Tribune article adds mention of some controversy around the contracting for building it. At CREATE's site, it's P1.

This article mentioned two related projects: the Grand Crossing (P4) and the 75th Street Corridor (P3, GS19, EW2, P2), both now in planning. The Grand Crossing involves a connection between the NS line and the CN / Metra Electric line, so that Amtrak trains will be able to switch from the CN line to the NS line, thus avoiding a time-consuming backup move at Union Station. The 75th Street Corridor involves a track connection that will enable Metra Southwest trains to use the Rock Island line to get to downtown Chicago.

[justalurker66]

This article mentioned two related projects: the Grand Crossing (P4) and the 75th Street Corridor (P3, GS19, EW2, P2), both now in planning. The Grand Crossing involves a connection between the NS line and the CN / Metra Electric line, so that Amtrak trains will be able to switch from the CN line to the NS line, thus avoiding a time-consuming backup move at Union Station.

CN-IC ... the MED has their own separate tracks ... if it were not for the NICTD South Shore there would be no connection between CN and MED (the only connection was taken out a few years ago and a different connection was added in 2011). CREATE is proposing a roller coaster (northbounds will go off to the east of the CN-IC then up, west and over the CN-IC and MED track before going down under the Skyway then back up and turn west to come up along side of the NS mainline east of CP 515). But it is better than a reverse move ...

The 75th Street Corridor involves a track connection that will enable Metra Southwest trains to use the Rock Island line to get to downtown Chicago.

There will be additional efficiencies involved. The big fix is separating the lines so they are not all intersecting at the same level.

[JLJ061]

CN-IC ... the MED has their own separate tracks ... if it were not for the NICTD South Shore there would be no connection between CN and MED (the only connection was taken out a few years ago and a different connection was added in 2011). CREATE is proposing a roller coaster (northbounds will go off to the east of the CN-IC then up, west and over the CN-IC and MED track before going down under the Skyway then back up and turn west to come up along side of the NS mainline east of CP 515). But it is better than a reverse move ...

I wonder if that would involve utilizing the old NKP overpass south of Grand Crossing, if it's still usable?

[justalurker66]

I wonder if that would involve utilizing the old NKP overpass south of Grand Crossing, if it's still usable?

That is part of the plan - although I expect the bridge will be replaced.