CTA to build new infill station on Skokie Line
With $9.2 in federal funding, the Chicago Transit Authority is going to build its first new station since the Orange Line to Midway airport was completed in 1993 - an infill station on the Skokie Swift line, a short shuttle run between (take a wild guess) Skokie and the Howard station on Chicago's northern border.
The Yellow Line station, which officials hope will be completed in 2008, is to be built downtown, just north of Oakton Street, west of Skokie Boulevard, next to the massive new Illinois Science + Technology Park.
Intermediate stops on the Yellow Line aren't a new idea, but it has been more than half a century since such service existed. In fact, the line was abandoned in 1948 and started up again as a two-stop shuttle in th 1960s as part of a federal program.
One wonders why the CTA can't run Yellow Line trains downtown on a limited basis, as they do for the Purple Line, which runs between Howard and Wilmette through Evanston, with express service to the loop during rush hours. There may be limited capacity on the loop itself, but why not run it on Red Line tracks down the State Street subway, terminating at Roosevelt? According to this track map, there is a connection at 13th Street between the subway and the Green Line el, from back before the completion of the portion that runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan Expressway. Running a rush hour express to and from Skokie, especially with this new station at the Science + Technology Park, would make a lot of sense for commuters in both directions.
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rj3 | 11:27 AM |
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Indeed, one can wonder why not, as the Skokie Swift picked up the busiest commuter stop, Dempster Street, on the late, lamented North Shore Line, which offered commuter service from Mundelein and Waukegan as well as limited train service from Milwaukee. The North Shore trains used the outer, express tracks into downtown, just as today's Evanston and Ravenswood trains did, and they terminated at Roosevelt on the elevated.
I have never been a passenger on the Skokie Swift, but I believe that its train cars get their electricity via overhead catenary wires, which would make it quite difficult to get power from third rails, like the rest of the CTA's elevated and subway lines. Assuming I'm not missing anything obvious, there's little hope of extended Yellow Line service until the Yellow Line were equipped with a third rail, or the Red Line were equipped with catenary wires.
Also, it would be impossible to run those trains express, (I think. They're may be a cross over at Wilson, although that's still a long way north) which means they'd have to take up rush hour slots used by current Red Line traffic, which would fuck south side commuters over something fierce.
Me, I'll just keep praying for the circle line.
Mike,
They've converted the Skokie Swift to third-rail power. I think it was only a few years ago.
The Swift has, indeed, been all third-rail since Labor Day weekend of 2004. Prior to that, cars changed pickup on the fly at East Prairie Road. In North Shore Line days, the changeover was accomplished by conductors raising or lowering the trolley poles (some stunt on a snowy night) and the motorman throwing a knife switch in the electrical cabinet to connect the proper collector to the resistance grids.
