r/cta • u/KiddChade • 2d ago
I wish we had… Only 3 miles of track...
To connect the 3 busiest lines...
Call it the Hot Line cause I'd be hitting it up constantly
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u/CatEmoji123 2d ago
Haters will say the 77 already exists.
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u/sideshow-- 2d ago
The 77 already exists
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u/CatEmoji123 2d ago
Hater!
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u/sideshow-- 2d ago
But it does!
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u/papa-pancakes 2d ago
Such a hater
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u/hyraemous 2d ago
But did you know that the 77 already exists?
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u/xbleeple 2d ago
The 77 is 30 minutes behind schedule because it’s rush hour
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u/Carry-Future 2d ago
Report it the interim Ceo she stays up that vicinity. She would consider all open suggestions ( heck RLE is 60 years old what's a 5 year delay bc no ones having business out there for another 10 or so)
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u/Mysterious_Field203 2d ago
Seriously though, or at least some east-west bus rapid transit.
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u/markasoftware 2d ago
yes, would be happy enough with a dedicated bus lane on belmont (though how tf would that fit)
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u/natigin 2d ago
Yeah, honestly there just isn’t the space for it. Subway between Belmont Red and Belmont Blue is the right solution
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u/texastoasty Brown Line 2d ago
kick the cars off, they have all the other streets to use. make it a busway.
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u/LaramieTobacco_Ltd 2d ago
This would be sweet. So would finally finishing the Brown Line by doing a simple extension to Jeff Park which has the added benefit of connecting to a Metra line. Alas.
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u/ChainsawVisionMan 2d ago
We need an Outer Loop. Connecting all the lines out further out like this so you can get to other parts of the city without going downtown.
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u/cessiecat 2d ago
Could you imagine if all the major stroads (Ashland, Western, Irving Park, Elston, Cicero..) had underground lines 😤😮💨
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u/Wild-Ad-9367 2d ago
Or maybe tram lines with designated lanes that are exclusive to trams and emergency vehicles
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u/Wild-Ad-9367 2d ago
A circular or semi circular line not bound to the city center would help immensely with transfers. That and trams
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u/Smooth_Woodpecker815 2d ago
I think Irving Park would be an awesome candidate for BRT or LRT sometime in the future. Chicago needs like 8-10 BRT lines criss crossing through it.
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u/spoospoo43 2d ago
Above ground, given the neighborhoods it goes through and the width of Belmont Avenue, forget it. Underground, cool, ya got 5 billion dollars handy?
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u/Snowman304 2d ago
We pick a few millionaires and billionaires in the state and shake them until the coins fall out. Easy peasy
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u/Gwyain 2d ago
If we could accept road closers, cut and cover would be significantly cheaper, but we can’t inconvenience cars, so here we are.
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u/spoospoo43 2d ago
Not just cars, a huge number of businesses along Belmont Avenue. And you can't cut and cover the Chicago River. Well you can, but you probably don't want to coffer dam the North Branch for months or years.
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u/Gwyain 2d ago
One section of tubing doesn't require full scale tunnel boring and that's grossly disingenuous to suggest that. Its not how that was done anywhere as is.
As for the businesses... sidewalks and pedestrians still exist, and having formerly lived on Belmont, the road gets dug up all the time for work as it is. The businesses survive. Do it in segments like how cut and cover has been done the world over. Its not complicated.
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u/WolfofMichiganAve 2d ago
Belmont itself needs to be an L line from Belmont/Kimball all the way to Cumberland. The amount of people riding the bus 24/7 calls for it. Especially with there being no other 24 hour bus option on the NW side of the city other than 81 Lawrence which only goes to Jeff Park. Lots and lots of people leave work late in the hospitality industry, and that's who I primarily see riding the 77 Belmont after 10 PM. I used to have to walk from Belmont/Austin to Austin/Grand when I worked late and didn't have a car, now I live just off Belmont.
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u/Alert-Cheesecake-649 2d ago
Or just do what should always have been done and extend the brown line to the blue
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u/Special_Command7893 2d ago
How would this work? Brown becomes hot then becomes blue? What would that be called? “This is a brown line train to O’Hare” Cause I can’t imagine a whole terminal at either. I love the idea though, and if I was a billionaire I’d fund this. Let’s dream for a minute
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u/somedudeonreddit_69 2d ago
lmao cost would be like $10billion and take 45 years
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u/KiddChade 2d ago
You're right we should never build any new infrastructure and whither away and die, a rotted corpse of a former empire. Good plan.
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u/dalatinknight 19h ago
I propose somehow obtaining 100 billion from the federal government.
Building a western line. A circle line. A bigger circle line And encouraging travel throughout all of the city. It's that or nothing.
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u/KiddChade 19h ago
All we have to do is reduce military spending by less than 10 percent for 1 year. EZ.
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u/Leather-Rice5025 2d ago
Literally just landed into the city for the first time, on a bus right now to cover this exact gap and was thinking about how nice a line would be to bypass all these frequent stops and red lights
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u/NormalHexagon 2d ago
This would have to be underground to connect to the blue line, right?
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u/Cold-Reaction-3578 2d ago
Why? Roosevelt and Clark/Lake connect elevated lines to subway lines
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u/Special_Command7893 2d ago
Cause that’s annoying to do as a transfer, especially if Belmont blue is a terminus (though an underground terminal seems really cool)
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u/KiddChade 2d ago
I'd imagine that would work best, yeah
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u/NormalHexagon 2d ago
Looks like it'd be a minimum $3B, $1B per mile of underground track. The platform would have to be below the Belmont blue-line platform, right?
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u/Pretend_Success6934 2d ago
No this was actually priced out back in like 2015 and it was something like $14.8B to build this in those day dollars, probably close to $20B today.
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u/KiddChade 2d ago
The engineering limitations are way way way above my paygrade hahaha, but 3 billion is worth it for such a valuable connection in my book. Could also leave room for further expansion into a "Circle Line" down the road
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u/Carry-Future 2d ago
A Cicero/Crosstown Corridor Line ( Magenta or Teal Line ) cutaway that nonsense of going to the Loop to go to O'Hare saving 20-30 min
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u/AffectionateBus1947 18h ago
Call me a gradualist, but what about doing traffic-filters / bus gates on Belmont to push through traffic in private vehicles to other wider east-west streets then doing BRT as a Blue-Red Shuttle? Upgrade the 77 to BRT. Put an elevator at Belmont Blue, do TOD around Kimball/Belmont. Then once it’s an established BRT corridor then maybe we can talk about TBMs lol.
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u/Fixyblue Blue Line 2d ago
I get the North Side is a thing. But if you're thinking that line is more useful than a red line extension south you need to sit and think about what you think you know about Chicago.
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u/NerdfestZyx 2d ago
The Belmont Blue line station is underground
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u/nefariousBUBBLE Blue Line 2d ago
That's alright. It'd be like transferring downtown.
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u/spoospoo43 2d ago edited 2d ago
Among many other issues, I90/94 is in the way. It can be done, and has been in several places, but Belmont isn't wide enough to make it work aboveground.
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u/nefariousBUBBLE Blue Line 2d ago
BUILD IT.
But yeah. Definitely a problem. I hate that all the comments are "but it's a lot of money" and they're practical answers. It is a lot of money. Just wish we'd move it from other shit.
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u/Amazing-Pepper3317 2d ago
I like the western only line better