What’s the fastest way from O’Hare to the DNC: CTA or Metra? The race is on!

Recently, Streetsblog Chicago contributor Igor Studenkov looked at how this week's Democratic National Convention, held at the United Center and McCormick Place, is impacting sustainable transportation in the region. One of of a few benefits for transit riders is the temporary O'Hare shuttle trains that run once an hour on Metra's North Central Service line, between the airport and Chicago Union Station, scheduled as a 36-to-39-minute trip.

Started on August 12, a week before the DNC, the O'Hare shuttle will keep running until August 30. And while the NCS normally doesn't run on weekends, Metra "freight railroad partners" Canadian National and CPKC agreed to temporarily adjust their operations to facilitate Saturday/Sunday shuttles for the DNC. As these north-of-the-border-based companies might say, "Beauty, eh?"

But is the Canadian-enabled O'Hare shuttle actually "a beauty way to go" to the central city for the DNC? Streetsblog Chicago editor John Greenfield was skeptical that this Metra route would have any major benefits over the CTA Blue Line train for people headed to the conference. Granted, the O'Hare shuttle costs $3.75 each way, or $7.50 for a roundtrip, which is the same total fare as an 'L' journey from ($5) and to ($2.50) O'Hare. And the scheduled Metra ride downtown is quicker than the scheduled Blue Line trip to the Loop, which is roughly 45 minutes.

But to use the O'Hare shuttle, you need to ride O'Hare's Airport Transit System people mover from your flight terminal to the Multi-Modal Facility (it's mostly a rental car center, but it's also served by Pace and various intercity buses). And then you have walk a couple more blocks to Metra's O'Hare Transfer station to catch your train.

In contrast, from most O'Hare plane terminals, you can simply walk to the local Blue Line station. And if you want to go directly to the United Center, you can just ride the 'L' to the Illinois Medical District station and walk 0.6 miles to the conference. Or you can transfer to the Green Line at the Loop Clark/Lake station and then ride to the new Damen Green stop, which is a shorter, more pleasant walk of 0.3 miles to the stadium.

Meanwhile, the closest O'Hare shuttle stations to the United Center are at the NCS line's Western Avenue stop, 420 N. Artesian Ave, and Union Station. These are 1.3 miles and 1.9 miles away, respectively, and there's no direct transit access to the stadium. And while the DNC is paying the CTA about $2.4 million for roughly 165 shuttle buses from hotels and such to the conference (which makes sense), there's no shuttle bus service from Union Station to the conference (not so much.)

Moreover, while the O'Hare shuttle only departs the O'Hare Transfer station every hour, the Blue Line leaves its O'Hare stop much more frequently. So, unlike the NCS runs, if you miss an 'L' train, you won't be stuck waiting 60 minutes for another one.

Sensible person that he is, Streetsblog Chicago cofounder Steven Vance pointed out that most Democratic delegates probably aren't going directly from the airport to the United Center, but instead are dropping off luggage at hotels. True, but Union Station is still probably a CTA, taxi, or ride-hail trip away from their lodgings, but the several Loop Blue Line stop are located within walking distance of many hotels.

So it seemed to John that the main selling point of the O'Hare shuttle is that, thanks to onboard Metra conductors, NCS runs are generally safer, cleaner, and less chaotic than the average, largely unsupervised, Blue train. That means you're less likely to encounter annoyances or dangers, including littering, smoking, or worse – more on the latter in a bit. Another perk of Metra is that the padded seats are more comfortable that the CTA's hard, plastic benches.

But what would be the overall best way to take public transportation from O'Hare to the United Center, assuming you were taking that route? Ultimately, Igor threw down the transit gauntlet.

Fine, John responded. Two railfans enter, one railfan leaves.

Since Igor previously rode the O'Hare shuttle, he would go Blue, and John would take his first trip from the airport via the NCS line. To get to the from our trains to the stadium area, we'd have to use sustainable transportation. And since we were cosplaying visiting conventioneers with suitcase, bike-share and e-scooters were not allowed. So that required walking, buses, and other trains for our "last mile" trips to the endpoint.

Since neither of us had clearance to enter the United Center's security perimeter, we picked the nearby outpost of the legendary Billy Goat Tavern, 1535 W. Madison St., as the finish line. It's a couple blocks east of the DNC security perimeter, and it would level the playing field a bit, because Madison is only two blocks north of Union Station.

We met on Tuesday afternoon in O'Hare's Terminal 1, in the non-secured area near United's Premier Access kiosks. We parted ways at 3:20 p.m. Here's how our car-free journeys for "cheezeborgers" went.

Igor's experience on the Blue Line (He wrote this.)

I tried to approach this race as more of a casual trip. That is to say, while I couldn’t resist speed-walking to the O’Hare ‘L’ station, I didn’t sweat detouring to the restroom or checking out the firefighters union rally once I got near the United Center on my way to the Billy Goat Tavern. 

After I left Terminal 1 and arrived back at the O’Hare station, three trains were waiting, and since this was still a race, I boarded the next train scheduled to leave. It didn’t have the newer 7000-series cars, but was an older model with a bunch of double seats. I took a seat at the very last train car, because it would be closest to the Blue Line IMD station's Paulina Street exit, the closest one to the Billy Goat.  

My Blue Line train left a few minutes later, only to suddenly lurch to a stop. I thought it stopped to allow a passenger with a suitcase to board, but then the train started moving again like nothing happened, and the passenger was left standing on the platform.

While I’ve seen some Twitter chatter about ‘L’ trains being cleaner than ever for the DNC, the train I was on was pretty average. There was no garbage and no fluids - dried or otherwise. But the seats had scratches and small bits of graffiti, the windows were a little dirty, and the floor had the level of grime one might expect from a train running back and forth from the airport for several hours without frequent scrubbing.

If any other passengers were bothered by the conditions on my train, they didn’t show it. A man on the seat in front of me had his laptop out and was busy working until the train dove underground after the Addison station. Other passengers read books, used their phones, chatted, or simply looked out the window. 

It was mostly just an average trip, until we reached the Blue Line's Forest Park branch, west of the Loop. As my train pulled out of the UIC-Halsted station, I heard the driver of the O’Hare-bound train pulling away from the stop announce "At this time, we will be bypassing Western Forest Park branch [stop] due to police activity."

Today, I learned the officers were responding to an incident just before 4 p.m. that day on the platform of the Forest Park branch's Western station, the next one west of the IMD stop. A woman reportedly grabbed a phone from a man, 31, and when he tried to get it back, another man repeatedly beat him in the head with hammer. The victim was hospitalized with lacerations. As of Wednesday evening, no one was in custody.

As my train approached the Racine station, our driver repeated the announcement and advised passengers who needed to get to Western to get off at that station and catch the CTA's 7 Harrison bus. "Due to police activity at Western/Congress, all Blue Line trains will be bypassing the station," she announced. "Right now, we don’t have the buses [for] the bus shuttles available because of the DNC and all the reroutes."

After I arrived at the IMD platform and walked up to the Paulina Street exit, I saw two men with DNC badges trying to figure out the best exit to get to the United Center. I couldn’t help them, because I wasn’t sure where the entrances to the convention were.

I walked about 0.75 miles, about 15 minutes, via Paulina and Ogden avenues to the Billy Goat without any further incident, arriving at 4:48 p.m. That was almost an hour and a half after John and I parted ways in Terminal 1.

John's experience on Metra's O'Hare shuttle (He wrote this.)

This post is getting a little long, and Igor previously wrote about what it's like riding the O'Hare shuttle, so below a gallery of images from my trip, with a timeline in the captions.

Here are suggested transit routes from Union Station and the Western Avenue NCS stop to the United Center, from Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis:

• The CTA Madison bus #20 and the Jackson bus #126 run straight west from the downtown area.
• The Western bus #49 runs south from the Western Station.
• For sporting events there the CTA does usually operate their shuttle from downtown (#19).
• You could get on the CTA rail at Clinton (either Blue or Green) and ride close to the area (Illinois Med for Blue and Damen for Green).
• You could Divvy out there; there is Divvy station on Jackson just south of the UC.

I chose the first option. All of the following photos are by yours truly.

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