O’Hare Express

It looks like there may actually be some traction for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s grand plan for express rail service to O’Hare Airport. Yesterday the city announced that by March it will select an engineering team to develop conceptual designs, including routes and terminal options.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and aviation commissioner Ginger Evans stated earlier this year that creating an express train to O'Hare Airport is a priority for this administration. However, the Blue Line is already a fairly speedy way to get to the airport, which could easily be upgraded via a few short-term improvements. Therefore, the city might be wiser to invest in neighborhood transit projects, rather than creating a premium service for well-heeled travelers.

Last week's Streetblog Chicago post about Mayor Rahm Emanuel's O'Hare express train proposal struck a chord with readers, with dozens of retweets and almost 100 comments. Lots of people agreed that the existing CTA Blue Line run between the Loop and "the world's busiest airport" is already a relatively fast, high-quality service. Many readers also concurred that an airport express would be costly to build and expensive to ride, which makes the project a bad use of taxpayer money that could be better spent improving neighborhood transit.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and recently appointed aviation commissioner Ginger Evans have been calling for new, faster, premium train service from O'Hare to downtown in a bid to improve the airport's standing among its domestic and international peers. They argue that the airport is causing the city to lose business. However, while O'Hare is a low-performing facility, the existing Blue Line service isn't the airport's limiting factor.