Red-Purple Modernization

More than three dozen residents showed up for the hearing at the Center on Halsted.

At a public meeting Tuesday night, Department of Planning and Development and Chicago Transit Authority officials outlined plans for a new transit TIF district along the North Side Mainline ‘L’, which carries the Red and Purple lines. The proposed TIF (tax-increment finance district) would generate funds to help pay for the Red-Purple Modernization project.

[The Chicago Reader recently launched a weekly transportation column written by Streetsblog Chicago editor John Greenfield. This partnership allows Streetsblog to extend the reach of our livable streets advocacy. We syndicate a portion of the column after it comes out online; you can read the remainder on the Reader’s website or in print. The paper hits the streets on Thursdays.]

A new bill that passed the Illinois Senate last week would create a new class of tax increment financing district that could only be created around Chicago transit stations and lines to capture the property value that being near transit generates. Most of the revenue generated by these TIFs would be earmarked to pay for construction of rapid transit lines, stations, and other transit-related facilities.

The Chicago Transit Authority has begun a series of projects aimed at completely overhauling nearly every part of the Red (and Purple) Line, its longest and busiest rapid transit route. They call these projects "Red Ahead," and together they should dramatically improve reliability on the line, while also increasing service, adding accessible facilities to stations, and the ability to run more and longer trains.

Last night, the Chicago Transit Authority explained at a packed open house that it simply cannot run any more Red Line trains through the Clark Junction, the busy crossing one block north of the Belmont station where the Brown Line splits from the Red and Purple Lines. To untangle the crossing, CTA has proposed a flyover that would send northbound Brown Line trains over, instead of in the way of, up to three Red and Purple Line trains that pass every 3-7 minutes during rush hour. CTA spokesperson Catherine Hosinski said that previous news reports, focusing on today's average 84-second delay, miss the point: The project is about improving reliability today, and increasing Red Line service in the future.

The CTA has announced that the first phase of the Red-Purple Modernization project, which will increase the capacity of the north side's Red and Purple lines, will expand and rehab four stations in Uptown and Edgewater: Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn, and Bryn Mawr.

There was some good news last week for two of the Chicago Transit Authority's big upcoming projects. On Wednesday the Obama administration recommended the CTA’s Red & Purple Modernization project for fiscal year 2015 funding, and included the Ashland bus rapid transit corridor on a lists of transit projects for possible future funding. However, approval by Congress is no sure thing.