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Chicago TransitAuthority to close South Red Line for five months next year
Would this have been necessary with proper Maintenance? Seems like there must have been a better way.
It’s not a case of maintenance.
The entire track structure (rails, ties, and ballast) is now almost 40 years old and needs to be replaced.
Hard part is trying to do the work while running a 24/7 railroad.
Easier to just completely shut it down for 5 months apparently.
I am not at all impressed with the quality of the initial building of this part of the CTA transit system if it needs to be completely replaced in 40+ years. There are other parts of the system alot older that have much better stood the test of time. Perhaps poor maintenance is a part of the problem, but if I recall correctly some fairly intensive work has been done on this route in the past so maybe this is more money and time being spent again for less than a quality job.
To hear the protests, weeping and gnashing, cries of discrimination, etc. coming from the affected Red Line patrons, you’d think that closing the service for a five month overhaul is the world’s greatest transportation injustice. Funny, I didn’t hear the same nonsense when the CTA Green Line was shut down in the 1990’s for overhaul for over TWO YEARS.
Couldn’t they have done this segmentally by going to single track temporarily in a few locations and do the work on the crossovers and switches at a less intrusive time on nights or weekends?
Great idea, improve the Red Line, along one of the busiest Highway corridors, expressways through the city. Easier access for more people to take public transportation, rather than drive on the expressway to/from Chicago. Tough part is the timetable. Maybe 24 x 7 work shifts could be implemented, to shorten schedule from 5 years. Just a thought. I hope to see minimum of 16 hour x 5 day schedules though.
When I first commented I recalled some work having previously being done on the Dan Ryan line so I went back to check out the specifics. It turns out that an almost complete rebuilding was done between 2002 and 2006 while continuing with active operations. This line had all of the original concrete ties replaced with what was supposed to be 100 year wood ties along with a major upgrade of the power system including new third rail and new and rebuilt sub-stations. Also extensive work was done to deal with major defects in the original stations. They actually built bi-pass tracks in part of the highway space to allow for continued operations. This has to be a classic case of throwing good money after bad in the way that Chicago often does business.