I’m not sure there are that many people who transfer from the BNSF to Milw or UP Metra lines to warrant a through train.
For a brief period, in the Fall-Winter 1975-6 schedule, there was also a Turboliner run-through between Milwaukee and Detroit.
From the article: “At its Meeting today, the Metro board approved environmental studies for the Link US Union Station run-through tracks project.”
What exactly does that mean?
These environmental studies – are they just the first round?
I’m always leery when something like this is announced. How long will environmental lawsuits delay things? The way things go today, one lawsuit and one judge can seemingly stall a project for years.
Hopefully that doesn’t happen.
Based on what I have read elsewhere and I am by no means an expert. However, they have to complete an EIS before any major rail project it seems. I suspect the EIS hearings on Milwaukee to Chicago is what held up the 3 additional trains that Amtrak wants to add. EIS usually take 18 months on average (no opposition), some can take 2-3 years (if contested). They are a major slow down on most rail improvement projects but are required when your adding something new that wasn’t there before. I think the EIS is a waste of time in most cases as it is duplicative of processes already in place.
Basically you complete an EIS report, then schedule and hold hearings on it. There are rules on the advertising the announcement of the hearing location date and time that it has to be in a place so a good chunk of the population can see the announcement as well. Like posted on station windows, in a local newspaper, via press release, etc.
Hopefully, whatever is planned for Los Angeles Union Station will not destroy its beauty. It is my favorite station.
I have spent many hours in the main waiting room’s comfy chairs reading while waiting for my train. Equally pleasurable has been the outdoor areas on either side of the main waiting room.
The station was completed in 1939, the year that I was born. I hope that it will be around long after I am gone.
Maybe so, Charlie, but it would improve capacity.
And some traffic would develop. Especially if marketed.
There are employment locations outside the Chicago CBT.
Re-negotiation of labor agreements may be required before through runs could be established through CUS, especially since BNSF operates the Aurora line on a purchase-of-service agreement.
Does anybody consider the fact that EIS delays cause the cost of the project to go up?
In some magazine article I read the author was quite vehement that the correct name was Los Angles Union Passenger Terminal.
It was never that. Although I have seen clips from a television broadcast that said it originated from “Los Angles”, I suspect it was the work product of someone either academically or grammatically challenged. [:D] Might as well call it after Our Lady of the Postage-Stamp Plot (in homage perhaps to all the zero-lot-line construction since) as that’s more accurate… but I doubt that will catch on too well. (Note how I avoid video reference to ‘queen of the double-wide trailer’)
The term “LAUPT” ceased to be used when Catellus did the rebuild in the '90s. It’s officially been LAUS for a long time now.
I have the book, The Last Of The Great Stations. LAUPT is mentioned several times throughout the book even into the Amtrak era.
Most folks always called it Union Station from the beginning, but it officially became Los Angeles Union Station about 2009.
Re: Does anybody consider the fact that EIS delays cause the cost of the project to go up?
Why, it’s almost like a plot to enrich consultants and … (oh, wait, sorry… I almost gave the scam away… Just ignore what I said.)
The EIS requirement was included in the National Environmental Policy Act when it was first enacted in 1973.
They do increase costs and in many cases are redundant. You know they have to do a EIS just for adding a new Amtrak train to an existing Amtrak route. They have to do one for the second Chicago to Twin Cities Empire Builder route for the second train there. The last remaining steps are an EIS and operational plan submitted together and then when approved they can seek federal funding.
In the case of the Second Empire Builder funding was denied by first Minnesota and then Wisconsin for this year 2019. Both states said they would try again in their next year respective legislature sessions. MN will try again in 2020, I am not sure when Wisconsin’s legislature meets again. State subsidy for first year start up and operation was to be $10 million from each state (MN & WI). Rough projected ridership 155,000 per year. Final ridership forecast was to be in operational plan.
I recall a TV program about Union Station in the early 70s which was about how it was used in the Barbra Streisand movie, “The Way We Were.” It dealt with the lonely station master who remembered the great trains back in the day, the era that the movie depicted and how it was all over. People don’t take trains anymore and Union Station was a ghost town and there he was, still on the job. Oh the irony. I never saw that film but I do own a copy of “Union Station” with William Holden- it’s as classic a film as was ever made. There are scenes on the Chicago freight subway too, but I think we all know that.
There may be some overlap between an EIS and, as an example, an engineering study, but both may be done by the same engineering firm, so the cost should only be for the incremental printing. An EIS is the price you pay for participatory democracy. It also may find problems that would be more costly to fix when discovered later.
The main concern in our opinion is .-------How earth quake resistant will the viaduct over the free way be designedto ? And remember there are several different quakes each with its unique quake shaking.
Good point, which those anti-regulation types like Privara tend to overlook.
So far I have faith in the engineering firms (and sometimes Caltrans) that build and retrofit highways here in Cali. Every major quake teaches a new lesson and construction improves; fortunately we can call on contractors like C.C. Myers to fix things when disasters happen.
IIRC building codes do not apply to railroad construction so thorough reviews (EIS or other) overseen by the gov’t are appropriate. They also may not apply to certain Privara compatible towns in Texas where homes were damaged by a fracking related magnitude two earthquake - WTH?
When I travel east of here I’m astonished at the spindly construction of some of the elevated roadways. A random wayward semi-truck or the next New Madrid fault event probably will bring them down.