Page No.7

September 27,2010

Chicago Tribune

Red Line stretch, Residents still hopeful CTA will extend service to far South Side

Even in time of belt-tightening and dreams deferred, a long-sought CTA project is in the works, offering the promise of improved transportation and economic rebirth for poorly served Chicago communities. In the late 1960s, when the Red Line was extended south along the middle of the Dan Ryan Express way to 95th Street, the plan never was to stop there. Just as the north branch of the Red Line touches Evanston at Howard Street, the goal was to build out the CTA's longest route to Chicago's southern border. But for more than four decades, 95th Street has been as far as this train goes, leaving the Far South Side with no rail connections to the rest of the city and adding to the hardships of already disadvantaged neighbourhoods. It has been a constant frustration for South Seders, especially irritating when talk bubbles up at City Hall, as it did again recently, about introducing premium express-train service to O'Hare, which already is served by the Blue Line. "Transit has always been denied to our community." said John Paul Jones of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago ."But a new process is beginning that will make it much easier and safer for people to get to work, school and hospitals, and for businesspeople to develop commercial plans for housing and retail around new stations on the Red Line extension."Under the CTA's plans, four new stations would be built-at 103rd,111th,116th and 130th streets-mostly along the Union Pacific Rail-road right of way. Two options are under review for the location of the 130th Street terminus. Using federal seed money, the transit agency is starting work on a draft environmental impact study, which the Federal Transit Administration requires as part of the CTA ultimately receiving a federal full- funding grant agreement. If the project is fast-tracked, as supporters hope, construction on the estimated $1.4 billion extension could begin within the next several years and be completed as quickly as 2016, depending on the availability of money, CTA officials said. The projected cost, in inflation-adjusted dollars, includes relocating the existing CTA rail yard that is beyond 95th Street to vacant land in the area of 120th Street and Cottage Grove.

In my opinion that project is very good for many people who take the train.