Re: Western Avenue Subway
Posted by:
Jeff_Weiner
()
Date: September 20, 2015 08:42PM
PKDickman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How long ago are you talking about?
>
> Early on in Circle line planning, using Western
> was one of the options.
> As far as I can tell, even back then, the fix was
> in to use Ashland. It still continues with the BRT
> plans.
>
> Up here in my section, we argued hard that a route
> from the Armitage station, past Clybourn station
> and down Western was a more effective option, The
> only shortcoming would be the need for a new
> Western ave stop on Lake St.
>
> Although, even then, I thought a better investment
> would be connecting the two airports with a line
> along the freight ROW that runs NS over in the K
> streets.
The original article ran in 1915, I think, and I may have seen something that was from 1920 about it. Can't be sure without having my hands on the reprints, so if anyone knows of any online archives, maybe I can find it.
The line you speak of is mostly the Belt Railway of Chicago. I don't know how much traffic it see these days, but when I was a kid on the SW Side, it was fairly active. Since one of the proposed routes for the Crosstown Expressway appeared to wipe that line out, I have to wonder what would replace it. Now, if the right-of-way is wide enough, it might be possible to run a rapid transit line side-by-side with the freight tracks at the same grade, although it would probably be better if the L was, well, elevated above the BRC trackage.