Originally Posted by
goodeats21
It would be nice to have all the terminals connected air side, but the biggest gain for me would be an express train from the loop out to O'Hare.
Interesting that is shown in all the drawings...
It's a crazy fantasy of Rahm's, I'm afraid. He seems convinced that lack of a Heathrow Express-type nonstop train to the Loop is what stops Chicago from being a world-class city.
But a lot of users, especially Chicago residents, aren't headed for the Loop anyway. A ride would cost $25 to $35 and take 25 minutes. (
Source.) The Blue Line costs $2.25 (leaving the city, anyway) and takes 30-35 minutes. Who's going to pay up to 15X the Blue Line fare to get there 7 minutes faster? Not enough people.
And even if you could find unencumbered right of way, the line would cost at least $1 billion Chicago has not got. It ain't happening.
On another note... the leaked high-level diagrams of potential ORD 2.0 terminal configurations sure are interesting -- especially as the majority call for T1 to be completely wiped out. And it's only 30 years old.