O'Hare People Mover To Be Extended
 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...ental-facility

The extension would also serve a proposed consolidated car rental facility, being built on the backs of an $8 per day fee charged to renters. But, this will take a huge amount of the hassle involved in using Parking Lot F, since it would eliminate the shuttle bus from Lot F to the ATS station in Lot E. Of course, Lot F is pretty big so there may still be a long walk to the ATS station from your car, depending on where the actual station is built. Not sure where the car rental facility will be in relation to Lot F. It would be nice to see a map of this proposed extension, but I can't immediately find one.

Given the size of the lots along Bessie Coleman, I would guess that the new rental facility would take over the entire F Lot.

Not sure what that means for overall parking. Will the Avis, Budget, Hertz, etc. lots become general parking? Will they add stops to the ATS for these new lots?

The new facility is going to be a parking garage. Not sure if it'll be just rental cars or if there will be remote parking there as well, but F as we know it will be gone by the time the ATS extension gets there

This is long overdue and should clear tons of traffic from the ORD roadways. I never understood why they didn't put a stop in the rental lots when they first created the people mover years ago.

I had to Google Zemke Road, but this is the street just to the North of the F Lot that intersects Mannheim at the light. Depending on exact location, this stop should also make the Metra station much more accessible. Hurrah!

That would be good, but with the rather limited Metra service on that route, I expect it won't boost ridership all that much. Even with a one-seat People Mover ride, it would still hardly be a more attractive option than the Blue Line CTA route for getting to/from downtown. Now, if you happen to live along that Metra route further out in the 'burbs, then the easier connection would be most welcome, assuming the limited schedule met your travel needs.

Yeah, just checked the Metra Schedule and the trip runs just over 30 minutes from Union Station. CTA Blue line is about 30-45, depending on where in the Loop you board, and it takes you right the the terminals. Looks like CTA still wins from downtown, but this could be an improvement if coming from the burbs.

The schedule is so limited - no weekend and very few trains outside of rush hour - that I have never used it, even though there's a Metra station within 15 min walk from my suburban house.

Lots of benefits for us locals including eliminating all those car rental shuttles and congestion, in addition to the Metra connection. When leaving my office in the Loop during rush hour, the Metra is my preferred method to get to ORD. Environmentally friendlier, I'm sure.

The ATS will get significantly busier. It is usually full particularly in the afternoon and early evening with folks transiting between T1, T2, T3 and T5. With several thousand additional riders per day for rental, they are going to have to substantially increase service and number of cars to keep up with the demand.

One benefit is that they'll have to run more trains later into the evening. I've waited close to 20 minutes which won't be acceptable to the rental companies.