Copyright 2000 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Chicago
Sun-Times
November 07, 2000, TUESDAY, Late
Sports Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 512 words
HEADLINE:
First suburb-to-suburb Metra line gets study
BYLINE: BY
ROBERT C. HERGUTH AND CHRIS FUSCO
BODY:
Plans to
open two new commuter rail lines, including one that would become Metra's first
suburb-to-suburb route, are inching forward.
A study that is about to
begin will try to determine who would ride the trains and how land around the
lines would be developed.
"This is significant," said Linda Bolte, an
administrator at a regional planning organization, the Chicago Area
Transportation Study. "They are taking those steps . . . to see if the projects
merit actual implementation." One proposed commuter line would link Waukegan and
Joliet, among other towns, by using the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway
freight tracks.
The other line would use Indiana Harbor Belt and Belt
Railway Co. tracks between Midway Airport and the O'Hare Airport stop of Metra's
North Central Service Line.
Neither new route would go downtown, but
both would intersect with existing Metra lines that do. There is no money for
construction, which could top $ 1 billion for the outer route and $ 350 million
for the inner route.
But devising ridership forecasts is important
because they are needed if the projects are to be included in the region's next
long-range plan -- for 2030, Bolte said. Inclusion is necessary to get
federal money.
Planners will begin working on the 2030 document within
the next few months, and the ridership information must be submitted within a
couple of years.
Though the projects are on course to compete for
federal dollars, they are being grouped together in a market study that will try
to identify the types and numbers of people that would use them. The RTA will
bankroll most of its $ 250,000-plus cost, with towns along both corridors
sharing the rest.
A key element, RTA Principal Analyst Joe Moriarty
said, will be determining how people would transfer between the proposed lines
and existing Metra routes.
The study also will target potential riders'
behaviors, including how far they're willing to walk from train stations to
their jobs, or how long they would wait for shuttle buses to take them there.
The market study will dovetail with land-use studies for each potential
line. Those studies each will cost about $ 250,000.
All three studies
should start early next year with a goal of ending by summer 2002. The
information will be used to better estimate daily ridership and construction
costs.
The lines would serve strikingly different markets. The EJ&E
would serve new or developing business and residential corridors. The other
would be a catalyst for reviving several older suburbs in west Cook County.
"The potential rail line could provide the transportation link that
fuels economic development," said Beth McCluskey, council liaison for the North
Central Council of Mayors, which is pushing the O'Hare-Midway line.
Metra spokesman Frank Malone said the biggest variable in the equation
remains the freight railroad industry.
"We don't own one foot of any of
the track under consideration for these projects," he said. "There are multiple
railroads involved, each with their own legitimate market interests."
GRAPHIC: MAP; see microfilm.
LOAD-DATE: November 08, 2000 
