Great puff piece, and an accurate description of the physical plant that Metra has available. Completely omitted other than one mention of an east side bus that runs once/hour, is the poor level of service and the lack of coordination between surface and rail systems. To attract the ridership needed to justify billion dollar projects Metra will need more frequent service like every 10 minutes for a train and every 15 or 20 for a bus. My daughter's 35 minute bus commute got her to work 30 minutes early if the right bus was running; she now has a 15 minute drive that gets her there right on time even during the construction season. A lot of his TOD ideas will only be viable if the T part works for an expanded ridership. When I lived in Chicago I could walk 5 minutes to a train (CTA) station, wait no more than 5 minutes for a train, and be downtown 30 minutes later which is faster than I could drive. If Metra offered that kind of service they might attract some business.
This was a very well done, thorough, and fair review of Metrolink. Worth a watch.
This man is an amazing researcher, concerned with contexts, history, and prospects as well as with transportation strictly speaking.
For those of you as mystified by the acronym TOD as I was, it means transportation-oriented development.
Great puff piece, and an accurate description of the physical plant that Metra has available. Completely omitted other than one mention of an east side bus that runs once/hour, is the poor level of service and the lack of coordination between surface and rail systems. To attract the ridership needed to justify billion dollar projects Metra will need more frequent service like every 10 minutes for a train and every 15 or 20 for a bus. My daughter's 35 minute bus commute got her to work 30 minutes early if the right bus was running; she now has a 15 minute drive that gets her there right on time even during the construction season. A lot of his TOD ideas will only be viable if the T part works for an expanded ridership. When I lived in Chicago I could walk 5 minutes to a train (CTA) station, wait no more than 5 minutes for a train, and be downtown 30 minutes later which is faster than I could drive. If Metra offered that kind of service they might attract some business.