They say there is no “Conspiracy to keep White and Black transit riders
separated”. Well, current Red Line Extension plans certainly make it seem like
that.

I just don’t understand how CTA can plan to cross the Metra Electric District
Mainline just south of Kensington/115th, and then run immediately adjacent to
the South Shore Line rails to 130th St.; and yet if I am interpreting the plans
correctly, there will be no interchange station (between CTA, Metra, and/or
South Shore) anywhere on the extension.

Is this an oversight? (unlikely)

Too costly (this should be a REALLY BIG extension priority).

Racist Conspiracy (I would want to choose not to believe that – but I am
admittedly quite naive and Obsessive Compulsive Quixotic).

Transit Operators planning ahead to protect their own little fiefdoms, and RTA
not exercising planning oversight authority (Hit the Nail Right on The Head).

And since CTA and Metra MUST have worked together on big joint station
intertransfer projects like at (mostly White) Jefferson Park on the NW Side, and Harlem/Marion in (fairly diverse) west suburban Oak Park; so what’s going on (or isn’t going on) here in the (mostly Black) South Side community of Roseland??

I have plans for a Kensington Transit Center: bit.ly/KensingtonTC in that
area, which would provide for rider intertransfers; and would create a transit
and job engine for that now depressed area, on vacant non tax-generating land.

Just like the lawsuit filed earlier this week, here is a planning defect that
should be corrected long before construction even starts; instead of a lawsuit
being filed about it later. But do you think they’ll listen – NO WAY – and this
is just exactly how racially motivated lawsuits start.

Somebody on this fine board please analyze this situation for me, and please
tell me if I’m wrong?

But it’s been very helpful to me in understanding who Obama is and where he comes from. The book is one of the most thoughtful and honest things I’ve ever read from a politician.

Either would allow for much better connectivity to Indiana by linking to South Shore Line trains. Red Line and South Shore Line reverse-peak service would provide car-free access from the Far South Side to what jobs are left in Indiana.

Kensington, which already has two Metra Electric branches, South Shore service, and three daily Amtrak trains each way passing through without stopping (sigh), would make an ideal transit hub for transit-oriented development. It needs improvements anyway in order to merge South Shore Line traffic, Canadian National is removing most of the freight trains from the east side — it’s ripe for redevelopment!

To minimize eminent domain *and* the problem of putting el tracks over the street (which people seem to dislike), I’d probably run the tracks on a bridge next to the UP bridge over the Metra Electric tracks, and land them on the east side, approaching Kensington from the south — by terminating on the east side from the south, a terminus without elevators could be arranged. Meanwhile the South Shore Line could get a grade-separated Kensington approach flying over or diving under this whole mess — which it badly needs anyway. This would require realigning the ‘long-distance’ CN/IC tracks, which would fit well with making a platform for them….

http://www.humantransit.org/2009/05/rail-rapid-transit-maps-to-scale.html

This seems to be a distinctly American issue.