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Ring-Around-the-Collar Transit in Chicago

This paper describes how, nearly a quarter century ago (1983), the Illinois legislature passed the Regional Transportation Authority Act which established the RTA and three service boards. The service boards are the Metra (commuter rail), the CTA (primarily Chicago and Cook county bus and heavy rail) and the Pace (suburban bus). The domain of the RTA covered Cook County and the five adjacent Illinois counties, commonly referred to as “the collar counties,” Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Kane, and Will. Since then, with only minor preexisting exceptions, the service provided under the RTA and its service boards has been limited to this six county area. Interest in enhanced transportation links from areas on the periphery of metropolitan areas has been spurred by the significant residential growth in these areas. Individuals are choosing to move to more distant communities for the greater value in housing, lower development densities and the semi-rural environments. Local leaders see these enhanced transportation connections to the nearby metropolitan area as a way to improve economic development. In the past 5 years several of the counties outside and adjacent to the RTA’s six county area, the “ring-around the collar” counties (RAC), have begun to do feasibility studies for new commuter rail service extending or connecting with Metra, and/or running commuter bus operations that feed Metra or connect with commuter bus operations. These ring studies have typically been funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation with additional local (county and municipal) contributions. Some of these projects have been ear-marked in and received funding from the SAFETEA-LU federal funding bill of 2005. These projects are now looking for longer term cost sharing funding from the state and for coordination and integration with the existing commuter services within the RTA. Several other transportation initiatives in the greater Chicago area and Illinois in general are also currently seeking or have recently received additional state funding, including: (1) State matching funds for FHWA highway construction projects; (2) Illinois intra-state passenger rail service (four Amtrak radial lines from Chicago); and (3) CREATE, a $1.6 billion upgrade to freight railroads in the greater Chicago area to improve throughput of railroad traffic. This paper summarizes the status of the Ring projects, review the related intra-state rail (Amtrak) transportation needs of super-commuters (non-daily, day trippers of 100 miles or more), discuss the issues associated with coordinating with RTA service and the freight railroads for commuter rail service, and address some of the economic, funding and market issues associated with these new Ring commuter transit services.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: CD-ROM
  • Features: Figures; Maps;
  • Pagination: 8p
  • Monograph Title: 2007 Proceedings Rail Conference

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01051817
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 1931594260
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Jun 19 2007 8:29AM