Important CTA open house for Evanston, Dec. 3 at 6:00pm

North Red and Purple Line Vision Study
Howard – Linden Purple Line

Thursday, December 3, 2009
6:00pm to 8:30pm

Fleetwood-Jourdain Center
1655 Foster Street
Evanston, IL

Tour of exhibits begins at 6:15pm

All facilities are accessible to people with disabilities.

 

Forums:

Further to Ald. Tendam's announcement of the CTA's Open House, I would urge every Evanstonian to attend this open house to voice their concerns about the need to correct the deplorable conditions that now exist along the Purple Line by investing in viaduct, station, and retaining wall improvements in Evanston.
It is not clear exactly what the CTA will be presenting in its "North Red Line Vision Study", but the system viaducts south of downtown Evanston are 100 years old and the system north of downtown is about 80 years old.  This is well beyond the CTA's own expected 40-50 year expected lifetime for these structures.  Few stations and viaducts have been rehabbed in the last 30 years.
The CTA was created in 1947, and purchased the entire surface transit system from earlier operators for $105 million.  Quite the bargain, even in 1947 dollars.  There has been no significant infusion of dollars by CTA to renew the Purple Line in any comprehensive way, although spot improvements such as a handful of viaducts and the Davis St Transportation Center have been improved.
Deplorable infrastructure is an aesthetic concern at the least, a growing safety concern, and a cause for developers to hesitate building on adjacent properties.  To boot, the slow zones along the Red and Purple lines resulted in a 1 hr 15 min ride to downtown Chicago recently- unacceptably slow for at least this rider.
I urge your attendance at the Dec. 3 open house!
 
Carl Bova