United Center Construction (Chicago, Evanston, Skokie: 2013, house, theater)

[K 22]

Quick question:

So I was on the Pink Line the other day. While passing the United Center (and lamenting the lack of a station on Madison), I noticed some construction happening right below.

Is that going to be the Bulls' new practice facility that's going up there? I remember reading about it not too long ago.

[ChiNaan]

I don't know what is being constructed, but I share your frustration with the lack of a Pink Line stop at the UC. It's so weird going by it, looking out the window, seeing it RIGHT THERE, and not being able to stop anywhere near it. It's every bit as weird to me as it would be if the Red Line didn't stop at Cubs or Sox. They should at least have a stop there for evenings when events are happening. Between the Bulls, Blackhawks, and concerts, it's difficult to imagine the demand wouldn't exist.

[chirack]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

I don't know what is being constructed, but I share your frustration with the lack of a Pink Line stop at the UC. It's so weird going by it, looking out the window, seeing it RIGHT THERE, and not being able to stop anywhere near it. It's every bit as weird to me as it would be if the Red Line didn't stop at Cubs or Sox. They should at least have a stop there for evenings when events are happening. Between the Bulls, Blackhawks, and concerts, it's difficult to imagine the demand wouldn't exist.

There was a stop decades ago, it was cut due rerouting the train into the expressway. There just were not enough people living in the area to support it with other stops so close by not to mention the reoute. I think it may come back some day now that the pink line is it's own line again.

[Chicago60614]

It's the practice facility, and they are certainly thinking of putting the station back. That section of track wasn't used for decades until the Pink Line reroute in the mid 2000's brought it back.

[chet everett]

The practice facility is not scheduled for completion / use until next season -- Bulls Break Ground on New Practice Facility, but Everyone's Talking Hawks - Near West Side - DNAinfo.com Chicago

As to any effort to add service to ANY El line the last I heard of this was over four years ago and the Pink line was NOT mentioned -- http://www.chicagonow.com/cta-tattle...ne-expansions/

Given the fact that there has been no new federal money allocated to accomplish those other build outs and the city remains in dire financial condtion pretty sure any new Pink line station would be while not utterly impossible no more likely than Bulls winnig a championship with injury addled Derrick Rose...

[emathias]

Originally Posted by chet everett

...
Given the fact that there has been no new federal money allocated to accomplish those other build outs and the city remains in dire financial condtion pretty sure any new Pink line station would be while not utterly impossible no more likely than Bulls winnig a championship with injury addled Derrick Rose...

And yet the Green Line's new Morgan stop opened about 18 months ago, the Yellow Line added a station at Oakton less than two years ago, construction is underway on a new station on the Green Line at Cermak, Evanston is actively working on another new station along the Yellow Line, the City is completely reconstructing the 95th station on the Red Line and the Division station on the Red Line, and actively planning the reconstruction of Wilson and doing preliminary planning on a Brown Line station at Division.

The reason they haven't added a station at Madison is because the United Center is really the only draw to the area currently and people who really must arrive by transit have express buses or can walk from Blue or Green/Pink Line stations. As the West Loop populates westward and more people and businesses are near where a Madison station would be, the CTA and City will get more serious about re-building a station there. The Hawks and the Bulls combined only have 82 regular season games at the stadium. Adding in concerts and other events, you might add in another 100 events, tops, so you have draws, at most, about half of the days in a year. Even if every single seat in the stadium sold out for every event, that's about 3.7 million seats per year.

For Cubs games, only 40% of attendees arrive via the Red Line - and that station is literally across the street from the stadium and nearly all the games are played in reasonably warm weather when transit is most heavily utilized and during the day or early evening. Concerts and such, with later start times and end times, would have lower transit usage and the fact that a Madison station would still be about 1/4 mile from the entrances to the United Center means that a reasonable long-term target would be to get 25% of attendees to use that station. That's only about 900,000 riders per year, and that's a long-term goal. And a good chunk of those would be people who currently use the Ashland stop on the Green/Pink Line, the Medical District station on the Blue Line, or express buses - they wouldn't all be new riders. The Blue Line station has about 1 million annual riders, the Green/Pink station has about 800,000. So even if a Madison station induced another 900,000 annual riders, which seems highly unlikely in the near term, that means a reasonable max estimate for a station there is 1.8 million annual riders. Realistically, in the near term, the number would probably be closer to 800,000 annual riders. While that's better than many stations, it's less than half the per-station average for all CTA rail stations. It's probably hard to justify building a whole new station for numbers like that.

[chet everett]

So we agree. Not gonna happen.

Btw the city did use $8 million in Federal funding allocated back when a single party controlled both the house and senate and about $30 million in TIF funds for the Morgan station on the Green line which was technically a replacement for the closed Halsted station...

Poorly edited article but it captures everything on one page -- http://www.chicago-l.org/stations/morgan-lake.html

Similar story on the reconstructed Oakton station and the federal dollars that paid for it -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakton-...Reconstruction


The Wilson station is not scheduled for completion until 2016.

[It'sAutomatic]

Pink line station at United Center would be a waste of money. It would only add convenience for people going inbound to the loop, and it would only see real use during United Center events. The Lake/Ashland stop two blocks away is fine.

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by It'sAutomatic

Pink line station at United Center would be a waste of money. It would only add convenience for people going inbound to the loop, and it would only see real use during United Center events. The Lake/Ashland stop two blocks away is fine.

There are events at United Center nearly every night.

ChicagoBoxOffice.com- The Trusted Marketplace For Chicago Concerts, Sports & Theater Tickets Online.

[chet everett]

No doubt the hordes of folks along the Pink Line are just dying to get to a Disney on Ice presentation via CTA rapid transit...