Metra trains have been using the Englewood Flyover bridge for some time, and no clatter accompanied the passing Lake Shore and other Amtrak trains, as it had for more than a century at the former site of Englewood Union Station. Crossing diamonds and intersecting rails at ground level have all been removed except for the track on which a Norfolk Southern locomotive was parked for the morning’s events. A Metra train posed on the bridge, as one did when an official publicity photo was taken on Sept. 18.
The project is an important component of the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency public-private-partnership program, known as CREATE, to increase rail service fluidity, but is especially crucial in reducing congestion on Norfolk Southern’s main line east to Elkhart, Ind., and beyond.
He added, “To successfully move 100 million more people and 4 billion tons of freight in the next two decades, America needs dedicated, predictable funding for rail, providing the same certainty that other transportation modes now enjoy.”
More than 88 percent of the spending on the Englewood Flyover came from a one-time infusion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act High Speed Rail “economic stimulus” funds administered through Szabo’s agency. Congress has refused to appropriate any additional money for that program for the past two years.
With completion of the Flyover, an additional congestion relief project at 75th Street that will divert Metra Southwest Service trains to the ex-Rock Island tracks here and into Metra’s LaSalle Street Station from Union Station can now proceed. To the east at Grand Crossing, engineering studies continue to explore reopening a connection once used by empty Nickel Plate passenger equipment moves that would enable Amtrak trains destined to and from points south of Chicago to directly connect with Canadian National tracks. But funding for those initiatives has yet to be identified.
Ray, the reason it will cost so much is because of all the consultants and regulatory agency bureaucrats who have to get involved in order to justify their jobs.
As a kid growing up on the South Side in Grand Crossing I remember the Nickle Plate tracks that climbed up from the IC level to the Penn-NYC trackage. What I don't understand is why it will cost so much to restore what was once there. The last time I looked the overpass and gradient were still there at 75th and South Chicago Av.
Two items: a new interchange east of here at Grand Crossing would allow Amtrak to head north on the ex-IC to the St. Charles Air Line without the interference of NS and UP trains on the ex-PRR west of the Dan Ryan. Added to new tracks on the ex-NYC ROW east of Grand Crossing dedicated to Amtrak and delays would drop significantly.
Two: only with all the press, construction equipment, and police presence could such a photo be taken. State and 63rd Streets is one of the scariest and most violent areas on the globe. West Englewood gets the press, but Englewood is a train watcher's death zone.
For anyone who has ever attempted untangling a ball full of knotted string, this is akin to pulling one end of the string out of the various loops it's held under and setting it free. Definitely a step in the right direction, and hopefully the maintenance costs for the bridge won't outweigh the benefits obtained. The capital construction costs will eventually pay for themselves, and that is a good thing. How much time, effort, energy, and resources are saved for each train that uses the new junction? Multiply that by how many trains use it per day, times how many days in a year, and that's the annualized baseline for how much this project is worth.
Reestablishing the connection at Grand Junction should be high on the priority list.
NS has a lot of congestion on the ex-NYC lines in Indiana.Would it make sense to reopen the Punkin Vine?
Yes, GREGORY HAINSWORTH, it would. but 6 weeks after it happens, Trains News would call it an exclusive story and some geezer from New York would speak of it in riddles.
What makes this story exclusive to Trains news? The story has been in CHI news for days.
Now on to the 75th St project!
This is, indeed, money well spent. Amtrak will certainly benefit from this as well in regards to it's time keeping.