Gold Line Proposal
It’s not really a new story, but today’s Tribune has a nice write up about the grassroots “Gold Line” proposal to bring better mass transit to parts of the city’s South Side. Much like the earlier “Gray Line” proposal (second item in link), a key component to the plan involves expanding service on the main branch of the Metra Electric Line to several trains per hour and providing some mechanism for easy fare pass-through between it and the CTA.
As someone who grew up in Hyde Park, I find a lot of appeal in the basic idea, although the devil is in the details. Historically, Metra and CTA do not have a great track record of working together, and my understanding is that even the current Metra Electric service is underused, making it difficult to justify expansion. As the article points out, RTA is working on a unified fare card for CTA, Metra, and Pace, which might in and of itself address some of the issues that the Gold Line proposal identifies.
Again, these aren’t exactly new ideas. Chicago Weekly did a really nice job covering some of these issues last November in a longer piece that also details other proposals for improving South Side service such as extending the Red Line to 130th Street, and the Orange Line to Ford City Mall.
