The O’Hare Express Craziness Is Back!

The very crazy, $$multi-billion scheme of an express train for the rich to the city from O’Hare is alive again, courtesy of Mayor Emanuel!

Maybe our mayor thinks announcing something this outrageous, glittery, and expensive will take attention away from the police killing of Laquan McDonald & the cover-up, the CPS disaster, or the violence everywhere in Chicago, to mention a few of his problems.

But shouldn’t Rahm worry we’ll actually take a look at THIS idea??

With the Blue Line, Chicago already has one of the most efficient airport-city transit connections around. And when the CTA’s “Your New Blue” update to tracks and stations is completed, that trip will be even faster, smoother.

The CTA Blue Line station at O’Hare pictured in “No taxi needed: The best cities for airport mass transit,” by travel writer Mark Chestnut, 10/2012

An O’Hare Express Train – Who benefits?

Not anyone on the city’s South Side where transit deserts prevail,
Not the handicapped who continue to wait 20 years for full CTA accessibility,
Not the CTA itself, with $$ billions still needed to repair crumbling infrastructure everywhere on the system,
Not O’Hare workers or average citizens who can’t pay $30-$35 per ticket,
Not anyone traveling to O’Hare from stops along the way,
Not anyone with property standing in the way,
And, sadly, not the giant, gaping hole under Block 37 that will never connect a train to O’Hare, but will continue to cost us all $400million + interest since the last time this Express Train idea took hold.

But it WILL be great for:

Well-connected companies already getting $$millions to design it,
Companies here and abroad who will get $$billions to build it, and
A mayor who wants another shiny thing to brag about. Just like the Belmont Flyover. Both these “accomplishments” will be best viewed from very, very, vey far away.

Why not build the O’Hare Express Train?
Please read this logical & simple explanation in Chicago Magazine: