The Antiplanner

One More Strike Against High-Speed Rail

3rd February 2010

One More Strike Against High-Speed Rail

posted in Transportation |

At last, a new reason why high-speed rail won’t work: bad architecture. According to this Chicago Tribune architecture critic, Chicago’s Union Station once had a beautiful, skylit concourse between the waiting room and trains, but it was replaced by a couple of skyscrapers. Now travelers have to walk through low-ceilinged tunnels that are confusing, apparently because you can’t see the sun. This means high-speed rail is doomed to failure — unless, of course, we spend a few more billions on beautiful new stations.

Actually, I’ve been to Union Station many times and never got confused in the tunnels (there are really only two directions to go). But leave it to an architect (or architecture critic) to say that we can make high-speed rail work by spending more money on building design.

Chicago used to have six trains stations — Central, Grand Central, LaSalle, Northwestern, Dearborn, and Union — and now it is down to one (though remnants of some of the others still exist). But I suspect that, even if we spend a trillion or so on high-speed rail, that one will still be adequate to handle the traffic.

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  1. 1 On February 3rd, 2010, C. P. Zilliacus said:

    For better or for worse, architecture and design seem to be taken seriously in planning for transportation stations, and especially for rail transportation stations.

    Many stations from the so-called “golden age” of passenger railroading are impressive structures inside and out, though they tended to be built with private-sector dollars, not taxpayer funds.

    Most of the underground stations on Washington’s Metrorail system were designed by architect Harry Weese (and built with tax dollars).

    And there’s Washington Dulles International Airport, a modern building that has (in my opinion) stood the test of time (and yes, its original construction was funded by federal taxpayers).

    posted on February 3rd, 2010 at 5:59 am

  2. 2 On February 3rd, 2010, Market Urbanism said:

    Chicago used to have six trains stations — Central, Grand Central, LaSalle, Northwestern, Dearborn, and Union — and now it is down to one (though remnants of some of the others still exist)

    Corrections:
    Northwestern is now called Ogilve and is just as busy as Union for commuter trains.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogilvie_Transportation_Center

    LaSalle Street Station still serves the south suburban commuter lines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaSalle_Street_Station

    Randolph Street Station is now called Millenium station and serves the south shore and Indiana – and is just as busy as Union and Northwestern.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Station

    Grand Central, Dearborn and Central are no longer in operation.

    So, to restate correctly, “Chicago used to have six train stations… …and now it is down to four.

    posted on February 3rd, 2010 at 7:18 am

  3. 3 On February 3rd, 2010, The Antiplanner said:

    Market Urbanism,

    Thanks for the correction.

    posted on February 3rd, 2010 at 9:29 am

  4. 4 On February 3rd, 2010, rallenr said:

    More on train stations: http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/06/22/11-beautiful-train-stations-that-fell-to-the-wrecking-ball/

    posted on February 3rd, 2010 at 10:10 am

  5. 5 On February 3rd, 2010, rallenr said:

    Orange County Register editorial comes out hard against HSR: http://www.ocregister.com/common/printer/view.php?db=ocregister&id=232277

    posted on February 3rd, 2010 at 10:15 am

  6. 6 On February 3rd, 2010, Scott said:

    I’ll offer a few tidbits, which many of you know. BTW, I was born in Marina City/Towers (2 corncobs, 600′, see Bertrand Goldberg), raised mostly in suburbs.
    Mies VanDerRoe’s (sp?) last building (another glass box, duh, 700′, formerly called IBM) was across the street.

    If none of this is mildly interesting or informing, sorry for your time used in reading. But hey, nothing controversial (surprise huh?)here, except for next paragraph.

    No apologies for other posts, since I’m then trying to educate on principles, facts, concepts, morality, reasoning & such, which many people seem to falter on, at times. I know, most don’t see my other posts as having any of those points as a basis. Some, just cannot comprehend. I forgive those for their ignorance, but please don’t make it a habit. That can be hard when many like to spend others’ money on others, like BO so does love. For each according to their desire & power; from each as to how much can be forced from, by force of forceful gun.

    Damn, I just noticed, I typed too long, appointed myself as a historian. My bad.

    Regardless of the number of train stations, there are 11 commuter lines (Metra, about 500 miles), mainly for suburban commuting to the CBD (centered on the loop, named for the encompassing El tracks)). In comparison to Caltrain, each line is, on avg, about 70% of distance & passenger traffic. However, the final destination for Metra is highly concentrated for downtown vs many intermediate stops for Caltrain. Personally, I’ve only ridden 3 Metra lines a total of about 33 times in the 28 years that I lived there. There is an intra-suburb line in the works. Don’t keep up on it much.

    Although do read the Trib sometimes. Tribune also owns LA Times. And the Cubs; only 15% now, just sold majority in their chapter 11 reorg. Also own, Superstation channel 9, WGN. I only heard of that adjective after I moved (& didn’t have cable when there). WGN stands for… Anybody? Anybody? Buehler? World’s Greatest Newspaper. Actually, Tribune owns a lot of media. On public transit, most people preferred to read the Sun Times, because of its tabloid size pages.

    Two little stories. One time riding it, I had my fare ready to pay the guy. He never asked for it & I accidentally left it on the booth. I was drunk. One of the days during the heat wave (95) I had to ride for 45 minutes & the AC was broken. Luckily I had time to go to Bally’s health club near by my work to shower.

    The Chicago rapid transit (subway/El) rail system is separate (~106 miles), & goes to both airports.

    As for the original statement of there being only Union Station, a week ago I happened to come across the article in Wikipedia & I think it said that. I was surprised, but errors can be expected there, especially about AGW. For one thing, I think it “combined” Union Station & the Northwest Station (Olgivie), saying that it is 8 blocks long. The 2 stations are a few blocks from each other.

    I wonder about the walk to downtown from most stations (cold & rain), since those 2 major stations are about 3 blocks west of downtown & other side of river.
    It’s strange that not many offices are west of the river. The Boeing HQ is.

    Another triva thing, is that just a little more west is I-90/94 & each road crossing (every block) has access to the freeway (called expressways there, as well as interstates). That’s about 8 entrances/exits in one mile. The entrances are in the median, so no weaving conflicts, but there is a short acceleration conflict. At least it’s on a downslope.

    The route that goes to the Amoco Building or rather Standard or rather Aon is the only one right near many offices (& only electric), but it doesn’t go to where many office workers would want to live (south side & Indiana).

    What was the original point of this? Oh yeah. Blame the architects. The CHA was a fine socialist housing group. HUD took it over because of its design. Actually much of the designs were pretty crappy.
    Anyway for transportation buildings, function [followed by form], not art, which adds expense. Well, when cities want density & rail station owners want to sell the air rights, there goes your roof. If there was only some way to create artificial light. What..?..are these HSR going to be solar powered?

    There’s also exhaust that creates dinge on the stations. Especially noticeable on the Merchandise Mart (about same size as Pentagon & Willis Tower), which was built by Marshall Field, later bought by Joe Kennedy, since sold. That was the most irrelevant.

    (:-))>

    posted on February 3rd, 2010 at 4:23 pm

  7. 7 On February 3rd, 2010, Spokker said:

    “Orange County Register editorial comes out hard against HSR:”

    Did you expect anything different?

    Some of the cost escalation has to do with a different method of accounting used to please the feds. The fares aren’t even set yet, and there have always been three scenarios presented as “possible fare structures.”

    The rumor I’m hearing, though, is that the CHSRA falsified ridership data to the feds. This isn’t a case of making a mistake or overlooking something, but flat out cheating.

    The rumor states that the news will come out on Friday. It should be interesting to hear if it’s true.

    posted on February 3rd, 2010 at 7:10 pm

  8. 8 On February 3rd, 2010, Scott said:

    So what about the OC Register?
    Your implied accusation [of something] has no meaning.

    That’s a good thing, to critically analyze the feasibility of projects. Although its parent company, Freedom Communications, is in Chapter 11, but of course overall, print media is in tough shape with readership down, ads down & inet options. Its customer base is also mostly highly educated & productive.

    One could easily an opposite thing about a large majority of the media, but with substance:
    The lamestream media is for these pork projects & this excessive funding for no reason of value.
    Hey, look at LA’s Metrolink
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrolink_(Southern_California)
    It’s 7 lines over 500 miles with only has 47,000 riders/day. That’s horrible, and <5% of what 2 lanes for a freeway over the same distance could handle.

    Th CAHSR is a ridiculous $60+ billion hole, which comes out to $3,000 per CA worker. Would you pay a membership fee of that amount for one roundtrip/year, plus ticket price? The estimated ridership levels expect each CA person to ride twice/year plus half the amount again for visitors. Even that level cannot cover costs.

    posted on February 3rd, 2010 at 9:38 pm

  9. 9 On February 4th, 2010, Mike said:

    Arggghhh…. unnggghhhh… crushed… by… giant… wall… of… text…

    posted on February 4th, 2010 at 9:53 am

  10. 10 On February 4th, 2010, Spokker said:

    Like I said, if the rumor is true then CAHSR isn’t happening anyway. Be hopeful. Check for the news on Friday.

    posted on February 4th, 2010 at 10:29 pm

  11. 11 On February 6th, 2010, the highwayman said:

    Though Scott, that’s the twisted irony with you teabagging libertards.

    You want driving to be an obligation, not an option.

    posted on February 6th, 2010 at 3:10 am

  12. 12 On February 15th, 2010, Scott said:

    highman,

    What’s the twisted irony?

    How do get the idea that driving is an obligation?

    Where I live, I can take transit to many places, but I would much rather drive & do.

    Why do people think that transit users (<4% of workers) should be subsidized by all others?

    What do teabags have to do with this?

    posted on February 15th, 2010 at 7:22 pm

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