Silver Line

From today's truncated Trib:

The Chicago Transit Authority is studying new rail service--tentatively called the Silver Line--linking the Blue and Green Lines in neighborhoods near downtown and forming the first piece of the ambitious Circle Line concept.

But residents of the West Side who have long sought better transit in their communities say they fear that the proposed Silver Line would prompt further service reductions on the Cermak branch of the Blue Line, where train schedules were cut in 1997 and have not been restored.

....

The Silver Line would send Cermak trains over a little-used 109-year-old stretch of elevated track being renovated, called the Paulina Connector, just west of Ashland Avenue. The Silver Line would connect the Blue Line at the Harrison junction--where the Blue Line's two branches meet--with the Green Line at the Ashland station.

New CTA stations are proposed at Madison Street serving the United Center and at Van Buren Street, which would be a transfer station with the existing Blue Line Medical Center station on the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line.

It would also represent the first phase of building the Circle Line, a more than $1 billion project aimed at improving rapid transit in the central area and surrounding neighborhoods and to major employment corridors and recreational destinations. Kruesi calls the Circle Line the "single most important transit improvement in the region," making it possible for trips between the CTA and Metra's radial lines to become more competitive with automobile travel.

The Circle Line would link all CTA rail lines, except the Skokie Swift, as well as Metra lines in an area six times larger than the Loop "L" system. It's touted as a remedy to rush-hour gridlock downtown while also serving as a catalyst for development beyond the central area and better transit connections throughout the six-county region.