Grade crossing elimination?

I posted this in the METRA forum, but CTA is relevant too.

http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=60518

I think the cost would be prohibitive. The last NY subway grade crossing, on the Canarsie Line, was closed in early 1970s IIRC. You can't do that in Chicago because many of the streets crossed are major thorofares and stations are built with one end at the street being crossed. The alternative is to cut back the rail lines and that won't happen. Besides, in 16+ years I've lived in the area, there seem to have been only a small number of auto or pedestrian / train incidents. People have learned to be careful I guess!

As far as I know, there were NO incidents on the NYC's Canarsie line. But I wasn't thinking of just blocking off the street like they did on the Canarsie line.

They built els and subways before, they can do it again.

I think the cost would be prohibitive.

One word: Stimulus.

That's a lot of scratch for a problem that doesn't exist. There is a low accident-rate and trains move under 45 at most crossings, as opposed to 79 at Class I crossings.

Here are some pics of the busiest grade crossing on the CTA system, the four lane Cicero AV crossing on the Pink line and yes, the front roll sign is B.O.






David Harrison

Thanks for the pictures.

Those pics bring back memories. We did a all-weekend contract at a plant a mile away, in Lawndale. I went out for Donuts at 1am and was scared out of my mind, as Lawndale is rough to say the least. I watched the trains go by as I waited for donuts and coffee, before returning to Lawndale.