A group of well-connected Chicago names unveiled the O'Hare Flyer last week: a $2.25 billion, privately funded express train running from Terminal 2 to a new depot at 433 W. Van Buren, just west of the Old Post Office, on long-abandoned tracks under Canal Street. Fifteen minutes each way, departures every fifteen minutes from 4am to 10pm, battery-electric trains at up to 80 mph. Fares somewhere north of the Blue Line and south of an Uber.
While this isn't exactly the South Loop it's close. Van Buren and Canal is west of the river and north of Ida B. Wells.
Which is the part worth noticing from the Sloop. A 15-minute trip to O'Hare is really 15 minutes plus hauling your bag from Dearborn Park or Prairie Avenue over to Canal. That gap is exactly what the Central Connector bus proposal is meant to close.
Also, we have heard this song before. In 2018 Elon Musk was going to dig us a tunnel.
To be fair, the transit people like this one. DePaul's Joe Schwieterman and the High Speed Rail Alliance's Rick Harnish both think it's more practical than the tunnel fantasy, since it mostly reuses existing freight track. Schwieterman still flags the risks: debt financing, cost overruns, and a single track.
Would you use it, or is Canal too far to schlep with a suitcase? Tell us in the comments.
Source credit: Chicago Sun-Times, with additional reporting from Streetsblog Chicago and Axios Chicago.
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