On The Rails: Geoff's CTA Blog

Return with us to the halcyon days of 2003, when CTA President/yellow jacket enthusiast Frank Kruesi pitched what surely would be a crown jewel of the transit agency: a $130 million super-terminal beneath Block 37, providing express train service between the Loop and O'Hare International Airport.

It fit with Mayor Daley's master plan to get the city ready for a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, and certainly sounded like an attractive service for a city on the move. Never mind that the CTA hadn't worked out where the "express" tracks would go, or how an "express" service sharing the Blue Line tracks would save more than a few minutes when it gets stuck behind a "local" train.

Well, that was then.

Now, Kruesi and his jackets are toiling in Washington on behalf of the city, and it's left to current CTA president Ron Huberman to spread the bad news: the project's about $100 million over budget (owing to increased costs for materials and labor), and there aren't even any tracks laid yet. The agency board today begrudgingly approved another $45 million to finish off the raw space until a private partner can step forward.

So $300 million for what Greg Hinz from Crain's describes as an "unfinished basement." Awesome.

Huberman, for his part, is being smart in leading the CTA out of this boondoggle as quickly as possible, and it's clear that the previous administration stuck the agency with a bill of goods. But the CTA board -- largely appointed by Mayor Daley -- still signed off on the project five years ago (except for member Susan Leonis), and has to wear some of this.

See you in the hobo corner.