heathrow express mind the gap

Yesterday Mayor Daley surprised some people with the the Vacant Building TIF Purchase and Rehabilitation Ordinance, including me. Today it’s less of a surprise: Clout Street reports that he’s off to China, seeking private investment for his express train to O’Hare (which will continue its expansion, after some wheeling and dealing reminiscent of his father’s work getting the airport built*).

John Byrne writes that "the train would get passengers from the airport to downtown much faster than CTA Blue Line trains." It sort of depends on what you mean by "much." Here’s Daley, quoted by Fran Spielman from the same press conference:

“You arrive at the airport and come downtown in 20 minutes. Same thing with tourists. Instead of taking two hours, three hours to get out to the airport sometimes, you’re out in 20 minutes.”

I didn’t know the horse-drawn carriages went all the way out to O’Hare. Anyway, the CTA’s official line is that the Blue Line takes 40-45 minutes, which seems about right from my personal experience. So if Daley’s right, it cuts the trip in half; Rosemary Andolino has a more optimistic estimate of 15 minutes.

To a cheapskate like me, it doesn’t sound like a lot. But Spielman makes a brief mention of the Heathrow Express, and it’s actually a pretty good comparison: it’s run by a private foreign company, takes about 20 minutes, costs about $25, and there’s a cheaper, slower alternative in the Heathrow Connect. According to Rail Professional, the Heathrow Express’s biggest clientele is businessmen, and as of 2008 it was turning a profit; it averages 16,000 passengers a day. Which makes it sound less preposterous than I’d previously assumed–Heathrow and O’Hare have comparable passenger volumes, though I can’t help but wonder if the destinations for business travelers going into Heathrow are more densely centered around downtown than O’Hare, around which sprang up plenty of office complexes and hotels after it was built.

* Here’s Dan Rostenkowski talking about the elder Daley and O’Hare, courtesy of MediaBurn’s YouTube archive:

 

Photograph: Endlisnis (CC by 2.0)