[WillEngler]

Yeah. IMO the stakes aren't super-high because, as the journalist mentions, Chicago already has decently fast and consistent service via the Blue Line from downtown to ORD. Given that, it would be odd for CTA, Cook County, or the feds to throw money at getting marginal gains on an airport express line when there are much bigger wins to be had at lower cost by, eg, improving reliability of bus service in the South Side (https://southsideweekly.com/beyond-the-l-proposal-south-side...). The express line is (imo) a silly issue for Rahm et al to be giving as much attention to as they are, but as long as we're just at the stage where Elon Musk is spitballing how to build a whiz-bang tunnel of the future and Illinois tax money isn't going to it ... sure, go for it

[cozzyd]

Rahm's audience isn't city residents (most of whom won't use this train) but companies that might choose their HQ's partially based on such considerations.

[WillEngler]

That's useful to foreground and I agree that's his target. There is a reasonable argument to be made that a constellation of policies targeted at courting big businesses will bring more of the likes of McDonald's, Caterpillar, Boeing, etc to downtown Chicago, and this will help lift all boats. Meanwhile, it's unclear how much finite political capital and staffer attention this project burns that could have been, eg, directed towards tracking down funding for the Red Line expansion. Maybe they can walk and chew gum. More likely they can only chew like three sticks of gum and I wish this weren't one of those sticks. (Not that you were making a claim either way. I'm just riffing on your post.)

[bigpicture]

The Blue Line isn't a train to the airport, it's a commuter line that just happens to have an airport at one end of it.

Airport-bound passengers have luggage that takes up space, blocks aisles and seats, etc. Moving them to a dedicated airport train frees up a lot of capacity that city residents will happily accept and appreciate.