IDOT: Blue Line is Safe After Plan Scrapped

Remember the chatter about stopping CTA Blue Line service at Chicago's west side and having passengers hop on a bus to continue their commutes?

It's history.

Earlier:

The plan was one of many under consideration by the Illinois Department of Transportation for renovating the Eisenhower Expressway. A major study of renovation options is underway and is expected to be completed in 2013.

Some of the plans would either add lanes to the oft-clogged expressway or expand mass transit options for commuters headed to and from the western suburbs.

But one scenario stood out for local commuters and village officials — the proposal that would've had Blue Line train service stopping at Ashland near the University of Illinois at Chicago, where commuters would have to hop on a bus to continue traveling to their destination. (Check out a couple of impassioned Letters to the Editor speaking out against the issue, and .)

Guy Tridgell, a spokesman for IDOT, has said that plan has been scrapped.

"That idea is no longer going to be studied going forward," he told Wednesday Journal. "There wasn't enough of a difference in travel performance to warrant further study."

Meanwhile, Oak Park is continuing its push to evaluate whether or not the roughly 1,000 buildings along the Interstate 290 corridor between Austin Boulevard and Harlem Avenue should be designated local landmarks.

Earlier:

The idea, village officials have said, is to “sensitize” the state's transportation officials to the impact the overhaul will have on the village’s architecture and history.

Oak Park's urban planner Doug Kaare said the Kentucky-based Preservation Services and Technology Group is using software to evaluate the historical value of those properties, and they'll make those findings available publicly next year.