On the Pink Line at Madison and Paulina
The question isn’t where it should go but why it isn’t there already. Nothing makes less sense than the sight of Pink Line trains sailing across Madison two blocks from the United Center on game nights without stopping. (Imagine the Red Line stopping at Belmont and Sheridan but racing past Wrigley.) The CTA helpfully points out that there are express buses to the Loop outside the stadium, and the Pink Line’s Ashland stop is just a few blocks away. But a bus is a poor substitute for a train, and walking to the Ashland stop (at Lake) means walking another five and a half blocks, probably late at night and possibly in the dead of winter. The CTA also says a new station would cost millions of dollars it doesn’t have, and that approved but unfunded capital projects costing $6.8 billion are already queued up. My answer to that is that grandiose ventures such as the Red Line extension, the Orange and Yellow line extensions, and the Circle Line are all well and good, but the lack of a real UC stop on the Pink Line is just ridiculous.