The Convergence at Terminal 7

Amtrak, CTA, Greyhound, Metra and Pace should all connect at Terminal 7.




The proposed intermodal terminal at Gary/Chicago International Airport illustrates the potential connections at O’Hare. (Image courtesy of Gary/Chicago International airport and Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates Inc.)

The $15 billion modernization of O’Hare International Airport includes a vitally important new terminal building known as Terminal 7, the first terminal ever built on the west side of the field.

Terminal 7 will have its own highway access to the booming suburban areas west of the airport, but west suburbanites will need more than their own highway to reach O’Hare.  West suburbanites need transit access to O’Hare.

They can have it, and so can all of the Midwest—if we plan for western rail access now.  A double-tracked railroad skirts O’Hare’s western boundary.  It connects directly with three nearby Metra lines.  If the new Terminal 7 is designed to include a railroad station and track connections, Metra commuter trains and new airport express trains will be able to deliver suburban passengers directly to their flights.

And there’s more. Because the tracks bordering O’Hare also connect with tracks used by Amtrak trains, travelers from Wisconsin, Downstate Illinois, Michigan and Indiana will also be able to ride trains to and from O’Hare.  For millions of passengers each year, the long, tedious and expensive drive to and from O’Hare will become a memory.  Travelers will trade expressway anxiety for a comfortable seat aboard a modern train.

But it’s not just trains that promise to make the new O’Hare an economic development engine.  It’s total connectivity.

•   The O’Hare Modernization Plan calls for the CTA Blue Line to be extended to the new Terminal 7. 
•   PACE plans to add new express bus lines connecting O’Hare with the western suburbs.
•   Intercity bus companies will have better access to the new terminal so that their passengers can connect with trains, planes and PACE buses.
•   Metra is designing its new STAR line to move suburban passengers directly into O’Hare.

With total connectivity, O’Hare becomes a major mobility center – even for people who aren’t taking a plane trip!  Suburbanites can start using trains and buses for all kinds of trips to all kinds of places, not just the daily shuttle to work and back.

Suburbanites, Downstaters and visitors from all over the Midwest will be able to change from train to bus to CTA and go anywhere—all in the same building.