Transit Justice

The Southside Solidarity Network supports SOUL‘s (Southsiders Organizing for Unity and Liberation) campaign for the Gold Line, a proposal to improve public rail transit in the underserviced Southside, where residents rely heavily on public transit and face the longest commute times in the city. The plan was originally authored by James Withrow. Here is the outline from SOUL:

SOUL is organizing to push Chicago’s transit agencies to turn the Metra Electric South Chicago branch train line from Randolph/Michigan to 93rd St./Baltimore into a more effective train line that will serve tens of thousands of Southside residents. This line runs through one of the most densely populated areas of the South Side, but many Southside residents do not ride the line because service is infrequent (just once per hour during most of the day), transfers between CTA and Metra are limited, and there is a huge gap between 27th St. and 47th St. with no stops.

SOUL’s proposal – which the organization is calling the ‘Gold Line” – is to make the following improvements on the Metra Electric:

• Run trains to/from Randolph/Michigan and 93rd St./Baltimore every ten minutes from 6:00 a.m. until 12:00 midnight
• Accept CTA fares and allow transfers between CTA and Metra
• Upgrade stations at 59th Street and 63rd Street and build a new station at 35th Street

Campaign Updates

10/14/11: SOUL leaders and supporters showed up at Metra’a monthly board meeting to call attention to fare hikes that would disproportionally affect residents in the Southside.