Oct 9, 2009 8:30 pm US/Central
Hole Lotta Waste Sitting Beneath Chicago's Loop
Planned 'Superstation' For Trains Sits Empty, At A Cost Of $250M
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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CBS 2's Mike Parker took a self-guided tour of an abandoned train station site beneath Block 37. The project's cost to taxpayers -- $300 million.
CBS
Some critics call the $250 million dollar city project "outrageous" and a bad investment. It's the giant unfinished CTA "superstation" in the Block 37 development across from Daley Plaza.
You've helped pay for it, but you've never seen it.
The plan was to build an underground CTA terminal that would provide express train service to O'Hare Airport from the Loop. It turned out to be much more expensive than planned, and for now it's been mothballed.
Who knows when -- or even if – it will be finished. CBS 2 asked the CTA for a tour, but the cash-strapped transit agency refused. So, CBS 2's Mike Parker just wandered in on his own with a photographer.
Construction crews working on the shops soon to open at Block 37 wanted to be helpful, but it took more than a few wrong turns and trips up and down stairs to get to the spot.
The remaining shell of the superstation site is 60 feet below ground level.
There's a bed for railroad tracks and something that appears to be a passenger station.
When the project was abandoned last year for an indefinite period, an estimated $250 million had been spent on it. Of that, an estimated $100 million came from cost overruns. Another $50 million was for mothball costs.
The grand, dazzling underground palace of transportation that had been envisioned has turned to gray dust.
"The concept was bad to start with," says former transportation writer Dennis Byrne, now a Chicago Tribune columnist.
"I think it's incumbent on the Daley administration and the CTA to fully disclose how this money was spent and why there are such outrageous cost overruns," he said.
Bryne acknowledged the chances of that happening are "zero."
Train riders aren't thrilled about it, either, since the new CTA chairman, Terry Peterson, is not ruling out fare hikes to wipe away $300 million in budgetary red ink.
"To waste a lot of city tax money to do all that work and then turn around and charge us more for something they didn't finish -- no," CTA rider Theresa Karwaczka said. "It's not fair at all."
CTA officials declined to be interviewed but said in a statement that the property could get new life.
"The plan is to seek a private partner to operate the service and complete the build-out of the station, based on their needs," the CTA said.
Because of the economy, the CTA admitted this may not the best time to try to find a private partner.
CBS 2 is a major anchor tenant of the Block 37 project, which is a mixed-use redevelopment.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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