Let’s improve public transportation

Not long back, I finally got the opportunity to try a Metra line, which defines suburban public transport between Chicago and her suburbs. I have lived in Chicagoland for about a year and a half now, but this has been one aspect of living in the area that has just never worked out (largely due to being on the second least frequent North Central Service line).

When I took the train from O'Hare Airport, the deserted station without any agent, machine, dedicated and covered walkway from the Multi-Modal facility, or security personnel, along with the abysmal schedule, is a scathing indictment on the lack of imagination when it comes to public transport in the Greater Chicago Area.

Yes, it is true that America in general has these problems due to the one-sided nature of car dependency, but we really can and should expect better from the third largest city in the country, which is one of the biggest hubs of the world. Simply making excuses regarding the lack of demand and the monopoly of the Canadian National freight entity just doesn't cut it, from where I stand.

When you treat convenient public transport as an afterthought, as O'Hare and Metra have done (the CTA is by no means a gold standard for safety and reliability), no one will bother using it only for it to be needlessly more complicated. Just think about how Terminal 2 would look, where the chaos of rideshares has come to define the arrivals area for the past one to two years.

The constraints we face are not that surmountable if we can just retrieve the can-do mentality that has served America for so long. Let's get it done.

Jay Deshpande

Buffalo Grove