If you've ever taken the "L" to either of Chicago's airports, you know you could be in for a long ride. Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to change that.
The mayor on Wednesday said his administration is looking at ways to trim up to 12 minutes on rides from the Loop to O'Hare on the Blue Line and on the Orange Line to Midway, reports the Sun-Times.
In a meeting with employees of United Airlines, Emanuel was asked about the idea of an express train to O'Hare, which was one of Mayor Daley's more ambitious goals for the city.
"I'm both evaluating the express, which is kind of over two horizons. ... but on the Blue Line I have actually people working on what would it take to take 10 minutes off that travel. And so that to me is more of an immediate," Emanuel said.
The mayor said if he could trim "12 minutes, 10 minutes, eight minutes" from that trip it would make the airport and the city's economy "overall more competitive."
Emanuel did not specify how the CTA could speed up service, but he did note that slow zones were recently eliminated on the Blue Line, cutting travel time by four minutes from downtown to O'Hare.
