Blue Line Blues?

As the state's transportation officials consider plans to makeover the Eisenhower Expressway, much of the discussion has focused on what's going to happen to the stretch of road cutting through Oak Park.

Under consideration are a series of plans that would either add lanes to the oft-clogged expressway or expand mass transit options for commuters headed to and from the western suburbs.

One of the plans would extend the Blue Line west, with stops at First Avenue, 17th Avenue and Mannheim Road. Another would erase Blue Line rail service to and from Oak Park altogether.

According to Oak Leaves, the plan to wipe out Oak Park's Blue Line service is rooted in a June 21 letter from Regional Transportation Authority Senior Deputy Executive Director Leanne Redden to IDOT bureau chief Peter Harmet, the IDOT bureau chief of programming at the helm of the Ike makeover. From Oak Leaves:

“We would like to request that IDOT model a high-performance bus alternative in the I-290 corridor... as a replacement for the existing Blue Line,” RTA’s Redden wrote to IDOT’s Harmet.

“Converting the transit service in the I-290 corridor from rail to high performance bus may have some merit,” Redden wrote. “Since I-290 is a highway corridor, high performance bus (service) may be a more suitable transit option — with greater flexibility of operations — than rail.”

The proposal would have train service stopping at Ashland near the University of Illinois at Chicago, and commuters would have to hop on a bus to continue traveling to their destination.

The plan has drawn the ire of Oak Park officials, who've long been in favor of expanding mass transit options but oppose adding more pavement, more cars and potentially more pollution to the expressway. And the RTA's plan would reportedly do exactly that.

"It's a pretty amazing concept, considering this was the first freeway in the country that integrated mass transit with new highway development," said Village Manager Tom Barwin in a Sept. 27 Wednesday Journal story. "And the notion of undoing it rather than extending it is probably something that would have a few people turning over in their grave."

IDOT spokesperson Guy Tridgell said elimination of local Blue Line service was just one of many plans getting a look by transportation officials. A major study of renovation options is underway and is expected to be completed in 2013.

The RTA, meanwhile, is downplaying the controversial plan. Redden told TribLocal the proposal to eliminate Oak Park's Blue Line service was only a "high-level concept."

Oak Park officials are still preparing their response to IDOT discussions (the public has weighed in during a series of public forums, offering about 170 suggestions for an overhaul) but they're already taking measures to possibly prevent a lane expansion.

, village officials asked a private firm to assess whether or not more than 1,000 local properties near the stretch of the Ike running through Oak Park are local landmarks. Any possible expansion of the Eisenhower could mean potential demolition of buildings along that corridor.