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    O'Hare's People Mover may get more cars, track; Train may be 'severely taxed': City Hall

    Nov. 28, 2007
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    O'Hare Airport's 14-year-old People Mover system is bursting at the seams and needs to be expanded -- with nearly 50 percent more vehicles immediately and an extension of the 2.7-mile transit line over time, City Hall has concluded.

    The need for increased passenger capacity is so severe, the Daley administration has issued a "request for information" from companies interested in participating in the first expansion of the Automated Transit System, commonly called the People Mover.

    "The capacity of the ATS as originally built is now in danger of being severely taxed. . . . The ATS will need to be expanded through the acquisition of additional vehicles, extension of the guideway and enlargement of maintenance and storage facilities," the bid document states.

    "The city intends to address the immediate need for added capacity through an increase in the fleet of vehicles. . . . The fleet needs to be expanded by at least seven vehicles [from 15 to 22 cars] in the near future. . . . Added vehicles would allow an increase from two-car to three-car trains and operation of trains at closer to the minimum operational headways" of 90-second intervals between trains.

    The city wants to determine the "quickest feasible increase in capacity" and set the stage for a People Mover extension, the document states.

    Capable of carrying 2,400 passengers an hour, the $137.8 million system opened in 1993 to ease roadway congestion at O'Hare. The system includes five stations and 2.7 miles of double guideway connecting three domestic terminals, an international terminal and remote parking facilities.

    For a road map on how the system might be extended, the bid document refers interested parties to the master plan for Mayor Daley's massive runway expansion project. That plan envisions a People Mover extension, partially underground, to connect new terminals, the rental car campus, a relocated maintenance yard and a long-term parking structure in the northeast quadrant of O'Hare.