Plans unveiled for 15-minute express 'O'Hare Flyer' trains from airport to downtown
Backers say the service would use electric trains and could be operational within 5 years.
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A proposal for a privately funded rail connection between downtown Chicago and O'Hare International Airport promises a 15-minute trip using existing rail tracks that begin on Canal Street below the Old Post Office Building.
The proposal, called the O'Hare Flyer, has been in development for three years. Backers say the service would use electric trains and could be operational within five years.
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"When we are fully operational we are going to be able to take 2,000 people each way every hour," O'Hare Flyer CEO Dave Lundy said. "It's functionally the equivalent of putting a new lane on the Kennedy."
The proposal follows other attempts to create an express connection between downtown and O'Hare, including the unfinished station beneath Block 37 and a 2018 proposal for an underground rail system.
Lundy said the O'Hare Flyer would use existing freight rail infrastructure.
"We are building on existing freight tracks that are no longer used or largely no longer used," Lundy said. "We are going to have a dedicated corridor all the way from downtown at the Old Post Office out to O'Hare."
Lundy said the company has secured a letter of intent from one of the three railroad companies that owns the tracks needed for the project. Company officials also met with Mayor Brandon Johnson for the first time last week.
Johnson said he was open to reviewing the proposal.
"I welcome all forms of innovation," Johnson said. "I will take a closer look at it."
The project would still face federal and local hurdles before it could move forward.
Professor Joseph Schwieterman of DePaul University cited the project's use of existing infrastructure as a benefit.
"We don't need any demolition. We don't need any long-term land acquisition. That is a big selling point," Schwieterman said. "A lot of homework was done before the splashy headlines and that gives you a lot of confidence that this is a financially doable proposition."
Project proponents said their goal is to have rail agreements in place and be in a position to seek City Council approval during the first half of next year.
