Chicago's new Metropolitan Lounge Information

[TylerP42]

The taxi loop could also be used as a Redcap bypass to the north tracks to avoid the main pedestrian flows -- they do stuff like that in Washington DC -- but I doubt they'll do that.

There will be taxi and car unloading there. Red carpet up to it, the red carpet will be imbedded into the concrete

Wow. They're actually reopening that for access by ordinary cars and taxis!? It was closed due to 9/11 security paranoia. It says something very good if they're reopening it as a dropoff point.
Really, I'd like to hear confirmation of that, because I didn't think it would happen for decades. If the security paranoia is wearing off that's great news...

Based on my trip through CUS in November, security is anything but wearing off. I was questioned for taking pictures of the great hall, questioned and luggage searched in my roomette before departure, and noticed way more search teams and tables set up than ever before.
The new lounge does look exciting. So the Legacy Club is totally separate from this?

Yes, totally seperate. The Legacy Club is self supported and has never used state or federal government funding! The fee is what pays for it!

 

[Lonestar648]

I suspect that two shower dressings rooms will have a slow throughput, therefore more people desiring than can be accommodated. Also, will there need to be a cleaning between uses? If you figure 20 - 30 minutes average per use, then only an average of 5 people shower per hour per *** (presuming the showers will not be unisex). To me the showers sound great traveling through Chicago, but not something I could rely on having available unless the cost discourages many from using.

 

[willem]

Looking at the floor plan diagram it looks like the Lounge has direct access to the south tracks.

Not exactly... what the diagram doesn't show is what's on the other side of that door. It's the former taxi loop. That does connect to the concourse for the south tracks, but in a somewhat indirect manner; I'm not clear on whether they'll be using it (though I would if I were them, just to get out of the way of the rest of the pedestrian traffic flow).
The taxi loop could also be used as a Redcap bypass to the north tracks to avoid the main pedestrian flows -- they do stuff like that in Washington DC -- but I doubt they'll do that.

Are you sure the taxi loop is on the other side of the door? I thought the taxi loop was one floor down from the Great Hall level, and I understand the lower level of the new lounge to be on the Great Hall level.

The taxi level would need to be below the walkway from the ticketing area to the Great Hall, so I can't visualize how one could exit the new lounge to the taxi loop without a significant change in elevation. Or is there a level of the new lounge below the Great Hall floor?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Around $9 Million. About $8 Million for the lounge, and about $1 Million in furniture.

I assume that does include asbestos & lead abatement though. (Which is really really expensive.)

Does CUS ever close? It's not exactly unheard of for asbestos and lead to be removed conventionally under cover of darkness after hours. Then again that's probably far less likely for a quasi governmental company.

Based on my trip through CUS in November, security is anything but wearing off. I was questioned for taking pictures of the great hall, questioned and luggage searched in my roomette before departure, and noticed way more search teams and tables set up than ever before.

Thats unfortunate. My least favorite aspect of CUS is the Amtrak's staff's severe overreaction to basic curiosity and anything resembling train spotting. I don't understand why Amtrak staff can't be more like Metra and allow passengers to enjoy a bit of harmless fun on their layover. Are Amtrak passengers a hundred times less responsible than Metra passengers or does Amtrak's Chicago staff have a massive immovable stick up their rear?

I suspect that two shower dressings rooms will have a slow throughput, therefore more people desiring than can be accommodated. Also, will there need to be a cleaning between uses? If you figure 20 - 30 minutes average per use, then only an average of 5 people shower per hour per *** (presuming the showers will not be unisex). To me the showers sound great traveling through Chicago, but not something I could rely on having available unless the cost discourages many from using.

If the showers receive heavy patronage perhaps they add more later. Probably not as part of the Metropolitan Lounge but perhaps as part of a more basic pay per use service like they provide in Japanese airports.

 

[RSG]

Around $9 Million. About $8 Million for the lounge, and about $1 Million in furniture.

I assume that does include asbestos & lead abatement though. (Which is really really expensive.)

Does CUS ever close? It's not exactly unheard of for asbestos and lead to be removed conventionally under cover of darkness after hours. Then again that's probably far less likely for a quasi governmental company.

It closes for 5.5 hours each day. Enough time for certain things to get done "the Chicago way".

I suspect that two shower dressings rooms will have a slow throughput, therefore more people desiring than can be accommodated. Also, will there need to be a cleaning between uses? If you figure 20 - 30 minutes average per use, then only an average of 5 people shower per hour per *** (presuming the showers will not be unisex). To me the showers sound great traveling through Chicago, but not something I could rely on having available unless the cost discourages many from using.

If the showers receive heavy patronage perhaps they add more later. Probably not as part of the Metropolitan Lounge but perhaps as part of a more basic pay per use service like they provide in Japanese airports.

The showers could work like most of those in truck stops; after payment of the fee (or for those with perks, acknowledgement of status), you're given an access code to the door of next available shower along with a towel and a bar of soap. Once your time is done and you open the shower room door, the transaction is considered closed. The showers are cleaned periodically throughout the day, but not necessarily after each use.

In other words, not unlike the showers in the sleepers currently. Last time I checked, the median casual user fee for truck stop showers is $10; I would be surprised if they did not charge at least this amount if they are indeed charging. Unfortunately, with a fee also comes expectations that might be equally challenging to manage ("I paid for it, so I will damn well take an hour shower if I want!").

 

[RSG]

Based on my trip through CUS in November, security is anything but wearing off. I was questioned for taking pictures of the great hall, questioned and luggage searched in my roomette before departure, and noticed way more search teams and tables set up than ever before.

Was this mid-to-late November? If so, I wonder if it didn't have something to do with the holiday season and/or the various travel alerts which were being promoted on the news. I was just through there in January, and aside from some queue lines and signage set up in the Great Hall, I encountered no security screening (personally or to others). I did notice the presence of more Amtrak Police (including at least one K-9 detail), but I thought that might have more to do with the ongoing renovations than an actual ramp-up in security.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

It was early November but they may have been getting ready for Holiday travel. They had several screening tables set up at the boarding gates. It was quite noticeable.

 

[neroden]

Are you sure the taxi loop is on the other side of the door? I thought the taxi loop was one floor down from the Great Hall level, and I understand the lower level of the new lounge to be on the Great Hall level.

The taxi level would need to be below the walkway from the ticketing area to the Great Hall, so I can't visualize how one could exit the new lounge to the taxi loop without a significant change in elevation. Or is there a level of the new lounge below the Great Hall floor?

A picture is informative here:
http://mglmarchitects.com/images/uploads/work/insti_unionstation_03.jpg

The taxi loop comes down from ground level on the south side, passes the Great Hall level;

does a 180 to the right and heads down to the level below;

does a 90 to the right and crosses under the west end of the Great Hall;

does another 90 to the right and comes back up to Great Hall level on the north side;

does a 180 to the right and passes the Great Hall again before going back up to ground level.

Originally the south side was dropoffs and the north side was pickups, so the taxis dropped off, looped under the Great Hall and then picked up.

 

[willem]

Yes, that picture was informative. I had misunderstood the route of the taxi loop, and was unaware of the 180° turns. I think I also misunderstood which door was under discussion. I thought it was the door near the rest rooms shown on Tyler's pcitures, but I now think it's the door on the diagonal wall in Tyler's pictures and missing from http://mglmarchitect...nstation_03.jpg. (And unless I'm continuing to baffle myself, the layout in Tyler's pictures is incompatible with the layout in the image neroden just posted, as well as showing a restaurant in the location of the Legacy Club.)

Since the door in the layout Tyler posted is a single door with no apparent queuing area, I would guess that it is an emergency exit and will not be available for normal use.

I do recall (from the Hard Hat Tour last May) a passageway large enough for vehicles running north-south from the locations of the 180° turns, and I had assumed it connected to the taxiway ramps. Now I assume it is at least one level below the taxiway turns.

 

[TylerP42]

The entrance that has the taxi stand is on Canal Street.

Also, the layout that I posted is plastered all over the place at CUS.

 

[wwchi]

Curious. I was born in 1976, which is usually considered Gen X but is really the "Oregon Trail Generation" (http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/04/oregon-trail-generation/), closer to Millennials....

...and I'm gonna go for the Older/Antique area. They may find a lot of 20-to-40s hanging out in that upper lounge.

Meanwhile, the 40-to-70s age bracket grew up when plastic was new and exciting and will probably head for the "modern look" downstairs!

January 1977 here. That article speaks the truth. I'll probably bounce between the antique and ooh-shiny-plastic areas and completely avoid the children's area.

Also, I've made at least three "Oregon Trail" jokes this week.

Thanks for the great info! I too will be avoiding the family area!!!

 

[andersone]

Mother contended children should be buried at birth with headphones for education and feeding tubes emerging at 21 fully educated with their own heath insurance. Unfortunately she could not find any headphones for me and she freely advocated that women should not have to cook

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Two stalls in the men's room.

Shower should not be in the restrooms.

Truck stop showers start at 10-12 dollars. They are cleaned after ever user. Not always detailed clean, but cleaned after ever user.

As stated above; you swip rewards card or pay cash. Watch monitor for next available room. Head to the room punch in door code. Enter and lock deadbolt. The shower room has toilet and sink, and a stool. Towels and wash rag, bar or soap dispenser.

Much better than the YMCA type that they putting in.

 

[RSG]

Curious. I was born in 1976, which is usually considered Gen X but is really the "Oregon Trail Generation" (http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/04/oregon-trail-generation/), closer to Millennials....

...and I'm gonna go for the Older/Antique area. They may find a lot of 20-to-40s hanging out in that upper lounge.

Meanwhile, the 40-to-70s age bracket grew up when plastic was new and exciting and will probably head for the "modern look" downstairs!

January 1977 here. That article speaks the truth. I'll probably bounce between the antique and ooh-shiny-plastic areas and completely avoid the children's area.

Also, I've made at least three "Oregon Trail" jokes this week.

Thanks for the great info! I too will be avoiding the family area!!!

Ditto. On a recent trip on the Capitol Limited [incidentally, the last train out of WAS to CHI before The Great Mid-Atlantic Storm Of 2016 hit], there was a young mother in the roomette next to mine with a three-ish old child and an under-one, the latter of which was fussing and crying most of the trip (except for a couple of overnight hours). I found out the passenger details when they went to the Met Lounge to wait for their next train. The fussy infant seemed to be quieting down by that time, but I didn't hang around to find out; opting to take in the relative quiet of the Citicorp Center/Ogilvie Transportation Center.

Let's hope the staff is as attentive about ensuring those who need the family area actually use it as they are about other things now...

 

[RSG]

The entrance that has the taxi stand is on Canal Street.

Also, the layout that I posted is plastered all over the place at CUS.

Except that the layout/floor plans are still not in a location where interested parties can actually study them (at least not without being "in the way"). It would have been nice if they thought to set up a redevelopment information center where one could actually get information [DHS-approved, of course].

 

[John Bredin]

http://mglmarchitects.com/images/uploads/work/insti_unionstation_03.jpg

At least some of that's gotta be part of the loooong-term plans: it shows an entrance to a "Clinton Street Subway" in the middle of the west side of the building along Clinton Street. But the most logical connection to the existing Clinton Blue Line station would be the existing tunnel to the parking garage at the south end of the station (by the ramps from the Great Hall to the platform concourse), so that must refer to the West Loop Transportation Center. http://burnhamplan100.lib.uchicago.edu/newberryexhibit/green-metropolis/rethinking.shtml But that's hardly more than a gleam in some planners' eyes at this point.

 

[RSG]

Anyone have any questions or insight? I'd love to be able to try to give you guys some more of my knowledge.

So what is the ingress/egress for passenger entry into the new Met Lounge, from what you can tell? Will it be markedly different from the current layout, which is basically a glorified office reception area, which works for shuttling people into offices on the same or other floors, but is horrid for processing passengers into a future travel itinerary or accommodating their need to kill an hour or two (or 3-6). Since trains, much as airplanes, board and detrain traffic in spurts rather than even flows, this often results in lines out the door of the current Met Lounge, often colliding with coach traffic boarding other trains.

A more workable solution, at least to me, would be to have a concierge/greeter outside the entry who would direct passengers into the next appropriate area, or for those who aren't needing assistance with bag check or where-am-I-where-do-I-go-next, can be issued a lounge pass on the spot. Also, having an exit-only door (not emergency-only) in the lounge which disperses into CUS would be helpful for those who want to exit the lounge and explore without having to be the salmon swimming upstream fighting incoming traffic into the lounge.

Venturing further into Fantasyland, it would be nice if a 21st Century lounge would have 21st Century technology, such as a code reader which would read QR, bar, and scatter codes from e-tickets and automatically print out a lounge pass with the necessary next-step information. That could also be automatically be used to grant reentry into the lounge and thus do away with the need for colored passes and the vigilant eye trying to keep tabs on both the people in front of the counter and entering through the doors.

 

[TylerP42]

Anthony & Tristan,

Thanks for rushing to put up this new board, after the disaster that befell you earlier today!

Great job guys!

There will be a check in desk area. So basically people can come in and check in. I think people will be buzzed in as well.

 

[RSG]

http://mglmarchitects.com/images/uploads/work/insti_unionstation_03.jpg

At least some of that's gotta be part of the loooong-term plans: it shows an entrance to a "Clinton Street Subway" in the middle of the west side of the building along Clinton Street. But the most logical connection to the existing Clinton Blue Line station would be the existing tunnel to the parking garage at the south end of the station (by the ramps from the Great Hall to the platform concourse), so that must refer to the West Loop Transportation Center. http://burnhamplan100.lib.uchicago.edu/newberryexhibit/green-metropolis/rethinking.shtml But that's hardly more than a gleam in some planners' eyes at this point.

They may be waiting, intentionally or not, to see what CTA does with upgrading the Clinton-Blue station. Last fall, WLS-TV had a story (coinciding with the anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act) on how a large number of CTA stations were not ADA-compliant, with Clinton-Blue being one of the worst. (No surprise to anyone who has transferred to CUS via CTA with luggage and had to slug it up or down stairs with near-90º turns.) The CTA spokesweasel they relied on for comment noted that Clinton-Blue was one of the first stations scheduled for upgrade, but with no definite timetable.

 

[RSG]

There will be a check in desk area. So basically people can come in and check in. I think people will be buzzed in as well.

Yeah, that basically tells me that it will be a hybrid of the current system and the Acela Lounge at Washington Union Station. It seems to work okay (and I do mean just "okay"---in January, the buzzer/doorbell was broken, so there was a "Please Knock" sign on the door) for WAS, but I've never seen the volume of traffic there that CUS gets at the Met Lounge.

EDIT: The only way this type of entry control really works efficiently is if the entry area is as big as Donald Trump's ego, or there is relatively limited traffic. I know that the new Met Lounge will be yuge compared to the current one, but I don't think it will be that large to use the same type of entry system, with potentially even more traffic.

 

[John Bredin]

They may be waiting, intentionally or not, to see what CTA does with upgrading the Clinton-Blue station. Last fall, WLS-TV had a story (coinciding with the anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act) on how a large number of CTA stations were not ADA-compliant, with Clinton-Blue being one of the worst. (No surprise to anyone who has transferred to CUS via CTA with luggage and had to slug it up or down stairs with near-90º turns.) The CTA spokesweasel they relied on for comment noted that Clinton-Blue was one of the first stations scheduled for upgrade, but with no definite timetable.

CTA is doing a damn sight better with ADA compliance on the L than NYCTA is with the New York Subway.
But I'm surprised that Clinton Blue is a priority for accessibility, even being the obvious connection from O'Hare to Union Station, because its layout makes installing elevator(s) a real bear. It's deep as Chicago subway stations go due to the river crossing, and the escalators to the platform from the mezzanine are loooooong. As it is now, the stairs to the platform end up a good distance behind the escalators. If I recall the layout correctly, an elevator entrance (because elevators go straight down) would pretty much have to be a block away from the existing station entrance. And that would either be:

*one block east of Clinton -- Canal St., near Union Station -- but then wheelchairs would have to get around the escalators and I don't think the platform is wide enough, or

*the west end of the platform, which would avoid the problem of getting around the escalators but would be a block farther away from Union Station.

I'd be exceedingly curious to see what even a tentative plan for accessibility at Clinton Blue would look like.

Extra credit and off-topic for Amtrak: I'd love for anyone to explain how to make North & Clybourn Red accessible, beginning with explaining exactly where the platforms *are* in relation to the station house.

 

[neroden]

http://mglmarchitects.com/images/uploads/work/insti_unionstation_03.jpg

At least some of that's gotta be part of the loooong-term plans:

Oh yes, it was just the first thing I could find which illustrated the wacky layout of the taxi ramp. They're not planning to change the taxi ramp..

 

[neroden]

CTA is doing a damn sight better with ADA compliance on the L than NYCTA is with the New York Subway.

But I'm surprised that Clinton Blue is a priority for accessibility,

Well, it isn't actually the top priority. Among the unfunded ADA projects, the priorities appear to be, in this order:#1 Everything on the Red & Purple lines north of the subway. This is the "Red & Purple Modernization project"

#2 "Congress Line" portion of the Blue Line. This includes the Clinton station but is mostly the freeway-median stations west of there. They want to do Clinton Blue Line at the same time as the stations to the west to avoid shutting things down for the work on the stations to the west and then shutting things down *again* for Clinton.

#3 Remaining Loop elevated stations

#4 Remaining subway stations & Blue Line to O'Hare stations

There have been lots of indications that this is the priority order. The Red & Purple line designs are mostly done and they're looking for final engineering and construction funding; the Blue Line Congress Branch is in design / preliminary engineering.

Extra credit and off-topic for Amtrak: I'd love for anyone to explain how to make North & Clybourn Red accessible, beginning with explaining exactly where the platforms *are* in relation to the station house.

A lot of underground "mezzanine" work. Expensive. You need an all-underground platform-to-mezzanine elevator on the southbound side, and a platform-to-mezzanine-to-headhouse elevator on the northbound side (possibly with a headhouse extension depending on the exact position of the platforms). The northbound side should be pretty easy. The southbound side will probably require temporary closure of Clybourn Ave., maybe Dayton St. as well., and maybe some property acquisition, to get the elevator in.

 

[trainman74]

I wonder if "Clinton Street Subway" on the plan actually does refer to a connection to the Clinton Blue Line station -- my first thought is that they could just be using "subway" in the sense of "pedestrian underpass."

 

[NorthShore]

Recall, Daley had some sort of plan for a new L line which would have, indeed, run under Clinton.