Final meeting on Cook/DuPage corridor tonight

Tonight in Addison marks the final public meeting on the Regional Transportation Authority's plan to improve transit in Cook and DuPage counties.

The RTA has hosted a series of forums for people to comment on its Cook/DuPage corridor proposal.

Among ideas in the study are extending the Chicago Transit Authority's Blue Line from Forest Park in Cook County to Lombard near Yorktown shopping center and providing car-pool lanes along the Eisenhower Expressway.

Other possibilities are offering bus rapid transit on the North-South Tollway, the Reagan Tollway and Route 83, plus providing commuter train service between Midway and O'Hare International airports.

The ultimate goal is to decrease traffic problems and ease congestion, planners say.

The RTA's latest forum will be from 6 to 7 p.m. today at the Addison village hall, 1 Friendship Plaza.

Earlier meetings have drawn mixed reviews, including one in Oak Park where about 100 people showed up with concerns.

At a gathering last week in Lombard, where about 20 people attended, responses were generally positive, although some were skeptical about the funding.

The project would cost up to $8 million, to come mainly from federal grants.

"It sounds like a wonderful thing, but I have a hard time contemplating all that money," said Judy Mazzolini of Lombard.

"It is an expensive system," RTA corridor planning studies manager William Lenski agreed.

The Cook/DuPage corridor's borders are Cicero Avenue in Chicago to the Kane County line. At the center is the Eisenhower Expressway and Reagan Tollway, while Metra's Milwaukee West Line and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Line form the north and south boundaries, respectively.