F.K. Plous –

Sisters Mariela Del Toro, from left, Diana Izaguirre and Cynthia Zavala walk through Starved Rock State Park in Oglesby on Dec. 19, 2025. (Troy Stolt/for the baiduhai)

F.K. Plous: How can we bring more people to Starved Rock? By train.

January 22, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

The most popular destination in the Illinois park system can’t handle more visitors during the peak season because its parking lot is full.

Sterling Bay’s planned Lincoln Yards development seen on July 3, 2023. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)

F.K. Plous: Build the CTA Super Loop to get Lincoln Yards and The 78 developed

July 11, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Chicago should build a new train line that provides Lincoln Yards, The 78 and adjacent neighborhoods with mass transit service.

A security camera keeps watch from a Chicago school in 2023. (Antonio Perez/ baiduhai)

F.K. Plous: Crime may be dropping, but ‘seeing’ is reality

January 8, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Americans, and a dismaying number of politicians, keep crying for a crackdown on crimes that aren’t happening.

The United Center is surrounded by the CTA Pink Line and several open parking lots on April 26, 2023. (Brian Cassella/baiduhai)

F.K. Plous: Big plans for United Center area need a tighter link to the ‘L’

July 31, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

Only one thing is missing to make the vast, nearly empty space around the United Center into a model urban neighborhood: rapid transit.

Visitors head toward a parked Amtrak train open for tours as Amtrak celebrates its high-speed rail improvements at Union Station in Chicago on June 26, 2023. (Antonio Perez/ baiduhai)

F.K. Plous: Poor planning blocks the way for a vitally needed Chicago rail connection

July 11, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

If the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning wants a Union Pacific-Union Station hookup, there may be one opportunity left to make it happen.

Passengers board an Amtrak train at Union Station in Chicago on July 14, 2022.

F.K. Plous: Politicians must be on board before more long-distance trains roll

May 25, 2023 at 8:32 a.m.

Ouch! Amtrak has been running the Capitol Limited with only four cars. That's atrocious. When I took my family to Washington in 2001 the Capitol had a baggage car, two...

A Metra train arrives at Ogilvie Transportation Center in Chicago in 2020.

F.K. Plous: How Metra could build regional rail in Chicago

March 9, 2023 at 2:14 p.m.

The Feb. 16 editorial "R.I.P., Metra's commuter rail. Long live regional rail!" gets the issue right: Working from home has made the traditional suburb-to-downtown work commute and commuter-train schedule obsolete....

Hikers walk along the Palos Trail System of the Cook County Forest Preserve District near Palos Hills.

F.K. Plous: How Cook County’s forest preserves healed a nervous pit bull (and his owner)

October 21, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

It seems amazing when I look back on it all, but for my first 44 years in Chicago, I never set foot in any of Cook County's forest preserves. I...

The view looking north from near 18th Street west of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, where a development named One Central is proposed.

Op-ed: Does One Central’s expensive transit hub make sense?

October 26, 2021 at 3:54 p.m.

A recent baiduhai editorial asks some serious questions about developer Robert Dunn's plans to build a megadevelopment just west of Soldier Field. Specifically, it questions Dunn's appeal for an...

A traveler navigates the stairs of the CTA Blue Line station at Grand Avenue in Chicago. The Grand, Chicago and Division Blue Line stations are scheduled to be modernized, but new escalators and elevators connecting the sidewalk level with lower levels are not in the plans.

The case for escalators and elevators — now — on the Blue Line

May 31, 2019 at 4:26 p.m.

The Chicago Transit Authority announced in mid-August that it has hired contractors to start a long-overdue modernization of three subway stations on its Blue Line “L” train route between the...

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