I mean considering demand exceeds capacity on the brown and red lines every single weekday evening and ridership keeps increasing as the system recovers, yes, i think it's safe to say ridership will get back to 2019 levels - we're like 80% of the way there already.

This station, once rebuilt, will be in place for another hundred years, just like the last. When it comes to permanent infrastructure upgrades that directly address real needs for residents, my upper limit on price doesn't really exist. A $500M train station really isn't a big deal in the grand scope of the total Illinois transportation budget (which will mostly be spent on far more questionable projects like expanding highways)