I noticed via Google Maps the former C&NW freight lead to the Merchandise Mart comes within a City Block of connecting with the Northern tracks into Chicago Union Station (Canal Street). Looks like you could make a connection to Union Station with a short routing down Canal Street. I am curious why Metra has not looked into this?
Seems to me it might offer more operational flexibility. No idea what condition that lead is in or what the clearences are but it only appears to be 2-3 miles before it connects with the North Line to Kenosha.
Thought I would point this out as it has been mentioned more then once there is no connection to the C&NW North Line from Union Station. Just looking at Google Maps and not knowing any other physical limitations does not look to be too capital intensive of a project.
Couple of observations.#### 1) Not sure whether Union Station harbors the capacity to accomodate METRA (CNW/UP) North Line service. Not on top of what it handles now.#### 2) Money, money, money. Or perhaps capital, capital capital. Or the absence thereof. Capital bucks, by definition are scarce, meaning that there are never as many dollars to spend as people would wish. For the funds to acquire/buy/pay for METRA North Line access to Union Station, which lies a short four-block walk from the ex-CNW/UP Ogilvie Transportation Center (North Western Station, to old timers), is the expenditure realistically worth what it will buy?#### 3) Many, many years ago (meaning…oh, mid-1970s or thereabouts), some governmental entity in Chicago (the City, the Chicago Area Transportation Study --the area’s designeted metropolitan planning organization, CTA --some outfit, I just don’t recall an
A few comments to supplement the posting made by Billio.
The track in question connects on the north end with the commuter trackage beween Clybourn and Ogilvie (North Western) Stations used by both the UP-North and UP-Northwest lines. It doesn’t connect with any active trackage on the south end. It is largely on the alignment of the old passenger main that used to connect the CNW main lines running north and northwest of Chicago to the old C&NW Wells Street Station (the present site of the Merchandise Mart). After the “new” North Western Station on Madison was opened and Wells Street was closed, the track was used as an industrial track and also for passenger car storage. The passenger storage ended decades ago. Today, the track is used solely as low speed industrial track, serving the Tribune Printing Plant and some other industries.
I suppose it would be physically possible to use this track as a connection to Union Station, but it would be
Falcon48: Nicely put. What possible benefit would there be in putting UP trains into Union? And the stations are not 4 blocks apart, only 2, from Madison to Adams. And there is another direct to platform entrance to the north platforms for MDN and MDW trains at Union Station on Madison.
OK, well thats interesting. I don’t think Union Station is at full capacity now to tell you the truth neither is Ogilvie for that matter. So the background on all this is interesting.
I understand historically thats how the stations were built and thats what we ended up with. I’m willing to bet that there is a possibility that Ogilvie could be shutdown with some fixing of track and better signalling, have everything route to Union Station North Platforms. I don’t think the traffic on the Milwaukee Lines is all that heavy nor do I think the Milwaukee Line trains have to sit in Union Station for so long. It would make the leads on the North Side of Union Station a lot more busy though. Also, not sure if the concourse of Union Station could handle the extra people, so maybe thats a concern along with the tight squeeze rush hour traffic would create I’d be curious if the freed up real estate would pay for the changes in track configuration if they did one day decide to consolidate.
If you lived in Chicago, rather than Texas, you would not propose such an idea as consolidation. There are three suburban lines coming into the north platforms at Union, and three more even busier lines coming into Ogilvie. If someone wished to build where the tracks at Ogilvie are currently, they would use air rights over them, the same as other locations in the city.
Sorry to hear that. Although the BLS averages for management, business and financial white collars in metro Dallas in 2009 was $40/hr., better than Milwaukee’s $36.67, Chicago was higher than Dallas by a buck, $40.98. Admittedly our taxes are higher, but…
However, it really makes no sense to move Metra UP into Union Station.
Metra UP lines: 114,100 average weekday passengers on 194 trains
Metra MD and NC lines: 52,200 passengers, on 140 trains.
There’s NO chance that Ogilivie Station would be “shutdown” in my lifetime or in the lifetimes of my grandchildren - none, nada. In order to close Ogilvie. Metra would have to move more than just the UP North line trains to Union Station, They would also have to move the UP-Northwest and UP-West lines as well. There’s simply no way that Union Station could handle this additional traffic unless it were completely rebuilt with lots of additional tracks. And that couldn’t be done without tearing down the many office buildings that have been built west of the Union Station tracks over the past few decades. The possible sale of the land now occupied by the Ogilvie trainsheds couldn’t even come close to the cost of la
Agreed. The difference between Union Station’s cave-like train level, with dark, narrow platforms and Ogilvie’s brighter concourse and platforms is notable.
Moving suburban trains from North Western Station to Union Station would involve shoehorning them into a smaller station: North Western Station has 16 departure tracks while the north side of Union Station has 10 tracks if you include track 19 (usually reserved for Amtrak) with an existing operation already in place.
And don’t forget that NWestern has a direct connection to the Lake Street Elevated with direct rapid transit service to the Loop and southern areas of Chicago, while Clinton CTA subway station does not have a direct connection to Union and requires (or required) some exposure to Chicago weather. My experience was the most commuters who do not walk (and most do or did walk) to their jobs from Union use one of the connecting bus services, while a majority of those arriving at NW do use the Lake Street elevated connection, which now has two lines running on it, possibly a two minute wait between trains during the rush hour.
There used to be a direct indoor connection between Northwestern (Ogilvie) station and the Lake Street 'L" called (appropriately) the “Northwest Passage”, but it was removed some years ago. Now, you have walk down Clinton Street about a block between the “Suburban Concourse” (the concourse under the tracks between Washington and Randolph) and the ‘L’ station. Still, that’s not too bad, and a whole better than the ‘L’ connections from Union Station.
If I’m a commuter with a choice of stations, I’d choose Ogilvie over Union Station every time. It’s the difference between using a modern, attractive station with lots of nice shopping and concessions and a station that looks (and smells) like something designed for the Soviet Gulag.
Chicago Union Station isn’t that bad and is a whole lot better since the renovations in the late 1980’s. Part of the difference is that Union Station tracks are at the actual grade level with skyscrapers built on air rights over the tracks while North Western Station tracks are elevated with nothing above them. Union Station also has some nice shops and concessions on the mezzanine level.
Union Station may work well for commuters, but it is totally inadequate as an Amtrak facility. Commuters tend to arrive a few minutes before departure and go directly to their train. Longer distance passengers arrive early enough so as to be sure of catching that paticular train and so accumulate in waiting areas.
I believe the waiting area for northbound trains at Union undersized to serve the number of Amtrak passengers involved. I used it twice last year. On both occasions seating was provided for at most 2/3’s of the people present, but there simply isn’t room to expand available chairs by much. Performing “security theatre” at the entrance to the platforms simply made a bad situation worse.
I just can’t imagine adding to the problem by transferring additional trains/commuters to Union Station.
I agree. As I pointed out in the pictures comparing Union with other stations, it really isn’t a very pleasant facility to welcome visitors to Chicago.
Just for the record, the UP West Line does has direct access to Union Station at the Western Avenue interchange. When the California Zephyr is re-routed to the UP, which happens once or twice a year, that is the way it uses to get in to Union Station.