Station Boardings...High and Low

Served by a whopping 12 daily trains (out of 94), BNSF's Halsted station remains one of Metra's most minimally used stations. Which is actually somewhat surprising, considering the new development that has been going on in the area for several years now, including new condos and retail shops, I thought there would be more patronage at this station by now. Wasn't exactly expecting it to become Naperville, but I'm surprised it's not doing at least a little better. Even the last outbound local train of the night (1293, departs CUS 2030) doesn't stop here.

Other minimal stations like 75th St. on ME, and Prarie St. on the RI's Beverly branch see very little ridership as well, even in rush hours. Any other candidates?

Kedzie on the UP West line.

Prairie Street on RI had a ridership count of 43 in 2002 according to RTAMS, which makes it the lowest on RI. MED also has a few stations with numbers only in the 20's...107th and 111th are two of them. 18th Street only had 16 back in '02. Halsted ridership in 2002 was a low 41.

Another interesting topic would be the other end of ridership...with stations having thousands of boardings each weekday. One station that is suprising to me is Route 59. It is the newest addition to BNSF and has become Metra's busiest station with 5,001 boardings in 2002. Naperville is also not too far behind with 3,734. 80th Ave. is RI's #1 station with 2,297 boardings.

metraRI wrote:Another interesting topic would be the other end of ridership...with stations having thousands of boardings each weekday. One station that is suprising to me is Route 59. It is the newest addition to BNSF and has become Metra's busiest station with 5,001 boardings in 2002. Naperville is also not too far behind with 3,734. 80th Ave. is RI's #1 station with 2,297 boardings.

I'd say a good majority of the people that use the Route 59 station are from outside the Naperville and Aurora areas. A lot of people from Plainfield, Shorewood, Warrenville, and even West Chicago come over to Route 59. Plainfield has seen its population soar from 4,500 in 1990 to 30,314 in 2005. West Chicago had a population of about 26,000 in 2004, however, faster and more frequent express service on the BNSF cause many people to come over to Route 59. It is amazing to see an 11 or 12 car train that serves only Route 59 and Washington St. in downtown Naperville (also Aurora in the morning) fill to complete capacity and be standing room only.

Lisle, Belmont, and Downers Grove see people from Bolingbrook, Woodridge, and even as far away as Lemont come to the stations in these two communities. Lisle has significant constraints when it comes to parking, as most spaces are filled by 7:30am.

Once completed, the capacity improvements on UP-W should ease the overcrowding at the Lisle and Naperville parking lots on BNSF, since Metra will finally be able to offer additional express trains on UP-W. I don't expect a dramatic increase in the number of trains initially, but with the continued growth in Kane County plus the former BNSF refugees now boarding in West Chicago, 10 or even 11 car trains is a real possibility. The additional third main between River Forest and Elmhurst can't be installed soon enough...

There was talk a while back of installing universal crossovers in conjunction with the College Ave station construction in Wheaton, but it never took place. The proposed UP-W schedule once upgrades are complete increase the current schedule from 59 up to 80 trains daily.

Even with crossovers, the center track on the UP West line won't be useful for express trains unless the UP stops parking freight trains there. During rush hours, there are almost always one or two freights parked on the center track around River Forest and Oak Park, as well as others between Lombard and Glen Ellyn, and between Wheaton and Winfield.

Has construction started on any UP-W improvements, or is it still only written on paper? It would be interesting to see if ridership changes occur on BNSF as a result of more frequent trains with less travel times on UP-W.

BMT Standard wrote:Even with crossovers, the center track on the UP West line won't be useful for express trains unless the UP stops parking freight trains there. During rush hours, there are almost always one or two freights parked on the center track around River Forest and Oak Park, as well as others between Lombard and Glen Ellyn, and between Wheaton and Winfield.

There is an additional staging area for freights along the center track between Elburn and LaFox, so that's one option. And last time I looked, there's still plenty of space in the former coach yard area for short to moderate sized freights at West Chicago...

metraRI wrote:Has construction started on any UP-W improvements, or is it still only written on paper? It would be interesting to see if ridership changes occur on BNSF as a result of more frequent trains with less travel times on UP-W

I'm not sure if the projected $384 million dollar price tag for the UP Geneva subdivision upgrades has been federally approved, and even if it has, construction will not begin until funding sources are identified for the federally required matching local funds. If it ever does become a reality, I wouldn't expect BNSF's ridership to fall off that much, if at all, especially if the explosive growth continues along the Naperville corridor...

How is that "boardings" number arrived at? That can't be per year, sounds more like per day???

Tadman wrote:How is that "boardings" number arrived at? That can't be per year, sounds more like per day???

For each revenue train, the number of boardings is calculated by a combination of conductor counts and ticket sales. For monthlies and ten-rides, Metra uses a 12 month average of ticket sales at each station to arrive at a central figure, which is then included in its annual operating budget as posted on its website. Actual weekday totals are shown at RTAMS, and while it has historical information on station usage, the current infomation needs to be updated since the information is four years old already. If/when it is updated, it'll be interesting to see the initial ridership totals for Metra's newest stations...

BMT Standard wrote:Kedzie on the UP West line.

Mannheim on the Milwaukee West Line.

doepack wrote:Prarie St. on the RI's Beverly branch see very little ridership as well, even in rush hours.

123rd and Prarie are complete wastes and should be abolished. It's not like walking to Vermont Street would be that brutal to the one person every other train who actually gets off at one of those two stops.