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Discussion related to commuter rail and rapid transit operations in the Chicago area including the South Shore Line, Metra Rail, and Chicago Transit Authority.

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 #1364835  by BucktownJim
 
I noticed that both the MD-W and the MD-N go past Humboldt Park, but there is no stop there. Contrast that with how the MD-N has three stops between Montrose and Fullerton (Mayfield, Grayland, Healy), and the MD-W has five stops between Harlem and Cicero. It seems like the Humboldt Park area gets "skipped" on the way into the city. Not sure if this is a remnant of the fact that Humboldt Park used to have the Humboldt line on the L, or what.

Any thoughts on the chances of a stop added to either the MD-W or the MD-N for Humboldt Park? Would it be feasible given the track infrastructure? Just looking at a map, it seems like Division Street would be a good spot for a station.

I know it's a bit pie-in-the-sky, but if Edgewater can get a new Metra station, why not Humboldt Park?
 #1364984  by doepack
 
Though not served by rapid transit in over 60 years, Humboldt Park isn't exactly a transit "desert". Nearby CTA bus service on Division, North Ave., or Grand is a better (and cheaper) choice for those heading to the Loop, since each route connects to the Blue line for the final leg to downtown.

And of the five aforementioned MD-W stations, only Galewood and Mont Clare have full time service. The others are basically rush hour stops only, which includes Grand/Cicero. For Humboldt Park residents heading to suburban jobs, transferring here from CTA's Grand ave bus isn't difficult.

As I understand it, part of the reason a Metra station is being built in Edgewater on UP/N is to relieve some of the congestion 1 1/2 miles south at Ravenswood; which is the busiest station on that line, thus giving commuters another option. With paltry to negligible in-city ridership along both of the old Milwaukee Road commuter lines, building another station in this corridor would make little sense.

That said, remember this is Chicago. And should the day come when a local politician or alderman with enough muscle and connections wants a Metra station built here, don't bet against it...
 #1365013  by Tadman
 
Interestingly enough, I've lived near Metras' Clybourn and/or Ravenswood station the entire time I've lived in the city. I take the CTA downtown every day and Metra perhaps 2-3 times/year. It's just a lot easier to catch a train that runs every 5-10 minutes rather than on a schedule. It's also easier to have 25 downtown station options rather than one madhouse station west of the river. The inbounds are typically SRO by the time they hit Clybourn.

The only reason I see for adding Metra stops a few miles out of downtown is for job growth in that area. For example, the new Google building is near the Western Metra stop and that's probably useful for suburbanites that work at Google or in the budding west-loop tech corridor. In most cases, however, that would take a coordinated effort by the city to open up commercial development near said stations.

Rumor has it the reason CNW kept Ravenswood open is because they had a large accounting office in the adjacent building at Lawrence/Ravenswood. It's now under development as a commercial center, and Lawrence avenue is really getting busy. That would be a good place to emphasize commercial development around the transit, but it doesn't look like they're doing such.
 #1365053  by BucktownJim
 
doepack wrote: As I understand it, part of the reason a Metra station is being built in Edgewater on UP/N is to relieve some of the congestion 1 1/2 miles south at Ravenswood; which is the busiest station on that line, thus giving commuters another option. With paltry to negligible in-city ridership along both of the old Milwaukee Road commuter lines, building another station in this corridor would make little sense.

That said, remember this is Chicago. And should the day come when a local politician or alderman with enough muscle and connections wants a Metra station built here, don't bet against it...
Interesting. Hadn't heard that about Ravenswood congestion driving construction of the Edgewater station, but that makes sense. I went digging around on Metra's site, and they have reports including the passenger counts ranked by station (amongst a bunch of other reports) here:
http://metrarail.com/metra/en/home/abou ... _data.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ravenswood ranks at #4 for boardings in the entire system (out of 236 total stations).

Also, as you pointed out, the MD-W stations have pretty low boarding totals (Grand/Cicero comes in at 193rd). Interesting. Would have thought it would have been higher.
 #1365079  by BucktownJim
 
Tadman wrote:Interestingly enough, I've lived near Metras' Clybourn and/or Ravenswood station the entire time I've lived in the city. I take the CTA downtown every day and Metra perhaps 2-3 times/year. It's just a lot easier to catch a train that runs every 5-10 minutes rather than on a schedule. It's also easier to have 25 downtown station options rather than one madhouse station west of the river. The inbounds are typically SRO by the time they hit Clybourn.
I'd argue that a station like Clybourn has CTA-like frequency during rush hours. The UP-NW and the UP-N combined at Clybourn result in a train every couple minutes or so at peak times (again though, during rush hours). Agreed though that the Metra leaves you limited as to your destination.
 #1415307  by MetraBNSF
 
Realistically, the Western Ave station is not even a mile east of the Humboldt Park area and would be a short distance for those residents to access the station.
 #1416799  by BucktownJim
 
MetraBNSF wrote:Realistically, the Western Ave station is not even a mile east of the Humboldt Park area and would be a short distance for those residents to access the station.
Agreed, however when you're on foot, a mile can be a bit of a walk to get to a train. And the majority of Humboldt Park is much further than a mile away from the Western Ave station.

At one point, I plotted a 3/4 mile circle around each and every train stop (CTA and Metra) on the North side. With the general idea of trying to see how much of the North side was outside of a 3/4 mile walk to some sort of train.

The only places that were more than a 3/4 mile walk to a train station were areas right adjacent to the river (which makes sense, as this was typically an industrial corridor), and Humboldt Park. That's what originally got me thinking of the idea of a Metra station in Humboldt, as I figured that would be much more feasible to do than running a CTA line there.