The following story by Robert McCoppin was published in today’s online version of the Chicago Daily Herald)
CHICAGO — Suburban commuters could go from Hoffman Estates to O’Hare International Airport or south to Joliet under a proposal Wednesday for a new suburb-to-suburb train line.
The proposal by Metra, the commuter rail agency, would be one of the most ambitious transit expansions ever undertaken in Chicago’s suburbs, costing an estimated $1.1 billion.
The Chicago Transit Authority and Pace, the suburban bus agency, have made proposals to extend transit from O’Hare along the Northwest Tollway.
But Metra has gone further by also proposing to connect the Northwest Tollway train line to a new north-south rail line on the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway, known as the EJ&E.
The Suburban Transit Access Route, or STAR Line, would connect major suburban centers, including Woodfield Shopping Center, the proposed Schaumburg Convention Center, the Sears headquarters at Prairie Stone Development in Hoffman Estates, BP Amoco and Lucent Technologies in Naperville and International Harvester in Joliet.
As the proposal was first reported in the Daily Herald, Metra would use railroad cars equipped with diesel engines so they could run smaller trains, carrying fewer passengers with more frequency.
The cars, called diesel multiple units, or DMUs, carry about 100 passengers. They would run three to eight cars per train every 15 minutes or so.
It would take about 20 minutes to go from Hoffman Estates to O’Hare, and about 25 minutes from Hoffman Estates to Joliet.
The smaller trains would run at the same maximum speed as current Metra trains — 79 mph — but would be 12 times more fuel-efficient.
The smaller type of train is common in Europe but rare in the United States, where the Federal Railroad Administration requires it be built to withstand collisions to the same degree as a locomotive.
While only one company is authorized by the U.S. government to make such cars in the United States, Metra officials believe other rail car manufacturers could make the cars if they were ordered.
The $1.1 billion estimated cost includes $225 million for the segment from Hoffman Estates to Joliet, $329 million on the Northwest Tollway segment from Hoffman Estates to O’Hare, and $192 million for 85 new cars.
Planners believe the passenger demand will justify the expense. By 2020, forecasts indicate there will be 3.7 million daily automobile trips within five miles of the train line.
Metra has no exact ridership estimate, but with connecting bus service, Metra officials believe they can get thousands of those people out of their cars.
Metra Executive Director Jeff Ladd called the plan the most innovative transportation plan for the suburbs since the interstate highway system of the 1950s.
Eventually, Ladd said, the line could connect to new train routes down the North-South Tollway or from O’Hare to Midway Airport.
“This has been a dream of (ours) at Metra for some time, to build north-south routes to complete a basic suburban grid connecting our 11 radiating lines,” Ladd said, referring to the existing lines to and from Chicago. “For the first time, suburbanites would have an alternative to the automobile.”
At least seven suburban mayors along the route loved the idea.
Hoffman Estates — now the second largest municipality in the area without passenger rail service — would become the crossroads of a new suburban development corridor, Village President William McLeod said.
“We’re very excited about it,” McLeod said. “This will help us address regional highway congestion and enhance our ability to attract and retain business.”
The reach of the proposal, McLeod said, helps make Metra’s proposal better than the CTA’s or Pace.
The CTA’s proposal to extend the Blue Line goes only as far as the Schaumburg Convention Center. Pace’s proposal to build a Bus Rapid Transit Line along the Northwest Tollway with train station-like stops would go to Randall Road in Elgin.
Extending the train line south also picks up the political support of mayors in West Chicago, Naperville and Joliet, and would go through the territory of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who recently helped get funding for a Metra extension to Elburn and for increased service on the North Central Service to Antioch.
This spring and summer, mayors of 10 Northwest suburbs along the Northwest Tollway will evaluate the proposals in terms of feasibility, cost and ridership and decide which plan they like best.
Then, the Regional Transportation Authority will submit a request to Illinois’ members of Congress.
By the end of the year, Congress is expected to decide which transportation projects from across the country to fund in the next multiyear transportation funding bill, known as T-3.
Metra also plans other significant improvements to existing train lines.
Metra wants $145 million to extend the Union Pacific Northwest line from McHenry to Johnsburg, adding three to five trains a day there and building new train yards in Johnsburg and near Harvard.
It will also ask for $235 million to upgrade and double-track part of the Union Pacific West line to Geneva, to add seven to nine trains a day, which could help relieve crowds on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line to Aurora.
Finally, Metra wants $150 million to improve a switching station to cut two or three minutes from commutes on the Milwaukee Road north and west lines, the North Central Service and the Union Pacific West line.
Those three projects would take five or six years to complete.
With strong political will behind the project, coordinator Larry Bury said, “it’s very likely this could come to fruition.”