(The following article by Susan DeMar Lafferty was posted on the Chicago Daily Southtown website on October 6.)
CHICAGO — Metra and New Lenox officials will dedicate the village’s second commuter rail station at 10 a.m. today.
Service from the station officially begins on the SouthWest Service Line on Monday, with trains departing the New Lenox station for Chicago at 6:10 a.m. and 7 a.m. Trains will depart the city at 5 p.m. and 5:40 p.m., arriving at the Laraway Road depot at 6:16 p.m. and 6:56 p.m., respectively.
These are the same four trains now serving Manhattan. In January, Metra extended its SouthWest Service Line 12 miles from Orland Park’s 179th Street station to Manhattan and nearly doubled the number of trains that have been serving riders on the previous route from Orland Park to Chicago.
The Laraway Road station is just east of Cedar Road. It will provide a 76-minute ride via two trains to and from Chicago’s Union Station Monday through Friday.
The $2.5 million project includes a warming shelter with washrooms, a 299-space parking lot on the east side of the tracks and a road from Laraway Road north to the station. Future parking will be added on both sides of the tracks for a total of 1,276 spaces.
In addition to Manhattan and New Lenox, trains will stop at 179th, 153rd and 143rd streets in Orland Park, Palos Park, Palos Heights, Worth, Chicago Ridge, Oak Lawn, Ashburn (83rd Street and Central Park) and Wrightwood (79th Street and Kedzie Avenue).
There will be no service on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
Daily fares will be $4.90 for a one-way trip, $41.65 for a 10-trip ticket and $132.30 monthly. Parking is $1.
Commuters will be inconvenienced for a few days with the closure of Laraway Road while Metra improves its grade crossing as part of the Laraway Road widening project. The road will close at 6 a.m. Oct. 13 and reopen at 6 a.m. Oct. 18. Traffic will be detoured to Delaney Road.