(The following article by Amanda Vogt was posted on the Chicago Tribune’s website on January 31.)
CHICAGO — Business and community leaders along Metra’s proposed suburb-to-suburb commuter line could not resist making wish lists for station locations Thursday, fueling long-held dreams of the rewards rapid transit might bring.
As Metra unveiled its plans for a new $1 billion commuter rail line, officials sized up 17 proposed stops on an arc stretching from Joliet to the northwest suburbs and then to O’Hare International Airport. The planned 55-mile route would connect almost 100 communities in Will, DuPage and Cook Counties using a new fleet of European-style trains cruising at 79 m.p.h.
“We’re very pleased and excited at the possibilities,” said West Chicago Mayor Mike Fortner, who has campaigned for years for rail service along the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad line. “We’re looking to the commuter service to spur redevelopment around the downtown area and at the future technology park.”
Funding is a long way from being secured, but other mayors and corporate officials expressed similar hopes for the Metra STAR Line, or Suburban Transit Access Route, expected to run at 15-minute intervals during peak periods.
The route would pass near major companies and shopping centers, including Ikea, Sears, BP Amoco and the Louis Joliet and Woodfield shopping centers.
Ikea store manager Dan Saucier says the STAR line would be only good for business at his Swedish home-goods store in Schaumburg.
“It’s absolutely fantastic,” Saucier said. “We have over 600 employees, many who reverse commute. The vast majority commute an average of 30 to 40 minutes to work.”
Saucier said on any given weekend, because the Schaumburg store is the only Ikea in the region, the parking lot is filled with cars from Chicago and all over the Midwest.
“On a weekend, the parking lot has more out-of-state plates than Illinois plates. It’s also a battleground, so public transit to the region would be a great advantage,” Saucier said.
Officials at Hoffman Estates-based Sears, anchoring the village’s Prairie Stone business park, also covet a STAR stop as a benefit for employees. Sears spokeswoman Peggy Palter said many employees, including what she described as the corporate “brain trust,” live in the Joliet and Naperville areas.
Traffic counts show 3.7 million daily automobile trips are made in the six-county region, resulting in near-standstill at times on expressways, toll roads and main arterial streets. The growth in suburban population is projected to outpace the region’s growth in the next 20 years, with much of it in the northwest suburbs.
Susan Hall, director of real estate and site services at 3Com’s Rolling Meadows location, said intolerable traffic congestion at the interchange of the Northwest Tollway and Illinois Highway 53 has resulted in employee turnover and lost business. Hall said 10 percent of 3Com employees say they would take public transportation if it were available.
In Arlington Heights, home to about 50,000 jobs, Mayor Arlene Mulder is concerned about losing those commuters. Mulder said people are choosing to work closer to home to spend more time with their families, making it more difficult for businesses to keep workforces intact under the existing transportation choices.
“For a parent trying to schedule child care, public transit is more dependable,” Mulder said. “Everyone’s so tired of road-widening projects, which don’t even relieve congestion. It’s really about options, about making mobility more feasible.”