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Packed trains and some confusion among commuters were reported this morning on Metra’s Union Pacific North Line, where work began on an eight-year, $185 million project to rebuild 22 bridges and replace the Ravenswood station.

Metra is running a revised schedule because trains share a single track in the construction zone around the Ravenswood station.

The agency made some last-minute changes to its schedules after fielding complaints from riders at three meetings.

Metra added stops near New Trier High School and in Wilmette and backed away from a plan to move the busy Ravenswood station north of Lawrence Avenue from its current location south of the street.

Metra said moving the station would have been a matter of several hundred feet, but residents said the station was best suited to the industrial area where it currently sits. They feared an increase in noise and a decrease in property values.
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Source: The Chicago Tribune

New Trier High School and the village of Wilmette persuaded Metra to add additional train stops during an eight-year construction project set to begin this month.

Metra expects to begin an eight-year, $185 million project to replace 22 aging bridges on its Union Pacific North line. During the project, north and southbound trains will share a single track through the construction zone.

Coupled with federal regulations concerning the minimum amount of time between trains that share a rail, the project will result in fewer trains, fewer stops and slightly longer travel times.

Metra’s initial attempt to produce a train schedule during the project was met with criticism from local riders. But it was amended after three recent public meetings and input from local municipal agencies.

The original train schedule eliminated key options for New Trier faculty and staff to get to and from the school, as well as for Wilmette employees to travel north at the end of the workday.

An amended schedule provides more choices.

“We’re very pleased that they did that,” said Linda Yonke, superintendent of New Trier High School District 203. “The schedule will still be a little different than it was. But the changes that they put in last week should help a great deal.”

Normally, three southbound Metra trains stop at the Indian Hill station — nearest to New Trier’s Winnetka campus — between 7:30 a.m. and 8:15 a.m., when classes begin. That was to be cut to one, at 7:46 a.m.

Metra heard New Trier’s complaints and added a second train, at 8:04 a.m., for students, as well as an additional earlier train, at 6:52 a.m., geared toward faculty, said Meg Reile, Metra spokeswoman.

The train is a main mode of transportation to the school for both staff and students, said Nicole Dizon, New Trier spokeswoman.

“A good number of faculty take the train and particularly students in Glencoe. But I don’t have a specific number,” Dizon said.

Classes begin Aug. 25, and the amended train schedule takes effect Sunday.
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Source: The Chicago Tribune