The Road to the Metra System (2024)

Our region has always been a great center for rail transportation, and over the years Metra has established itself as our nation’s fourth-busiest commuter rail system and the largest outside the New York City area. It all came together by bringing together historic rail lines that served our area. Here is their history.

Metra Electric

Started: By Illinois Central Railroad, which was chartered in 1851 to build a railroad from Cairo to Centralia (named for the railroad) and then branch from Centralia to Chicago and to Galena. The 700 miles of track were completed in 1856.

• “Suburban service” to Hyde Park started on July 21, 1856. (Hyde Park wasn’t part of Chicago until 1899.)
• The branch lines were added in 1883 (South Chicago, extended to 93rd by Metra in 2000) and 1892 (Blue Island) and service was extended south, eventually to what is
• now University Park in 1977.
• Metra bought the line for $26 million in 1987. It is the only electrified line (finished in 1926) and has the newest fleet of cars. Under a multimillion-dollar, multiyear project, 15 stations along the line are being rehabbed and made accessible.

Rock Island

Started: As the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, which operated its first train between its downtown station near Van Buren St. and Joliet in 1852.

• Commuter service really started when the first part of the Beverly Branch was built in 1870; that part was extended to the current alignment in 1889. Stations were opened in Midlothian, New Lenox, Tinley Park and Mokena by 1905 and Oak Forest by 1911.
• The Rock Island Railroad entered bankruptcy in 1975; the new Regional Transportation Authority assumed operation of the commuter service in 1981 and bought the commuter assets in 1982 (turning it over to Metra in 1984).
• Metra added a station at the White Sox stadium in 2011 and is building the new Auburn Park Station at 79th St.

SouthWest Service

Started: The tracks were laid in 1880 by the Wabash Railway and Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad (which was owned by Wabash and other railroads). They eventually became part of Norfolk Southern.

• Commuter service began as early as 1893, operating as far south as Orland Park, but was never particularly robust.
• Metra took over operation of the service from Norfolk Southern in 1993 and named the line the SouthWest Service. (There were four trains a day at that point.)
• Metra extended service from 143rd St. to 179th St. by the mid-1990s and extended it another 12 miles to Manhattan in 2006. Stations were added and upgraded, and parking was expanded.

Heritage Corridor

Started: As the Joliet & Chicago Railroad in 1856, but really was envisioned as the Chicago, Alton and St. Louis Railroad’s route into Chicago from Joliet and soon became part of that railroad. They eventually became part of the Baltimore and Ohio, then Gulf Mobile & Ohio, then Illinois Central.

• Lemont and Lockport are the oldest depots in the Metra system; those stations were already built when President Lincoln’s funeral train passed through on its way to his
• burial in Springfield.
• When Illinois Central sold the Metra Electric Line to Metra in 1987, it also handed over commuter operations on the Chicago-Joliet route, although it still owned the tracks.
• Metra still operates the line, which it renamed the Heritage Corridor, but the tracks are now owned by CN. Romeoville Station was added in 2018.

BNSF

Started: As the Aurora Branch Railroad, which connected Aurora to the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad (now the UP West Line) in what is now West Chicago in 1850. It built its own route between Aurora and Chicago in 1864 as the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.

• The first trains primarily carried milk, hay and wheat to Chicago from small agricultural towns such as Naperville, Downers Grove, Hinsdale and La Grange.
• In 1950, Burlington became the first Chicago area railroad to use stainless steel, bi-level, air-conditioned gallery cars (some of which are still in service). In 1965, it started to use a push-pull operation.
• BNSF Railway still owns the BNSF Line and operates the commuter service with its own crews under a purchase-of-service agreement with Metra.

North Central Service

Started: By Metra, in 1996, over tracks first built by the original Wisconsin Central Railroad in the late 19th century.

• The Soo Line took control of the tracks in 1909, sold them to a new Wisconsin Central in 1987, which was then bought by Canadian National, the current owner, in 2001. There was never any real commuter service before Metra.
• The 53-mile, $131.4 million line had about 1,000 passengers ride on the first day, boarding one of the 10 trains on the initial timetable.
• By January 2006, Metra added a second track, four new stations and 20 more daily trains.

Milwaukee Road

The two Milwaukee lines were once part of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, known as the Milwaukee Road. The once-mighty Milwaukee Road had a long and storied history that ended in bankruptcy in the late 1970s. In 1982, the RTA started operating service on the routes. Metra took ownership in 1987.

Milwaukee District North

Started: By the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, which added Chicago to its name when the tracks were laid in 1872, becoming the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.

• The railroad helped establish Morton Grove’s famous greenhouses and Northbrook’s brick businesses (bricks were in high demand following the 1871 Chicago Fire).
• In 1881, a three-mile spur to Libertyville was built from the mainline at Rondout. The extension of the spur to Fox Lake began in 1899.
• Commuter rail service grew slowly over the years, with the spur to Fox Lake eventually becoming the main commuter route.

Milwaukee District West

Started: As the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad on its charter in 1865, but the name was changed to the Chicago & Pacific Railroad by the time it got going in 1871.

• The first tracks were laid on July 10, 1872, and they reached Elgin a year later. An 1874 timetable shows four round trips daily between Chicago and Elgin. The one-way fare was $1.25.
• In 1879, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad (a.k.a. the Milwaukee Road) acquired a controlling interest in the C&P and leased it in perpetuity a year later.
• What was once a C&P right of way just northwest of downtown fell into disuse and was later turned into Chicago’s Bloomington Trail at the 606.

Chicago & North Western (UP lines)

The three Metra lines now owned by Union Pacific spent most of their existence as part of Chicago & North Western. In the late 1950s C&NW won praise for seeking to catch up on deferred maintenance, modernize ticketing and collection, revise schedules and adjust fares. It also introduced bi-level coaches and shuttered about 20 close-in stations in 1958 to concentrate on suburban service. In 1960, it was the first commuter railroad to use the push-pull format. C&NW was bought by UP in 1995. UP still owns the railroad and operates the trains, although it is now negotiating to have Metra assume control.

UP North

Started: In 1851, as the Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad, and became part of C&NW in 1866.

• The Chicago & Milwaukee reached Waukegan in 1854, and passenger service began immediately.
• In 1869, service between Chicago and Kenosha consisted of seven trains each way daily. The trip from Kenosha took about two hours and 10 minutes.
• In 1896, work began to elevate the C&NW tracks and bridge over streets on the north side of Chicago and in Evanston to comply with ordinances aimed at eliminating grade crossing accidents. (Those bridges are now being replaced in Metra’s UP North bridge replacement project.)

UP Northwest

Started: As the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad, which received a charter in 1871.

• The line opened with passenger train service in 1854, with one round trip daily between Chicago and the area near Palatine and Barrington.
• After a bankruptcy and several mergers, what had been the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad became part of the Chicago & North Western Railroad in 1864.
• By 1874, there were eight trains in each direction operating every day. You could buy an annual pass from Palatine to downtown for $95. (Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $2,500 today. A year’s worth of monthly passes from Palatine now cost just $1,620.)

UP West

Started: As the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, Chicago’s first railroad. It was chartered in 1836 but work did not begin until 1848. It merged with the C&NW in 1864.

• In October 1848, a small second-hand locomotive made a publicity run to what is now Oak Park pulling a couple of cars fitted with about 100 seats. (The “Pioneer” locomotive is now at the Chicago History Museum.)
• There was passenger service on the line almost from the beginning. The first passenger coach, built in Chicago for $2,000, arrived in 1849.
• The line was extended from Geneva to La Fox and Elburn in 2006. Work is currently underway to add a third track in the only remaining section that narrows to two near West Chicago.