Rail Possibilities for Chicago Options

[KevinKorell]

Every time we have planned on some possible rail trips on CTA or Metra during our brief Chicago stopovers en route to or home from other places, inevitably the incoming train has been late and plans had to be changed or entirely cancelled. I could be jinxing myself once again by making any plans for us while we're in Chicago on Saturday, July 23rd.

But I've been asked what my thinking is, so I'll share it with you here. Keep in mind please that nothing in Chicago is guaranteed, and if the City of New Orleans comes into Chicago very late, we could end up doing nothing.

Here are the limitations we have to work with:

• City of New Orleans could arrive early, on time, or late.
• Some, including myself, will be leaving on the Cardinal that evening, which has an earlier departure time than the other trains to the east. So we can't be too far from Union Station later in the day.
• We want to ride rail lines that this group has not yet ridden.
• Some Metra lines don't run on Saturdays, or have very limited service on weekends.

Let's explore the third bullet and see what the choices are.

For CTA, what we have left is the Blue Line, the southern segment from Clinton/Congress (closest station to Union Station) to Forest Park. Also, the Pink Line. Only 3 of us rode it 2 years ago (and 2 of them had my DNA) after coming back from SoCal Fest 2009, so I've left it on the table as unridden with the group.

On Metra unridden by the OTOL group are the following:

• UP North, Evanston to Kenosha. We rode between Ogilvie TC and Evanston back in 2003. The layover at the Kenosha end works best, believe it or not, on Sundays when coupled with riding the streetcars, so we won't be doing that one this time. (See proposed Midwest RailFest!)
• UP Northwest, entire line. We have not yet ridden the main line out to Harvard, nor its short branch to McHenry. The problem with the Saturday schedule is that the dwell at the far end (Harvard) between the outbound and inbound trips is more than one hour, so it's a waste of time. We can get that another time when in town on a weekday or Sunday when the wait is more conducive to our riding out to the end of the line.
• UP West, Geneva to Elburn. We rode Ogilvie TC to Geneva back in 2003. That was before the line was extended to Elburn. This one is a candidate.... and there are 2 possible scenarios in the bi-hourly schedule.
• NorthCentral Service, River Grove to Antioch. The segment between Union Station and River Grove is on the Milwaukee District West line, which we already covered in 2005 (Eagle Fest) on the way to and from Big Timber Road in Elgin. The missing segment only has service on weekdays, so it's out for this visit.
• SouthWest Service, 179th Street (Orland Park) to Manhattan. We rode this one as well while in town during Eagle Fest 2005, but at the time it terminated at 179th Street. The service on Saturdays does have one possible midday turn, and it does go all the way to Manhattan. So this might work as well. The only drawback is that it gets to Union Station at 4:40 PM, within an hour of the Cardinal departure.

So where we stand is that the remaining Metra choices boil down to Southwest Sevice to Manhattan & back, or UP West to Elburn and back. If we do Elburn, then there is one trip starting at OTC at 10:40 AM, getting back to OTC at 1:47 PM. Another one leaves OTC at 12:40 PM and gets back there 3:46 PM. The latter is better since the former occurs totally within the timeframe of lunchtime. Going later allows for lunch first at the OTC food court.

CTA could be done first, but again it's dependent on when we arrive in town.

So once more we need to play it by ear, but at least the exploration is done in case we do have the time to ride the rails in Chicago.

[steve4031]

Which is your first choice.?

[KevinKorell]

Me? The later Elburn trip. Only because the one Manhattan round trip comes back to CUS within an hour of the Cardinal's departure, and I'd like to enjoy the Metropolitan Lounge before we board. Taking the later Elburn trip also allows ample time for CTA, lunch, or a combination of these.

[AlanB]

Kevin,

Although my mom and I have not yet completed booking the final leg from Memphis back to NYP, waiting for a few more AGR points to post to Mom's account, our intent is to take the LSL back to NYP. So we're not under the same time constraints as those on the Cardinal like you. Therefore in general, we're amenable to whatever works in Chicago.

That said however, the trip to Elburn sounds just fine to me and it clearly is the safer/smarter choice for those taking the Cardinal. I see no point in playing Press Your Luck with the tight connection provided by the Southwest option.

[KevinKorell]

And that's fine... those taking later outbound trains may have the time to take another trip.

Elburn does seem to be the best choice based on the schedule... so that's what we will do unless unforseen problems occur such as a serious inbound delay. But I won't add it to any itinerary before the fact because as I said before, the Chicago Jinx has happened almost every time we have been there. I'll look at what we can do on CTA (preferrably the lines outlined above) before lunchtime, again assuming we come in on time or early.

[GG-1]

Aloha

I see the CONO arrives Chi at 9:00am If Evan and I are going west by train we would use the SWChief and it leaves at 2:40pm and since I expect the money to be to tight to overnight in CHI that leaves us out of most CHI activities.

Mahalo

[KevinKorell]

Aloha

I see the CONO arrives Chi at 9:00am If Evan and I are going west by train we would use the SWChief and it leaves at 2:40pm and since I expect the money to be to tight to overnight in CHI that leaves us out of most CHI activities.

Mahalo

You might have time for subway riding in the morning and/or lunch.

[KevinKorell]

So to be careful in putting this out there without it negatively affeciting us or catastrophically delaying us in missing our outbound trains, here in the interest of everyone knowing the plans (but not 100% expecting them):

CONO arrival in Chicago 9 AM or sooner. Store luggage at Metro Lounge. Pick one subway endpoint (either Pink to 54th/Cermak, or Blue to Forest Park) and we do that, then head for Ogilvie TC (OTC) for late brunch/early lunch.

METRA UP West Train #503 leaves OTC 12:40 PM, arrives Elburn 2:06 PM. 19 minute dwell. METRA UP West Train #508 leaves Elburn 2:25 PM and arrives OTC 3:46 PM.

Balance of time in Chicago spent walking back to Union Station, where those taking #50 prepare to depart from Metro Lounge while others remain for later trains.

CONO later arrival (up to 2-1/2 hours), CTA trip cancelled first, since we still need to get lunch and would still have time for the Elburn round trip.

COCO arrive 3-4 hours late: Scrub all CTA and/or METRA trips, but we still eat lunch and then go wait for our outbound trains.

[KevinKorell]

Pick one subway endpoint (either Pink to 54th/Cermak, or Blue to Forest Park) and we do that, then head for Ogilvie TC (OTC) for late brunch/early lunch.

Walking from Union Station, getting to the Pink line is 3 blocks east (Loop "L"), and the Blue Line is 3 blocks south (Congress/Clinton). But the Pink Line is a far better option because it goes closer to Ogilvie TC (Lake/Clinton) than the Blue Line, so we would not require an additional long walk or transfer to get to OTC for lunch and the Metra trip.

If we happen to get into Chicago super early and have time for both, then it would be the Blue first, transfer at Clark/Lake, then Pink, and then return to Lake/Clinton.

The walk from Lake/Clinton "L" station to OTC is 2-3 blocks, depending on whether you can enter the food court area and station from the rear as opposed to the front entrance on Madison. Being a Saturday I don't know if we have full access to the building from the rear, but perhaps Steve could research that for us.

[jis]

COCO arrive 3-4 hours late: Scrub all CTA and/or METRA trips, but we still eat lunch and then go wait for our outbound trains.

If COCO arrives 3-4 hours late COCO will not get a banana