New commuter rail lines are on the drawing board for Du Page County, but officials say new lines wouldn`t help relieve traffic problems for 20 or 30 years.
”The immediate problem in Du Page is improving the north-south transportation and we can`t do a lot to help that,” said Gerald Porter, Du Page`s representative on the board of Metra, the suburban rail agency. ”Roads and buses are more of the solution than we can ever think of being right now.”
”We have no north-and-south routes because the density isn`t there to support light rail or heavy rail,” he said.
What Metra can do for now, Porter said, is increase ridership on existing lines by encouraging development of new bus routes to the trains; promoting limited-access bus lanes on area highways that could eventually be converted into light-rail train lines; and continuing to enhance its reverse-commuting lines from Chicago out to Du Page.
Metra supports the creation of exclusive bus lanes on Ill. Hwys. 53, 59 and 83 and along the Tri-State Tollway, Int. Hwy. 294.
”If at some point in time, those dedicated bus routes would help generate densities that would support rail, the bus routes could be converted into light rail,” Porter said.
Metra has identified three corridors for possible rail development. Two are along Ill. 53 and the Tri-State; the third is the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway freight line, which runs from Waukegan through the western part of Du Page. Metra has no current plans for the EJ&E route, but the agency does not want to see the land, now owned by U.S. Steel, sold and the rail tracks torn out.
The agency is acting to improve its reverse-commute lines. On April 1 Metra began an experiment on the Burlington Northern line to Hinsdale and Downers Grove, in which the outbound schedule was modified-and many stops were dropped-so that it would be an express line. Porter said it is not clear yet how many new reverse commuters have been picked up, but a similar schedule is being planned for the Chicago & North Western going out to Elmhurst.
Metra also has been adding parking around its stations; a study last summer found that 55 percent of Metra`s ridership park and ride. But, Porter said, adding parking isn`t always the best solution. Local governments want the space for people who will be staying and spending money in their villages and cities-and officials of Pace, the suburban bus agency, oppose more parking because it discourages people from riding buses to the trains.
