Officials of the Metra commuter rail service unveiled a $188 million plan to improve service on the North Central line at a public forum Wednesday night in Buffalo Grove.
The plan recommends a partial upgrade of the commuter service, which operates in part over the Wisconsin Central Railroad from Franklin Park in Cook County to Antioch in Lake County.
Improvements would include five new stations, 12 more daily Metra trains and a second track from O’Hare International Airport to Mundelein to increase capacity on what is now a single-track line that carries 10 commuter trains a day.
The plan was formulated as part of a wider study to improve transportation in a congested North Central Corridor, which extends from Chicago to the Wisconsin state line.
The partial upgrade was chosen over a complete, end-to-end upgrade of the line because it will be more cost-effective at the current level of demand, said David Heslinga, a Metra spokesman.
“We can always, in the future, look toward the full upgrade because the flexibility is there,” Heslinga said.
Funding for the project will come mostly from the federal government, Heslinga said.
New stations are proposed in Franklin Park, Schiller Park, Rosemont, Des Plaines and Grayslake.
All except the Des Plaines depot–to be a transfer point to the Union Pacific Northwest line–would have to be paid for by the communities they serve at a potential, total cost of $20 million, Metra officials have said.
