Good to see you: We're excited about passenger rail service to Rockford at one of four public meetings this week

A series of four town hall meetings hosted by the Illinois Department of Transportation this week are keeping the flame alive that Gov. JB Pritzker's promise to provide Metra service between Chicago and Rockford wasn't just a cheap ploy.

The service has been discussed for over two decades, originally as part of restoring Amtrak service between Chicago and Dubuque, Iowa. Disagreements with Canadian National Railway, which owns IDOT's preferred tracks, led the state to switch to the one alternative that would take the train at least to Rockford. This includes taking the Milwaukee District West line to Elgin and a Union Pacific freight line the rest of the way.

In July 2023, the state announced that Metra commuter rail would operate the service in place of Amtrak, but under the same agreement IDOT currently has with intercity rail for state-sponsored service. Metra will operate the Rockford trains with its own staff and IDOT will cover most of the costs.

The current hearings are taking place in the Forest City and the three communities where the new service will have stops: Belvedere, Huntley and Elgin. The meetings offered residents the opportunity to find out about the status of route planning and to ask questions.

Tuesday afternoon's event, held in downtown Elgin at The Center of Elgin Recreation Area, was sparsely attended but informative.

So far, IDOT has primarily examined the tracks and existing freight traffic patterns and determined where tracks needed to be upgraded. While these details are important, they're a bit “in the ballpark” for the average would-be passenger. But state officials also shared some details about what the stations will look like and how the service will work.

Service pattern

Scott Speegle, IDOT's communications manager for passenger rail, said that while the exact schedule is still being finalized, the Chicago-Rockford train will have two morning trips and two afternoon trips, one in each direction. This is similar to the current operation of the state-sponsored Amtrak Carl Sandburg/Illinois Zephyr and Illini/Saluki train pairs. The Windy City-Furniture City trip takes about two hours each way. Speegle confirmed that drivers traveling between Chicago and Rockford will be able to get on and off in Elgin regardless of the direction they are going.

(Amtrak's government-supported Hiawatha and Lincoln Service trains regularly stop at Glenview and Joliet, respectively. However, the Carl Sandburg/Illinois Zephyr and Illini/Saluki do not carry passengers between Chicago and any of the stations it shares with Metra.)

A scoreboard at Tuesday's meeting noted that Metra and IDOT are currently negotiating rates. Speegle said the fact that the new Chicago-Rockford service will allow riders to travel by express between Elgin and Chicago is one of the reasons for this.

“One of the considerations is what do you have to charge people to get from Elgin to Chicago and vice versa,” he said. “The journey there will be faster and (we need to) strike a balance between express trains and more local trains.”

While Metra offers several rush hour express options on most lines, sometimes in both directions, this is the first time Metra has offered express service between two terminals without any intermediate stops.

Another problem is that the new service will extend far beyond Metra's fare zones. So even if Metra only charges regular fare for trips from Chicago to Elgin, the company still has to figure out what to charge for trips further northwest.

Speegle said he expects fares to be somewhere between regular Metra fares and government-subsidized Amtrak fares. One-way Metra tickets between fare zones 1-4 cost $6.75. Amtrak one-way fares southwest to northeast between Chicago and Mendota (the closest Chicago-Rockford equivalent in terms of distance) can range from $17 to $30, depending on the time of day and how far in advance you book.

The stations

Speegle said the station sites are “about 90 percent there…It's pretty much decided, but there's still some wiggle room.” He expects the sites to be populated by 2025, he added.

The only station location Speegle confirmed was that the Elgin stop would be the downtown Chicago Street station. When the service was originally announced, Metra would not say which of the three Elgin stations would be the Elgin stop on the Second City-Reaper City line, but the downtown station was always the most logical choice. With two continuous tracks and two spur tracks, it has the largest capacity and is adjacent to the Elgin Transportation Center, a major Pace suburban bus hub.

While the Rockford Mass Transit District suspended bus service to Belvedere in July, it continues to provide extensive service to Rockford. Speegle said IDOT intends to work with RMTD to plan intermodal service coordination once schedules and station locations are determined.

Speegle said the stations would have a spartan design: a single platform with tactile edges and a bus-style waiting hall with seating. He said each station would have bike racks, parking spaces and passenger information displays. The displays, which Metra has gradually installed throughout the system, show real-time arrival information and public service announcements.

The presentation boards mentioned that the downtown Elgin train station would be improved, but both Speegle and Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said they couldn't talk about what that would entail.

When asked if Chicago-Rockford riders could bring bikes on board, Speegle and Gillis both said that while IDOT and Metra had not discussed the issue, they “didn't know why not” since Metra uses its regular rail cars become. Last winter, the railway permanently introduced its “bicycles on all trains” pilot program.

The next steps

Speegle said IDOT expects to hold similar meetings in the four relevant municipalities this time next year. He added that he understands that given all of the project's false starts, it is important to reassure residents that progress has been made.

According to the schedule presented at the meeting, the design is expected to be completed by 2026 and construction work to be completed by 2027.

Speegle said there could potentially be some stops, and mentioned that the town of Marengo, about halfway between Elgin and the Screw Capital of the World, has expressed “some interest” in a station on the new line. Transit enthusiasts know Marengo as the town about 3.8 miles west of the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest railroad museum in the United States. Speegle said municipalities and Metra would need to negotiate additional stations.

Kane County Commissioner Chris Kious, who serves on the board's transportation committee, was among the few people who stopped by the meeting in Elgin. He said he was cautiously optimistic. “It's obviously still in the early stages, but I think it's very exciting,” Kious said, adding that anything that would improve transit options in the county and increase opportunities for multimodal connections is “a good thing.” .

For more information, visit the Chicago-Rockford Project website.

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