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Milwaukee District North Line

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Milwaukee District North Line
EMD F40PH No. 120 leads an outbound train at Deerfield
Overview
Service typeCommuter rail
StatusOperating
LocaleNorthern Chicago metropolitan area
PredecessorMilwaukee Road
Current operator(s)Metra
Ridership23,257 (Avg. Weekday 2014)[1]
Annual ridership2,786,215 (2023)
Route
TerminiUnion Station
Fox Lake
Stops22
Distance travelled49.7 miles (80.0 km)
Average journey time97 minutes, stopping at all stops
Line(s) usedC&M Subdivision, Fox Lake Subdivision
Technical
Track owner(s)Metra (dispatched by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway between Rondout and Pacific Junction)
Route map
Map Milwaukee District North Line highlighted in orange
Legend
BScvt
placeholder
73.6 mi
118.4 km
Walworth
67.3 mi
108.3 km
Zenda
Wisconsin
Illinois
C&NW
Northwest
57.5 mi
92.5 km
Richmond
proposed
55.8 mi
89.8 km
Solon Mills
proposed
53.8 mi
86.6 km
Spring Grove
proposed
Chain O'Lakes
49.5 mi
79.7 km
 Fox Lake
Fox Lake Coach Yard
47.8 mi
76.9 km
 Ingleside
47.0 mi
75.6 km
Wilson Road
46.0 mi
74 km
 Long Lake
44.0 mi
70.8 km
 Round Lake
41.0 mi
66 km
 Grayslake
NCS to Antioch
39.2 mi
63.1 km
 Prairie Crossing
35.5 mi
57.1 km
 Libertyville
Des Plaines River
I-94.svg I-94
Chicago River (north branch)
Amtrak
Amtrak
to Milwaukee, St. Paul,
Seattle or Portland
North Shore Bike Path
EJ&E Railway
32.3 mi
52 km
Rondout
Chicago River (north branch)
28.4 mi
45.7 km
 Lake Forest
24.2 mi
38.9 km
 Deerfield
23.0 mi
37 km
 Lake Cook Road
I-94.svg I-94
Chicago River
(north branch
west fork)
21.1 mi
34 km
 Northbrook
20.2 mi
32.5 km
Techny
Union Pacific Railroad
18.8 mi
30.3 km
 North Glenview
17.4 mi
28 km
 Glenview Amtrak
16.2 mi
26.1 km
 Golf
North Branch Trail
Chicago River (north branch)
14.3 mi
23 km
 Morton Grove
11.6 mi
18.7 km
 Edgebrook
Chicago River (north branch)
North Branch Trail
10.2 mi
16.4 km
 Forest Glen
Blue UpperLeft arrow to O'Hare | I-90.svg I-90
 UpperLeft arrow UP-NW
to Harvard
or McHenry
9.0 mi
14.5 km
 Mayfair
UP-NW to Ogilvie LowerRight arrow
LowerLeft arrow Union Pacific Railroad
8.2 mi
13.2 km
 Grayland
6.4 mi
10.3 km
 Healy
enlarge… NCS to Antioch
enlarge… MD-W to Big Timber Road
Bloomingdale Trail
Coach Yard
2.9 mi
4.7 km
 Western Avenue
enlarge… UpperLeft arrow UP-W to Elburn
Chicago "L"
Logan Square branch
I-90.svgI-94.svg I-90 / I-94
Blue to O'Hare
enlarge… UP-NW
to Harvard
or McHenry
 enlarge… UP-N to Kenosha
Green Pink
Blue to Forest Park
Ogilvie
0 mi
 Union Station Amtrak
enlarge… BNSF to Aurora
enlarge… HC to Joliet
enlarge… SWS to Manhattan
Key
 Milwaukee District North Line
Former route alignment
 Other Metra lines
Metra Union Pacific lines
Other freight lines
CTA lines
Mileage source[2]
Handicapped/disabled access All stations are accessible except
Grayland, Mayfair, and Forest Glen.
This diagram:

The Milwaukee District North Line (MD-N) is a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago, Illinois and its northern suburbs, running from Union Station to Fox Lake. Although Metra does not refer to any of its lines by color, the timetable accents for the Milwaukee District North line are pale "Hiawatha Orange" in honor of the Milwaukee Road's Hiawatha passenger trains.[3]

The line utilizes the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway's C&M Subdivision from Union Station to Rondout and Metra's Fox Lake Subdivision from Rondout to Fox Lake.

Operations

[edit]
Metra F59PH #99 pushes an inbound train through Deerfield

Metra is the primary user of the C&M Subdivision, with commuter services operating between Union Station and Fox Lake. As of June 3, 2024, the public timetable shows 54 trains (27 in each direction) operating on weekdays, with 16 trains running to and from Fox Lake, five running to and from Grayslake, one running to and from Libertyville, four running to and from Lake Forest, and one running to and from Deerfield. Metra operates a reduced schedule on weekends, with nine trains operating between Union Station and Fox Lake, with an additional train on Saturday afternoons that short-turns at Lake Forest. This service is supplemented by Amtrak, whose Empire Builder, Hiawatha and Borealis inter-city trains operate on the line between Union Station and Rondout, and also stop at Glenview.

Metra began increased reverse commute service on the line on March 4, 2019. This service is part of a pilot-program funded under a two-year, public-private partnership between Metra and Lake County Partners.[4] The increased reverse commute service was temporarily suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, but was reinstated in December 2022.[5] On June 3, 2024, Metra updated the timetable and stopping patterns for trains to better reflect current conditions, along with adding an additional late evening departure in each direction, with an inbound 10:30 p.m. train from Fox Lake to Union Station, and a 12:32 a.m. outbound train from Union Station to Fox Lake. [6]

Metra has included the possibility of extending the Milwaukee District North Line along one of two routes in their Cost Benefit Analysis report. If this were to happen, the line could continue northwest via the Fox Lake branch to Richmond, with an additional stop in Spring Grove. Alternatively, the line could be extended north along the C&M Subdivision and continue from Rondout to Wadsworth, with additional stops in Green Oaks, Waukegan (separate from the Union Pacific North Line's station,) and Gurnee.[7]

History

[edit]

Before 1982, this line was operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road). When the Milwaukee Road went bankrupt, the Regional Transportation Authority took over operation of the line. By 1984, the line passed to RTA's newly created Commuter Rail Division, which rebranded as Metra in 1985. Metra acquired the line from the Soo Line Railroad in 1987. The Soo Line then ran freight trains on the line via trackage rights before its absorption into the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1990. CP Railway merged with the Kansas City Southern Railway in April 2023 into the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, or CPKC Railway. Today this service is one of several Metra routes operated by Metra crews, but trains are dispatched under contract by the CPKC, which continues to hold trackage rights.[8]

The Milwaukee District North Line route and Metra's track ownership diverge from the Chicago - Milwaukee - Minneapolis mainline at Rondout, Illinois and proceeds northwesterly toward Fox Lake. This secondary route, owned by Metra, was known as the Janesville Subdivision (J-Sub) of the Milwaukee Road. The mainline north of Rondout is owned by the CPKC[9] through its American subsidiary Soo Line Railroad and sees Amtrak and freight traffic only. Metra service and track ownership end at Fox Lake. The tracks beyond Fox Lake are owned by the State of Wisconsin and operated for freight service by the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad. Commuter service beyond Fox Lake, abolished in 1982, served the communities of Spring Grove, Solon Mills, Zenda, and Walworth.[10]

Until 1984, there was a stop in Rondout. The station building itself was demolished in the mid-1960s. The station was located at Rondout Junction, where the line crosses the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway's tracks at a diamond junction.[11] Before 1982, service ran as far north as Walworth, Wisconsin.

Metra has conducted studies on extending the Milwaukee District North Line to Richmond, Illinois, and constructing a second branch, running along the CPKC main line from Rondout north to Wadsworth. However, there are not any plans to construct the extension.[12]

Ridership

[edit]

Between 2014 and 2019, annual ridership declined from 7,237,913 to 6,549,143, an overall decline of 9.5%.[13][14] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ridership dropped to 1,556,783 passengers in 2020 and to 1,094,292 in 2021. Despite this overall annual decline, from April to December 2021, ridership was higher than in the same period in 2020.[15][16]

1,000,000
2,000,000
3,000,000
4,000,000
5,000,000
6,000,000
7,000,000
8,000,000
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023

Stations

[edit]
State County Zone Location Station Connections and notes
WI Walworth   Walworth Walworth Closed October 1, 1982
Zenda Zenda Closed October 1, 1982
IL McHenry Richmond Richmond Proposed new stop[citation needed]
Solon Mills Solon Mills Closed October 1, 1982
Spring Grove Spring Grove Closed October 1, 1982
Lake 4 Fox Lake Fox Lake Bus interchange Pace: 570, 806
Ingleside Ingleside Bus interchange Pace: 570
Long Lake Wilson Road Closed 1984[17]
Long Lake
Round Lake Round Lake Bus interchange Pace: 570
Grayslake Grayslake Bus interchange Pace: 570
Libertyville Prairie Crossing Metra Metra: ■ North Central Service
Libertyville Bus interchange Pace: 574
  Rondout Rondout Closed 1984[17]
4 Lake Forest Lake Forest
Deerfield Deerfield Bus interchange Pace: 471
Cook 3 Lake Cook Road Bus interchange Pace: 626
Northbrook Northbrook Bus interchange Pace: 422
Techny Techny Closed 1971
3 Glenview North Glenview Bus interchange Pace: 423
Glenview Amtrak Amtrak: Borealis, Empire Builder, Hiawatha
Bus interchange Pace: 210, 422, 423
Golf Golf Bus interchange Pace: 208, 210
2 Morton Grove Morton Grove Bus interchange Pace: 210, 250
Chicago Edgebrook Bus interchange CTA Bus: 84, 85A
Bus interchange Pace: 225, 226
Forest Glen Bus interchange CTA Bus: 92
Mayfair Chicago "L": Blue (at Montrose)
Bus interchange CTA Bus: 54, 54A, 78
Grayland Bus interchange CTA Bus: 56, 152
Healy Bus interchange CTA Bus: 53, 74
Western Avenue Metra Metra: ■ Milwaukee District West, ■ North Central Service
Bus interchange CTA Bus: 49, X49, 65
1 Union Station Amtrak Amtrak (long-distance): California Zephyr, Capitol Limited, Cardinal, City of New Orleans, Empire Builder, Lake Shore Limited, Southwest Chief, Texas Eagle
Amtrak Amtrak (intercity): Blue Water, Borealis, Hiawatha, Illini and Saluki, Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg, Lincoln Service, Pere Marquette, Wolverine
Metra Metra: ■ BNSF, ■ Milwaukee District West, ■ North Central Service, ■ Heritage Corridor, ■ SouthWest Service
Chicago "L": Blue (at Clinton), Brown Orange Pink Purple (at Quincy)
Bus interchange CTA Bus: 1, 7, J14, 19, 28, 56, 60, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 128, 130, 151, 156, 157, 192
Bus interchange Pace: 755
Bus interchange Amtrak Thruway: Chicago–Madison and Chicago–Rockford (Van Galder), Chicago–Louisville (Greyhound)

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Milwaukee District North Line Weekday Ridership". Regional Transportation Authority Mapping and Statistics (RTAMS). Archived from the original on 2016-08-20. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
  2. ^ State of the System - Milwaukee District North
  3. ^ "Did you know?" (PDF). On the Bi-Level: 3. June 2009.
  4. ^ "Metra to begin reverse-commute service from Chicago to Lake County". Progressive Railroading. February 22, 2019. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  5. ^ "Metra to upgrade service on 4 lines Dec. 12". Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  6. ^ "Schedule changes coming June 3 to Milwaukee District North line | Metra". metra.com. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  7. ^ "Systemwide Cost Benefit Analysis of Major Capital Improvements" (PDF). Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  8. ^ s_c_kos (2008-06-17), CP 9633 East at Libertyville, Ill., retrieved 2022-01-04
  9. ^ Metra Railfan Tips - Milwaukee District/North Line
  10. ^ Chicago's Lost Stations - Milwaukee Road Suburban Service; North Timetable (November 14, 1971)
  11. ^ Chicago's Lost Stations - Milwaukee Road Chicago-Fox Lake
  12. ^ "Wadsworth Extension Commuter Rail Feasibility Study" (PDF). Metra. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
  13. ^ "RIDERSHIP TRENDS ANNUAL REPORT 2018" (PDF). Metra. p. 4. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  14. ^ "RIDERSHIP TRENDS ANNUAL REPORT 2019" (PDF). Metra. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  15. ^ Metra. "2021 Annual Ridership Report" (PDF).
  16. ^ "RTAMS | Regional Transportation Authority Mapping and Statistics". rtams.org. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
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