Chicago-Rockford Service On Hold

[illinoisandy]

Greyhound used to operate via Elgin and Rockford to Madison and the Twin Cities.   Then they shut down the well patronized Elgin station.   Do they even serve Rockford, anymore?   Seems they have even, largely, given up on these intermediate stops, along some of the same proposed rail routing.  (Elgin/Milw W, for instance, at the same depot as Greyhound was.)

I checked the Greyhound website and they do still serve both Elgin and Rockford. Edge of town curbside stops, Elgin off Randall Rd., Rockford from off  State St. They have abandoned the old in the city stops from what I can see.  Stockton and Galena are also served,  all but Elgin are served by the same one bus per day through Burlington Trailways.

Us 20 west of Rockford is definitely not 6 lane 70 mph expressway.  It’s a beautiful drive but not fun with traffic or poor weather.   

Not sure how fast the train would be.  From what I see on the map there are a lot of curves.  

Looking at an early 1980's but post Blackhawk ICG RR (pre CN takeover) Employee Timetable the line west of Scales Mound to Galena, about 16 miles was likely 40 mph or less for Passenger trains as Freight shows to be 25 mph.

 

[HammerJack]

Not confirmed, but I heard that UP recently downgraded track class on the Belvidere Subdivision from 4 to 3. This doesn’t mean anything for passenger trains in its current state, since dark territory has a maximum speed of 59 for passenger trains. However,  in the future, the track would need to be re-upgraded to class 4 AND signaled in order to get any faster than 59 or 60. 

 

[MARC Rider]

I 90 isn't upgraded between downtown Chicago and O'Hare.  There's no toll, but it's  bumper to bumper slow moving most of the time. The year before last, I traveled out that way, and rented a car at Union Station.  I  certainly regretted that, I should have just lugged my bag on the Blue Line to O'Hare and rented the car out there.  Even better would have been a direct train right out of the city bypassing all the traffic.  Maybe there's a rental car office at one of the Metra stations, like Schaumberg or Elgin.

 

[Steve4031]

I 90 isn't upgraded between downtown Chicago and O'Hare.  There's no toll, but it's  bumper to bumper slow moving most of the time. The year before last, I traveled out that way, and rented a car at Union Station.  I  certainly regretted that, I should have just lugged my bag on the Blue Line to O'Hare and rented the car out there.  Even better would have been a direct train right out of the city bypassing all the traffic.  Maybe there's a rental car office at one of the Metra stations, like Schaumberg or Elgin.

The local rental places have terrible hours. Renting at Ohare would not have saved a lot of time once you considered the process of getting from the blue line to the car rental place.  That takes an additional 30 to 40 minutes. 

 

[Paul CHI]

I live downtown and visited the Illinois Railroad Museum last year, which is in a few miles east of Rockford.  I called Enterprise car rental in Crystal Lake and took Metra out there.  I called Enterprise from the train when we had maybe 10 minutes to go and they came out and picked us up at the station, but then we had to go back to the Enterprise office, etc etc - same deal returning the car, so I suspect there would have been no time savings at all from just driving the entire trip (It's ironic that you can't take a train to the museum).  A lot less hassle, though.

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

It would be nice if they could add a stop at IRM if the Rockford train is routed on that line. Perhaps IRM could build a small platform which would serve a flag stop or even seasonal weekend stop, depending on if there was any signicant usage besides museum traffic. However, this would probably only be useful if a second frequency was added. 

 

[NorthShore]

You actually will be able to use the McHenry County Dial-A-Ride this year (first time since 1979) to get to IRM.


Museum now accessible via public transit




January 8, 2019




Starting in 2019, the Illinois Railway Museum will be accessible to public transit users through the McHenry County’s Dial-A-Ride program, MCRide. This service will offer transportation between the Metra stations in Woodstock and Crystal Lake and the museum in Union. MCRide added the museum as a destination option starting in 2019.
Visitors interested in utilizing this service will need to arrange in advance for MCRide to pick them up at a specific time. Riders can go to the MCRide website or call 815-334-4960 to arrange for transportation between the Woodstock or Crystal Lake railway stations and the museum. The service is available Monday-Friday 6am-7pm and Saturday-Sunday 9am-5pm with no service on holidays. IRM is closed until April but, after that point, Metra and MCRide will provide visitors with a way of getting to the museum from Chicago and the suburbs without a car. More information can be found here.
 
https://www.mchenrycountyil.gov/county-government/departments-j-z/transportation/transit-services/mcride-dial-a-ride