DeKalb pushing for Metra expansion?

[Metra Electric Rider]

Found this article via another site today. Could be an interesting expansion for Metra and Illinois if anything were to come of it.

https://www.shawlocal.com/daily-chr...ts-of-metra-commuter-train-feasibility-study/

 

[MisterUptempo]

Found this article via another site today. Could be an interesting expansion for Metra and Illinois if anything were to come of it.

https://www.shawlocal.com/daily-chr...ts-of-metra-commuter-train-feasibility-study/

It might come down to whom DeKalb believes benefits the most from extending the UP-West into town. If they believe it benefits mainly NIU students commuting from the Chicago area, DeKalb may be able to set up a purchase of service agreement with Metra (instead of joining the taxing body that funds Metra), and then offset a fair portion of the costs by having NIU increase student activity fees.

The campus serves 15,000 students; adding $20.00 onto students' fees would yield up to $300,000. I have no doubt many students might squawk, but it should be considered an amenity, same as the Student Center or a fitness center - they need to pay for those whether they access them or not.

If they were to use the former CNW station (currently being used as offices by UP), it is already well served by four bus routes, which provide quick access to nearly all parts of the NIU campus, the downtown area, as well as the newer commercial strip to the northeast, which borders Sycamore. The former station also has a fairly generous number of parking spaces, making it easy for townies to take the train into Chicago if they so choose.

One of those routes, the #12 bus, currently runs between the campus and Elburn, the current terminus of UP-West. Eliminating much of that route, if Metra finally makes it to DeKalb, would permit greater frequencies for #12 or possibly make a couple of buses available for a new route.

The old CNW station is about a 1 mile walk to the "Central Quad", which is located on the eastern edge of NIU. If one wished to take Metra out to NIU to catch a Huskies game in the fall, the walk is about 2 miles.

I've wondered whether NIU would consider requesting a second stop in town, much closer to the stadium, in hopes of drawing Chicago-based alumni back onto campus (and hopefully open their wallets). It could be done relatively cheaply, I'd imagine - an asphalt platform, with large tents that can be erected to provide a covered waiting area and ticket sales on game day.

The biggest barrier would be Lincoln Highway, which lies between the tracks and the stadium. Through the old downtown area, Lincoln Hwy. is a very manageable, pedestrian-friendly road. Further west, by the stadium, it becomes very "stroad-y", with two wide lanes in each direction and a center turn lane. If town police and campus security worked together, they could probably tame the traffic and safely manage pedestrians.

The town could certainly take advantage of Metra service as well. In August, DeKalb has CornFest, a three day fair that could draw plenty of folks from the city. The fairgrounds are two short blocks from the CNW station. If it proved successful, they could try three or four throughout the year. They'd likely make a pile of cash.

Foster growth in the old downtown area, with a unique business mix that would attract visitors, like NIU parents spending a weekend with their kids or bored suburbanites looking for a pleasant small town experience, and watch the money roll in.

I wish DeKalb well. UP will likely want a big pile of cash of their own to extend the route, as well as the infrastructure work they'll demand before a single Metra train stops there.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Interesting summary: I also noticed in the article that they mentioned commuters to DeKalb along with students plus commuters from DeKalb so there seems to have been some research.

Agreed on UP wanting $$$$ before anything happens. Of course, this could be the beginnings of a push and they are testing the waters to see what pushback, if any, there is.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Apparently the bus service from DeKalb to Elburn is doing exceptionally well. Hopefully another push for service expansion.

We really should combine this thread and the other DeKalb thread.

 

[fairviewroad]

Having lived in the DeKalb/Sycamore area from 2000-2006, I naturally wondered why no rail service existed. However, if I were drawing it up, I'd skip the CNW station. Relatively few people need to commute to/from the downtown DeKalb business district. However:

I'd put a station near the intersection of Peace Rd and IL38. This makes it easy to access from both Sycamore and the I-88 tollway, not to mention Cortland. Looks like there's plenty of "green space" around there to put in a parking lot and simple shelter similar to what exists in Elburn.

I'd put a second station on the west side of DeKalb, directly across Lincoln Hwy from the NIU Convocation Center. This puts it within a reasonable walk of the sports complex and many of the dorms on the west side of campus. The "cross the road" issue is easily ameliorated with a traffic signal at the entrance to the train station. There would also be plenty of space for parking and could reasonably be expected to bring in people from communities to the west such as Malta and Rochelle.

Both stations could easily be incorporated into existing local transit networks. And, at roughly 4 miles apart, the two stations would be no closer than many other station pairs in the Metra system.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

I've seen scuttlebutt elsewhere on the intertubes that the bus ridership is not actually very high on routes that couldawoulda be covered by a Metra route, but that's hearsay at this point. Would be a shame if it were true though.

 

[fairviewroad]

I've seen scuttlebutt elsewhere on the intertubes that the bus ridership is not actually very high on routes that couldawoulda be covered by a Metra route, but that's hearsay at this point. Would be a shame if it were true though.

It certainly can't help that the connecting service is marketed so poorly. The City of DeKalb's bus schedule doesn't even mention the Metra connection (the only clue is that the final stop of Route 12 is the Elburn Train Station, but there's no indication of connecting service options). If you poke around the website long enough, you do find a warning that the train-bus connection is not guaranteed but hey if your train is running late you can call dispatch and beg them to hold the bus for you...hoo boy I bet that really boosts ridership!

Likewise, Metra naturally can't be bothered to acknowledge the existence of a bus connection to DeKalb anywhere on its UP-W timetable. It takes some sleuthing for riders to actually piece together train-bus connecting options. (I imagine there's some effort on the NIU campus to make students aware of this service?)

At any rate, it's hard to judge the merit of this service if it's not properly promoted. But of course the bean counters will simply look at numbers on a spreadsheet and conclude that few people will use it.

 

[Willbridge]

It certainly can't help that the connecting service is marketed so poorly. The City of DeKalb's bus schedule doesn't even mention the Metra connection (the only clue is that the final stop of Route 12 is the Elburn Train Station, but there's no indication of connecting service options). If you poke around the website long enough, you do find a warning that the train-bus connection is not guaranteed but hey if your train is running late you can call dispatch and beg them to hold the bus for you...hoo boy I bet that really boosts ridership!

Likewise, Metra naturally can't be bothered to acknowledge the existence of a bus connection to DeKalb anywhere on its UP-W timetable. It takes some sleuthing for riders to actually piece together train-bus connecting options. (I imagine there's some effort on the NIU campus to make students aware of this service?)

At any rate, it's hard to judge the merit of this service if it's not properly promoted. But of course the bean counters will simply look at numbers on a spreadsheet and conclude that few people will use it.

This sounds terribly familiar from my experiences elsewhere. The good news is that if a few people make that connection regularly, the bus operator will wait for them even without being contacted by dispatch. The bad news is that the regular operator will go on vacation and everything that can go wrong will.