Union Pacific / North Line

The Union Pacific / North Line (UP-N) is a Metra line in the Chicago metropolitan area. It runs between Ogilvie Transportation Center and Kenosha, Wisconsin; however, most trains terminate in Waukegan, Illinois. Although Metra owns the rolling stock, the trains are operated and dispatched by the Union Pacific Railroad. This line was previously operated by the Chicago & North Western Railway before its merger with Union Pacific, and was called the Chicago and North Western Milwaukee Division and then the Chicago & North Western/North Line before the C&NW was absorbed by Union Pacific in April, 1995.

Union Pacific / North Line
A southbound train departs Highland Park station
Overview
Type	Commuter Rail
System	Metra
Status	Operational
Locale	Chicago metropolitan area
Termini	Ogilvie Transportation Center Waukegan/Kenosha
Stations	27
Daily ridership	41,000 (Avg. Weekday 2009)[1]
Operation
Owner	Union Pacific Railroad
Operator(s)	Union Pacific Railroad Metra
Technical
Line length	51.6 miles (83.0 km)[2]
Track gauge	4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map text text Empire Builder to Seattle or Portland Lake Front Depot demolished 84.2 Milwaukee (1966-1971) Menomonee River Milwaukee River National Avenue closed 83.0 Hiawatha and Empire Builder to Union Station 82.5 Kinnickinnic River 78.2 Cudahy closed 74.7 South Milwaukee closed 61.8 Racine closed Root River Pike River 51.6 Kenosha KD Line to Rockford Wisconsin Illinois 44.5 Winthrop Harbor 43.1 Camp Logan closed 42.1 Zion 39.9 Dunes Park closed 37.6 Asbestos closed 35.9 Waukegan 34.0 Abbott's Platform closed 33.7 North Chicago Canadian National Railway 32.2 Great Lakes 30.2 Lake Bluff 28.3 Lake Forest 25.7 Fort Sheridan 24.5 Highwood 23.0 Highland Park 21.5 Ravinia 20.9 Ravinia Park 20.5 Braeside 19.2 Glencoe 17.7 Hubbard Woods 16.6 Winnetka 15.8 Indian Hill 15.2 Kenilworth 14.4 Wilmette 13.3 Evanston Central Street North Shore Channel 12.7 Weber Subdivision to Mayfair Purple to Linden 12.0 Evanston Davis Street 11.5 Dempster Street closed 11.0 Evanston Main Street 10.3 Calvary closed Purple to Howard or Loop Yellow 9.4 Rogers Park 8.4 Kenmore closed 7.8 Rose Hill closed 7.1 Summerdale closed 6.5 Ravenswood Brown to Kimball 6.2 Ravenswood–Wilson closed 5.5 Northcenter closed Brown to Loop 4.6 Belmont Avenue closed 3.5 Deering closed Chicago River (north branch) UP-NW to Harvard or McHenry 2.8 Clybourn UP-W to Elburn Wells Street Station (1855-1911) MD-N NCS MD-W Green Pink 0.0 Ogilvie

Metra does not refer to its lines by particular colors, but the timetable accents for the Union Pacific/North line are dark "Flambeau Green," a nod to the C&NW's Flambeau 400 passenger train.[3])

The current timetable has 35 weekday trains leaving Chicago, 17 of which terminate at Waukegan, 9 at Kenosha, 3 at Highland Park, 5 at Winnetka, 1 at North Chicago.

History

The route followed by the UP/North Line was constructed in 1854 by the Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad.[4] Passenger service between Chicago and Waukegan began on January 4, 1855. Initially, a single train operated each day, departing from a terminal in Chicago at Water St. and Kinzie St. at 8:30 am and returning from Waukegan at 3:30 pm.[5][6] The president of the railroad, former Chicago mayor Walter S. Gurnee, speculated on land in Lake County spurring the development of railway suburbs along the line.[7] The railroad merged with the Green Bay, Milwaukee & Chicago Railroad in 1863, and was acquired by the Chicago and North Western Railway in 1866.[6][8] Commuter rail services along the line started operating into the new Chicago and North Western Terminal (now Ogilvie Transportation Center) in 1911. In 1966, the Chicago and North Western closed the Lake Front Depot and began operating into the new Milwaukee Union Station. This service would ultimately prove to be relatively short lived as the Chicago and North Western ended operations between Chicago and Milwaukee in 1971 and the line was truncated to Kenosha.

The North line became part of Metra when the agency was formed in 1984. The trains continued to be operated by the Chicago and North Western Railway under contract until that railroad was bought by Union Pacific in 1995. UP now operates passenger services along the line for Metra. Under a longstanding agreement that UP inherited from the C&NW, Metra owns the vehicles and the stations along the line, but Union Pacific employs the people who actually drive the trains, and they also control the right-of-way along the route.

All stations on the line except for Ravinia Park are open daily. Ravinia Park is only open during the Ravinia Festival in the summer months.

Current and future

In 2010, Metra began a project to replace 22 bridges between Clybourn and Rogers Park, which are at the end of their design lives and in need of replacement. Metra's initial plan called for significantly reduced service for the duration of the project.[9] Widespread frustration with this service pattern led to the project being delayed to investigate potential ways to keep existing service. Many people were angry that the original plan for the project would have centered the tracks in the existing right-of-way, preventing any possibility of rebuilding a third track without rebuilding the entire right-of-way or purchasing additional land.[10] Metra claimed that in order to maintain existing service levels during construction, $100 million in additional funding would be needed. This funding was eventually procured and in 2011, Metra began work on a modified plan that will allow pre-existing service levels to be maintained as the bridges are replaced.

There have been ongoing plans to extend the line, possibly as far as Milwaukee for many years. Wisconsin's now defunct Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SERTA) had completed several studies of the project, but was disbanded in 2011.[11] An Application for funding under the FTA's New Starts program was submitted in 2010, and the agency received federal money for preliminary engineering and construction. In 2011, however, a new Wisconsin budget passed which disbanded SERTA. $15 million in federal funding was returned.[12] The project has since received little attention and is generally considered "Dead."

In late 2015, the Racine City Council unanimously approved a study to extend the line from its current terminus at Kenosha to Racine.[13]

After the passage of the Rebuild Illinois, $15 million was allocated by the State of Illinois for construction of a new Peterson Ridge station located in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood. Construction is expected to start in 2020.[14]

Ridership

Since 2014 annual ridership has declined from 9.3 million to 8.6 million, an overall decline of 6.8%.[15]

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

7,000,000

8,000,000

9,000,000

10,000,000

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Rolling stock

The Union Pacific / North Line operates push-pull service with bi-level gallery car coaches and cab cars from Budd, Morrison-Knudsen/Amerail, and Nippon Sharyo. The locomotive fleet consists of EMD F40PHs.

Car 553

Car 553 is a club car operating exclusively on the UP/North Line. It is not actually owned by the railroad, but by a private club of commuters. UP allows the operation at no charge, apart from collecting ticket fares from the club members, who are in charge of maintaining the railcar. Club membership was once limited to wealthy male commuters from affluent North Shore towns such as Lake Forest, Lake Bluff and Highland Park, but is now open to any commuter on the line for a $900 annual membership fee.[16] It is the last privately owned railcar in American commuter service.

Route

The southern terminus of the UP/North Line is at the Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago. The route traverses Chicago's northern neighborhoods and its northern and far northern suburbs to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The Green Bay Trail parallels the Union Pacific / North Line, using the former right of way of the North Shore Line for over 51.9 miles (83.5 km) from Chicago Loop to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Stations

State	Zone	Location	Station	Connections and notes
WI
		Milwaukee	Milwaukee Intermodal Station	Closed 1971
			National Avenue	Closed between 1943 and 1956
		Cudahy	Cudahy Depot	Closed between 1956 and 1961
		South Milwaukee	South Milwaukee	Closed between 1956 and 1961
		Racine	Racine Depot	Closed 1971
	J	Kenosha	Kenosha	Kenosha Area Transit: 1, 4 Kenosha Streetcar
IL	I	Winthrop Harbor	Winthrop Harbor
		Zion	Camp Logan	Closed after October 28, 1956, served Camp Logan
			Zion	Pace: 571
		Beach Park	Dunes Park	Closed after October 28, 1956
		Waukegan	Asbestos	Closed after October 28, 1956
	H		Waukegan	Pace: 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 568, 571, 572
	G	North Chicago	Abbott's Platform	Closed 1986[17]
			North Chicago	Pace: 563, 564
			Great Lakes	Pace: 563
		Lake Bluff	Lake Bluff
	F	Lake Forest	Lake Forest
		Highwood	Fort Sheridan	Pace: 472
	E		Highwood	Pace: 472
		Highland Park	Highland Park	Pace: 213, 471, 472
			Ravinia
			Ravinia Park (seasonal)
			Braeside	Pace: 628, 629, 640
	D	Glencoe	Glencoe	Pace: 213
		Winnetka	Hubbard Woods	Pace: 213
			Winnetka	Pace: 213, 423
			Indian Hill	Pace: 213
		Kenilworth, Illinois	Kenilworth	Pace: 213
	C	Wilmette	Wilmette	Pace: 213, 421, 422
		Evanston	Evanston Central Street	CTA Bus: 201, 206 Pace: 213
			Evanston Davis Street	Chicago "L": Purple Line (at Davis) CTA Bus: 93, 201, 206 Pace: 208, 213, 250
			Dempster Street	Closed December 1, 1958
			Evanston Main Street	Chicago "L": Purple Line (at Main) CTA Bus: 206 Pace: 213
			Calvary	Closed December 1, 1958, served Calvary Cemetery
	B	Chicago	Rogers Park	CTA Bus: 22, 96
			Kenmore	Closed December 1, 1958[18]
			Rose Hill	Closed December 1, 1958,[18] served Rosehill Cemetery
			Summerdale	Closed December 1, 1958[18]
			Ravenswood	Chicago "L": Brown Line (at Damen) CTA Bus: 81
			Ravenswood–Wilson	Closed December 1, 1958
			Northcenter	Closed December 1, 1958
			Belmont Avenue	Closed December 1, 1958
			Deering	Closed after June 13, 1943
	A		Clybourn	Metra: Union Pacific / Northwest Line CTA Bus: 9, X9, 73
			Ogilvie Transportation Center	Metra: Union Pacific / Northwest Line, Union Pacific / West Line Chicago "L": Green Line, Pink Line (at Clinton) CTA Bus: J14, 19, 56, 60, 120, 124, 125, 126, 128, 130, 157, 192

In popular culture

• The tracks of this line are shown in several scenes of the 1990 film ‘Home Alone’, which takes place in Winnetka.

References

1. "Ridership Reports – System Facts". Metra. Archived from the original on January 2, 2010. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
2. Metra Railfan Tips – Union Pacific/North Line Archived September 12, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
3. "Did you know?" (PDF). On the Bi-Level: 3. June 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 2, 2010.
4. "Gurnee History". Village of Gurnee. Retrieved September 16, 2007.
5. Mason, Blanche (1919). "Historical Sketch of Highland Park". Highland Park Public Library. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
6. Giles, H. H. (1879). "Wisconsin Railroads". The History of Racine and Kenosha Counties, Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical Company. pp. 173–185.
7. Ebner, Michael H. "Lake County, IL". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
8. "Chicago & North Western – A Capsule History". Chicago & North Western Historical Society. Retrieved September 16, 2007.
9. Wronski, Richard (August 24, 2010). "New Metra Union Pacific North schedule snarls commute for many". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
10. Wronski, Richard (September 25, 2010). "Metra's UP North bridge project pitting city riders vs. suburbanites". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on December 24, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
11. "Reports". Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Commuter Link. Archived from the original on January 21, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
12. Sandler, Larry (July 25, 2011). "It's official: Rail line from Kenosha to Milwaukee is dead". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
13. Asiyanbi, Heather (November 4, 2015). "City Council Unanimously Approves Metra Study". Racine County Eye. Archived from the original on November 11, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
14. Freund, Sara (August 12, 2019). "Construction on two Metra stations starts up again after state funding kicks in". Curbed. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
15. "RIDERSHIP TRENDS ANNUAL REPORT 2018" (PDF). Metra. p. 4. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
16. Wronski, Richard (July 20, 2009). "Public Transit's Private Club". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on October 23, 2015. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
17. Ridership Trends - Annual Report 2017 (PDF) (Report). Metra Division of Strategic Capital Planning. February 2018. p. 32. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
18. "Chicago & North Western Railroad: History of Milwaukee line". Edgewater Historical Society. Retrieved August 10, 2018.

External links

Template:Attached KML/Union Pacific / North Line

KML is from Wikidata

• Metra Union Pacific/North service schedule