Thursday, September 19, 2013

Metra construction alert - Sun. 9/22

News from Metra:

In order to remove two bridges, the Rock Island Line will be closed north of the Gresham Station on two Sundays, Sept. 22 and Oct. 6, and there will be no service to and from the LaSalle Street and 35th Street stations during the shutdowns. Access to and from downtown will be provided via a transfer to extra Metra Electric Line service at Blue Island-Vermont Street.

Passengers south of Blue Island who are traveling downtown can take inbound Rock Island trains to Blue Island and transfer to the Metra Electric Line's Blue Island branch, where special trains will take them inbound to the 18th St., Museum Campus, Van Buren and Millennium stations. The special Metra Electric trains also will make the reverse trip to Blue Island from Millennium Station.

Passengers north of Blue Island - those who normally board at Gresham or at stations along the Rock Island's Beverly branch - can travel downtown by riding outbound Rock Island trains south to Blue Island and transferring to the special inbound Metra Electric trains north to Millennium. They will have to make the reverse trip on the special outbound Metra Electric trains to Blue Island and then on regular inbound Rock Island Beverly branch trains north to their destination. Riders will be charged the normal fare for their zone to downtown and back.

For a full schedule for these two Sundays, click here.

Regular Sunday service on the Rock Island Line will resume with the 6:25 p.m. departure from Joliet, arriving at LaSalle Street at 7:49 p.m., and the 6:30 p.m. departure from LaSalle Street, arriving in Joliet at 7:55 p.m.

About 1,800 inbound passengers and about 1,000 outbound passengers normally ride on the affected Sunday trains on the Rock Island Line. Metra apologizes for the inconvenience but it was determined the temporary closures were the best option for carrying out the work.

The two bridges at 60th and 66th streets are being removed and the viaducts filled in as part of the Englewood flyover bridge project. The flyover is a new bridge that will carry the Metra Rock Island tracks over a set of tracks used by Amtrak and freight trains at 63rd and State, eliminating conflicts between trains and cutting pollution and noise from idling trains. Closing the streets and filling the viaducts provided design flexibility and cost savings compared to replacing the viaduct structures on the new track work alignments.

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