Metra

Metra board members Friday endorsed a $952 million project that would dramatically reduce freight delays on Metra’s SouthWest Service line while also allowing 30 more BNSF, Heritage Corridor or Amtrak runs into Union Station.

With the new $142 million Englewood flyover now addressing what had been one of the nation’s worst rail choke points, Metra
Board members Friday set their sights on their next major rail bottleneck target.

The 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project would attack South Side rail delays involving tracks shared by Metra, Amtrak and seven freight carriers between Pulaski Road and the Dan Ryan and from 63rd to 99th Street.

Metra SouthWest Service trains that rumble over those tracks can face freight interference at “Belt Junction” — described as “the most congested rail choke point in Chicago” — and Forest Hill Junction. Plus, within one two-mile stretch of the corridor, some SouthWest trains now must wait on a single track for other trains to pass.

The large number of freight trains — some two miles in length — running on the same tracks with Metra and Amtrak passenger trains has created “the most congested corridor in Metra,” Metra Board member Norm Carlson said during Friday’s monthly Metra meeting.

“You’d probably have to go to Russia or China to get similar congestion,” Carlson said.

The 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project would separate tracks at three locations — in two cases with a “flyover” bridge — and add or realign other tracks.

It would reroute SouthWest Service trains onto Rock Island tracks after the SouthWest Service’s current Wrightwood Station stop. As a result, 30 SouthWest Service trains that currently terminate at Union Station would instead wind up at La Salle Street Station.

That means room for 30 more trains each weekday would be available in the south concourse of Union Station. Those slots could be occupied by Metra’s BNSF or Heritage Corridor lines, or by Amtrak trains — including the higher speed rail Amtrak line from St. Louis to Chicago, officials said Friday.

Metra Board members Friday passed a resolution endorsing the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project and urging state and federal lawmakers to contribute funding to the plan.

The cost was estimated at $952 million, with $75 million needed immediately for project design. Officials said the design alone would take two years and construction could last at least five more years.

If the improvements had already been instituted, they could have eliminated 34 of the 59 freight or signal delays that SouthWest Service suffered in November, Metra Chief of Operations Peter Zwolfer said Friday.