Metra has taken its fair share of knocks over the years for being a rail system that overlooks city commuters and favors weekday 9-to-5 suburban workers traveling to and from downtown.
But things are changing at Metra, as this week’s opening of the new $27 million Peterson/Ridge station in Chicago’s Far North Side Edgewater neighborhood shows.
This is a positive step forward for Chicago transit.
Serving Metra’s Union Pacific North Line, the infill station features two brick-and-glass warming houses accommodating both inbound and outbound riders, each with a heated waiting area. Perhaps most importantly, Metra is adding four trains to the line to ease rush hour crowding and fill what had been lengthy gaps in the schedule.
The station was proposed in 2013, but funding issues and a spat with the Chicago Water Management Department over the project’s use of permeable pavers — the city agency argued the paving would allow too much stormwater to pass through into the sewer system — contributed to a decade-long delay.
“We’re all very excited,” Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis told ABC7. “You know, this has been a long time coming. We know the people in this neighborhood have been waiting for this for a long time. Asking. I know people drive by it and they are wondering, ‘When is it gonna open?’ When is it going to open?’ and we are glad we are finally able to open it for people.”
Better late than never, though. The new stop and more frequent trains mean more North Siders can travel downtown or to Kenosha, Wisconsin without having to use a car to get there.
Meanwhile, the South Side’s Auburn Gresham community will also see a new Metra station, scheduled to open in 2025.
The $35 million Auburn Park station is now under construction at 79th Street on the agency’s Rock Island District line. The station will have a landscaped plaza at ground level, plus storefronts, bicycle parking and a kiss-n-ride area. The neighborhood had been without a stop since 1978.
Increasing transit options on both the North and South sides can only benefit those areas — and the city as a whole.
And the investments also make a good argument to legislators in Springfield to make sure Metra and the region’s other transit agencies get the funding needed to survive the combined $730 million budget gap that’s expected to hit in 2026.
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