COURTESY VILLAGE OF RIVER FOREST
From Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, Union Pacific forces will replace the rail on nearly 13 miles of track between Kress Road in West Chicago and Elburn (milepost 32.1 to milepost 45). The work will take place on Track Number 1, which regular UP West Line riders would know as the northernmost or “inbound” track. This rail was originally laid in 1980 and has reached the end of its useful life. Changing the rail will avoid slow orders in the future and ensure the continuation of reliable service for passengers from Elburn, La Fox and Geneva.
A construction schedule will be in effect throughout the project with delays of 10 minutes expected for midday trains on weekdays and 15 minutes for trains on weekends. These schedules are posted on Metra’s website www.metrarail.com. However, due to the nature of the project and the amount of rail traffic in this corridor, trains operating during peak construction periods may experience additional delays.
To minimize the impact on UP West riders and shorten the project’s time frame, workers will be deployed seven days a week and plan to limit single-track operations to the weekends. UP will also divert as much freight traffic as possible away from the corridor to reduce interference with passenger service.
Customers are also advised to check Metra’s website at www.metrarail.com for updated service information throughout the project. A table of the changes to the train schedules can be found by clicking here: http://tinyurl.com/or6o77b