Fox Lake is a station on

Metra Metra is the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 242 stations on 11 rail lines. I ...

Milwaukee District North Line The Milwaukee District North Line (MD-N) is a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago, Illinois, and its northern suburbs. Although Metra does not refer to any of its lines by color, the timetable accents for the Milwaukee District North line are pal ...

Fox Lake, Illinois Fox Lake is a village in Grant and Antioch townships in Lake County, Illinois and Burton Township, McHenry County, Illinois, United States. The population was 10,978 at the 2020 census. It is located approximately 57 miles north of Chicago. Hi ...

. The station is located on Nippersink Boulevard at Grand Avenue ( IL 132), is away from

Chicago Union Station Chicago Union Station is an intercity and commuter rail terminal located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The station is Amtrak's flagship station in the Midwest. While serving long-distance passenger trains, it is also ...

, the southern terminus of the line, and serves commuters from Fox Lake to

Downtown Chicago ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

. The station is the northern terminus of the Milwaukee District North Line. As of 2018, Fox Lake is the 141st busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 322 weekday boardings. As of December 12, 2022, Fox Lake is served by 32 trains (16 in each direction) on weekdays, by 18 trains (nine in each direction) on Saturdays, and by all 18 trains (nine in each direction) on Sundays and holidays. All Metra trains that serve Fox Lake originate and terminate here. Until 1982 commuter trains continued to Walworth, Wisconsin and until the creation of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

in 1971, inter-city trains like the ''Varsity'' and the ''Sioux'', both operated by the

Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States fr ...

, connected Fox Lake with

Janesville, Wisconsin Janesville is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat and largest city in the county. It is a principal municipality of the Janesville, Wisconsin, Metropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Madison–Jane ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

, and

Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City ( lkt, link=no, Mni Lúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwahe; "Swift Water City") is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western So ...

Station layout

Fox Lake consists of a single platform serving in-service Metra trains. Two other tracks exist at the station, but they are only used for locomotives that pull out of the yard to switch onto the mainline. A coach yard used to store trains during off-peak hours and overnight is located just east of the station. The tracks north of Fox Lake are owned by the state of

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, are operated for freight service by the

Wisconsin and Southern Railroad The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad is a Class II regional railroad in Southern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois currently operated by Watco. It operates former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) and Chicago ...

, and see freight traffic only. Also, commuter service beyond the station was abolished in the 1980s. From 2000 to 2001,

ran the

Lake Country Limited The ''Lake Country Limited'' was a short-lived Amtrak route which connected Chicago, Illinois with Janesville, Wisconsin. The route was part of Amtrak's Network Growth Strategy, which envisioned an expanded role for mail and express business. Th ...

over the WSOR trackage. This service did not stop in Fox Lake and was discontinued due to low ridership and bad conditions of the tracks north of Fox Lake.

Bus connections

Pace Pace or paces may refer to: Business *Pace (transit), a bus operator in the suburbs of Chicago, US * Pace Airlines, an American charter airline *Pace Foods, a maker of a popular brand of salsa sold in North America, owned by Campbell Soup Compan ...

* 570 Fox Lake-CLC * 806 Crystal Lake-Fox Lake

References

External links

Station from Grand Avenue from Google Maps Street View
Metra stations in Illinois Former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad stations Railway stations in Lake County, Illinois Railway stations in McHenry County, Illinois Railway stations in the United States opened in 1902 {{Illinois-railstation-stub