The Suburban Transit Access Route (or STAR Line) was a proposed railway project in northwest and outer suburban

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, United States. On January 30, 2003,

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 ...

announced plans to build a new service line that would introduce a new fleet of

Diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

trains (DMUs) to connect nearly 100 communities in the region and form Metra's only suburb-to-suburb service. Currently all of Metra's services are oriented on suburb-to-city travel. The route of the STAR line was planned to travel along the EJ&E right of way and in the median of the Northwest Tollway (

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

). The tollway median was a proposed extension of the

CTA Blue Line The Blue Line is a Chicago "L" The Chicago "L" (short for "elevated") is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs in the U.S. state of Illinois. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA ...

westward to Schaumburg, but construction plans of the Suburban Transit Access Route caused the former to be scrapped. Very high ridership was expected due to its unique travel theme: around 80,000 passengers a day. The line was to be 55 miles in length. The preliminary cost estimate for the STAR Line was $1.1 billion. The project was authorized under what was, in 2005, the most recent federal transportation funding bill: SAFETEA-LU. The project underwent Alternatives Analysis before cancellation.

Project

The Metra route would have been the first suburb-to-suburb train line in the Chicago area. The line would have started at

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Loop busines ...

, run west along

towards

Hoffman Estates Hoffman Estates is a village in Illinois, United States. The village is located primarily in Cook County, with a small section in Kane County. It is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 52,530. The village now serves ...

, then south along the

Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway was a Class I railroad, operating between Waukegan, Illinois and Gary, Indiana. The railroad served as a link between Class I railroads traveling to and from Chicago, although it operated almost entirely wit ...

towards Joliet. The line would have connected almost 100 communities in

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, DuPage, and

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County. The route would have used a new fleet of European-style trains running at , providing service at 15-minute intervals during peak periods. In June 2003, the Regional Transportation Authority board unanimously signaled their support for the proposed STAR Line. The project would have cost $1.1 billion and would have taken 10 years to build, depending on funding. In January 2012, the '' Daily Herald'' reported that Metra was no longer actively studying the project, partly due to a lack of funding from federal and state governments. Other transport modes, such as bus rapid transit, offered a cheaper alternative to the STAR Line.

References

External links

Official Metra New Starts siteNorthwest Municipal ConferenceUpdated Map"Metra Connects" STAR line websiteMap of current EJ&E right-of-way
{{Metra Metra Railway lines in Chicago Proposed railway lines in Illinois