Western Avenue is the name of a

railroad station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...

owned by

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 ...

, located in the West Town community area of

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

near Western Avenue. The station is away from

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

, the inbound terminus of the line.Metra Railfan Tips - North Central Service
/ref> Western Avenue station serves the

Milwaukee District West Line The Milwaukee District West Line (MD-W) is a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago, Illinois, and its western suburbs. Metra does not refer to any of its lines by a particular color, but the timetable accents for the Milwaukee District West line a ...

North Central Service The North Central Service (NCS) is a Metra commuter rail line running from Union Station in downtown Chicago through northwestern and far northern suburbs to Antioch, Illinois. In June 2018, the public timetable shows 10 weekday departures from C ...

, and

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 ...

, and is the last inbound stop for these three lines before the terminus at Union Station. Although it is not a station stop,

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 ...

Hiawatha Service The ''Hiawatha Service'', or simply ''Hiawatha'', is an 86-mile (138 km) train route operated by Amtrak on the western shore of Lake Michigan between Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. However, the name was historically applied to ...

'' trains and the ''

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that operates daily between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northe ...

'' also pass through here. The station was previously used by the

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad 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 Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experience ...

. Located near the station are the California Coach Yard, and the Western Avenue Rail Yard, the latter of which host to Metra's final

EMD F40C The EMD F40C is a 6-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in 1974 for commuter service in Chicago. EMD only built 15 locomotives; the decline of the 6-axle design for passenger service led to the adopt ...

s. Just southeast of the station platforms is a diamond where the Milwaukee Road Metra routes cross the tracks of the

Union Pacific West Line The Union Pacific West Line (UP-W) is a Metra commuter rail line operated by Union Pacific Railroad in Chicago, Illinois and its western suburbs. Metra does not refer to its lines by particular colors, but the timetable accents for the Union Paci ...

Ogilvie Transportation Center The Richard B. Ogilvie Transportation Center (; formerly Chicago and North Western Terminal) is a commuter rail terminal in downtown Chicago, Illinois. It is the terminus for the three commuter rail lines of Metra's Union Pacific District to Chica ...

, then turn to run parallel to them. This goes on for about a mile before they split, as the West Line tracks continue to Ogilvie. The junction is controlled by the nearby A-2 tower. As of 2018, Western Avenue is the 61st busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 836 weekday boardings. Western Avenue is served by a total of 117 Metra trains on weekdays, by 44 trains on Saturdays, and by 36 trains on Sundays and holidays. This includes all inbound trains from the three lines, as well as all outbound trains save for one outbound Milwaukee District North Line train on weekdays.

Station Layout

Bus connections

CTA * 49 Western (Owl Service) * X49 Western Express (weekday rush hours only) * 65 Grand

References

External links

Station House from Google Maps Street View
Western Avenue (Metra) Former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1900 {{Chicago-railstation-stub