Milwaukee District/North Line

Milwaukee District/North Line
A Metra train approaches the Deerfield station along the line
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Metra
Termini	Union Station Fox Lake
Stations	22
Daily ridership	24,500 (Avg. Weekday 2009)[1]
Operation
Owner	Metra
Operator(s)	Metra (Dispatched primarily by CP)
Technical
Line length	49.5
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend 73.6 Walworth (discontinued) 67.3 Zenda (discontinued) 55.8 Solon Mills (discontinued) 53.8 Spring Grove (discontinued) 49.5 Fox Lake 47.8 Ingleside 47.0 Wilson Road (discontinued) 46.0 Long Lake 44.0 Round Lake 41.0 Grayslake 39.9 Prairie Crossing (Libertyville) 35.5 Libertyville 32.3 Roundout (discontinued) 28.3 Lake Forest 24.2 Deerfield 22.9 Lake Cook Road (Deerfield) 21.1 Northbrook 18.8 North Glenview 17.4 Glenview 16.2 Golf 14.3 Morton Grove 11.6 Edgebrook 10.2 Forest Glen 9.0 Mayfair 8.2 Grayland 6.4 Healy Milwaukee District/West Line 2.9 Western Avenue 0.0 Union Station (Chicago)

The Milwaukee District/North (MD-N) is a commuter rail line provided and operated by Metra in Chicago, Illinois, and its surrounding suburbs. While Metra does not specifically refer to any of its lines by a particular color, the timetable accents for the Milwaukee District North line are printed in pale "Hiawatha Orange," honoring the Milwaukee Road's Hiawatha passenger trains.^[2]

Its southern terminus is Union Station in downtown Chicago. The line traverses Chicago's western neighborhoods and its northwestern and far northern suburbs to Fox Lake, Illinois. This line was originally owned and operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road). With the demise of the Milwaukee Road, ownership eventually passed to Metra. Today this service is one of several Metra routes operated by crews employed by Metra. However, trains are dispatched, under contract, by the Canadian Pacific Railway which runs freight service over parts this of this route.

The Milwaukee District/North Line route and Metra's track ownership, diverges from the Chicago - Milwaukee - Minneapolis mainline at Rondout, Illinois and proceeds in a northwesterly direction towards its terminus at Fox Lake. This secondary route, owned by Metra, was known as the Janesville, Subdivision (J-Sub) of the Milwaukee Road. The mainline, north of Rondout, is owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). The mainline hosts intercity passenger trains operated by Amtrak which consists of the Hiawatha Service to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Empire Builder to the Pacific Northwest. These trains operate out Union Station stopping only in Glenview, Cook County, Illinois.^[3]

There was previously a commuter stop in Rondout, until 1984. The station building itself had been demolished in the mid-1960s. It was located between the Lake Forest and Libertyville stops.^[4] Metra service and track ownership ends at Fox Lake. The tracks beyond Fox Lake are owned by the State of Wisconsin and operated for freight service by the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad. Commuter service beyond Fox Lake, abolished in 1982, served the communities of Spring Grove, Illinois, Solon Mills, Illinois, Zenda, Wisconsin, and Walworth, Wisconsin.^[5]

Station stops

Milwaukee District/North Line trains make the following station stops:

Station name	Location
Union Station	Downtown Chicago
Western Avenue	East Garfield Park, Chicago
Healy	Hermosa, Chicago
Grayland	Irving Park, Chicago
Mayfair	Albany Park, Chicago
Forest Glen	Forest Glen, Chicago
Edgebrook
Morton Grove	Morton Grove, Illinois
Golf	Golf, Illinois
Glenview	Glenview, Illinois
North Glenview
Northbrook	Northbrook, Illinois
Lake Cook Road	Deerfield, Illinois
Deerfield
Lake Forest	Lake Forest, Illinois
Libertyville	Libertyville, Illinois
Prairie Crossing
Grayslake	Grayslake, Illinois
Round Lake	Round Lake, Illinois
Long Lake	Long Lake, Illinois
Ingleside	Ingleside, Illinois
Fox Lake	Fox Lake, Illinois

References

1. ^ "Ridership Reports - System Facts". Metra. http://metrarail.com/metra/en/home/about_metra/planning_records_reports/ridership_reports.html. Retrieved April 6, 2010. 
2. ^ "Did you know?". On the Bi-Level: 3. June 2009. http://metrarail.com/content/dam/metra/documents/Bi_Level/OTBLJune09.pdf. 
3. ^ Metra Railfan Tips - Milwaukee District/North Line
4. ^ Chicago's Lost Stations - Milwaukee Road Chicago-Fox Lake
5. ^ Chicago's Lost Stations - Milwaukee Road Fox Lake-Janesville

External links

• Metra Milwaukee District/North service schedule

Media related to Metra Milwaukee District/North Line at Wikimedia Commons