Milwaukee District / North Line

Milwaukee District / North Line
EMD F40PH #120 leads an outbound train at Deerfield
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Metra
Termini	Union Station Fox Lake
Stations	22
Daily ridership	23,257 (Avg. Weekday 2014)[1]
Operation
Owner	Metra, Canadian Pacific, Wisconsin and Southern Railway
Operator(s)	Metra (Dispatched primarily by CP)
Technical
Line length	49.5 miles (79.7 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map Legend 73.6 mi 118.4 km Walworth (Discontinued) 67.3 mi 108.3 km Zenda (Discontinued) Wisconsin Illinois 57.5 mi 92.5 km Richmond (Proposed) 55.8 mi 89.8 km Solon Mills (Discontinued) 53.8 mi 86.6 km Spring Grove (Proposed) 49.4 mi 79.5 km Fox Lake 47.8 mi 76.9 km Ingleside 47.0 mi 75.6 km Wilson Road (Discontinued) 46.1 mi 74.2 km Long Lake 44.2 mi 71.1 km Round Lake 41.0 mi 66 km Grayslake NCS 39.8 mi 64.1 km Prairie Crossing 35.5 mi 57.1 km Libertyville Des Plaines River Chicago River(north branch) Empire Builder to Seattle or Portland Hiawatha Service to Milwaukee North Shore Bike Path 32.3 mi 52 km Rondout (Discontinued) Chicago River(north branch) 28.4 mi 45.7 km Lake Forest 24.6 mi 39.6 km Deerfield 23.4 mi 37.7 km Lake Cook Road 21.0 mi 33.8 km Northbrook 20.2 mi 32.5 km Techny (Discontinued) 18.5 mi 29.8 km North Glenview 17.4 mi 28 km Glenview 15.4 mi 24.8 km Golf Chicago River(north branch) 14.6 mi 23.5 km Morton Grove 11.5 mi 18.5 km Edgebrook Chicago River(north branch) 10.2 mi 16.4 km Forest Glen CTA Blue Line UP-NW 9.2 mi 14.8 km Mayfair 8.3 mi 13.4 km Grayland 7.5 mi 12.1 km Healy MD-W to ElginNCS to Antioch Coach Yard 2.9 mi 4.7 km Western Avenue UP-W Chicago 'L' Northwest branch UP-N UP-NW CTA Green and Pink Lines 0 mi Union Station BNSF to Aurora HC to Joliet SWS to Manhattan

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

Operations

Metra is the primary user of the line, with commuter services operating between Union Station and Fox Lake, Illinois. As of 2015 the public timetable shows 30 weekday departures to Chicago, with 18 running through to Fox Lake. Of the 12 trains not running to Fox Lake, six terminate at Deerfield, five at Grayslake, and one at Lake Forest. Metra operates a reduced schedule on weekends.^[3] This service is supplemented by Amtrak, whose Empire Builder and Hiawatha Service inter-city trains stop at Union Station and Glenview.

History

In the 1980s this line was 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 Metra crews, but trains are dispatched, under contract, by the Canadian Pacific Railway which runs freight service over parts 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 northwesterly toward 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).^[4]

Until 1984 there was a stop in Rondout. The station building itself was demolished in the mid-1960s. The station was located at Rondout Junction, where the line crosses the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway's tracks at a diamond junction.^[5] 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.^[6]

There is also talk of constructing a second branch, from Rondout north to Wadsworth and Kenosha County, Wisconsin.^[7]

Station stops

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

References

External links

Route map: Bing / Google

• Metra Milwaukee District/North service schedule

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