2006: After a Long Hiatus, Commuter Rail Service Returns to an Illinois Village    

January 23, 2006

A newly built ground-level train station in the Illinois village of Elburn, which is more than 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) west of Chicago, was formally opened to the public. Elburn station is the western endpoint of the Union Pacific West Line (UP-W) of the Chicago-area commuter rail system known as Metra.

This station was a successor of sorts to one that had been built in Elburn in 1854 and remained in use for passenger trains until 1959. The original Elburn station started out as part of the Galena and Chicago Railroad, which consolidated with the Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) in 1864. C&NW was acquired by Union Pacific Railroad, the current operator of the line running to Elburn, in 1995.

William Presecky, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, covered the overall enthusiasm surrounding the return of commuter rail service to Elburn on January 23, 2006. “After a 50-year hiatus, commuter rail service to Elburn resumed before dawn Monday, kicking off a weeklong celebration of Metra improvement projects across the Chicago region,” recounted Presecky in an article appearing in the next day’s edition of the Chicago Tribune. “The popular Union Pacific West Line’s terminus was extended about 9 miles [14.5 kilometers] from [the city of] Geneva to Elburn at 4:48 p.m., when train No. 10 began its 43-mile [69.2-kilometer] trek eastbound  to the Ogilvie Transportation Center in Chicago.”

Those riding the first train from the new Elburn station to Chicago and back included Michael Stoffa, a former mayor of the village, and his brother John. Michael Stoffa took time to describe the personal significance of the area in which Elburn station was built. “We were born and raised right here,” he said. “You can see the house we grew up in from the station platform.”

Fellow Elburn residents Tammy Osborne and her 11-year-old son Billy likewise went to the station prior to daybreak that morning for a train ride. “I was against bringing Metra here at first,” she explained. “I knew it would change the [village] . . . But that would happen even if the train didn’t come here.”

Not all of the train passengers at Elburn station that morning began their rides there. David Wilson, a resident of the Illinois village of Oak Park and a graduate student in urban planning, was among the first people to arrive via train at the station. He boarded the Elburn-bound train from UP-W’s station in Oak Park at 7:55 that morning. “Elburn wasn’t part of the Chicago area yesterday,” said Wilson. “It is now.” (The accompanying photo of the present-day Elburn station on its opening day was taken by Wilson.)

Photo Credit: David Wilson (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)

For more information on the current version of Elburn station, please check out  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elburn_station Additional information on Metra’s Union Pacific West Line is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_West_Line