Last Train to Downtown

I have a long relationship with the Metra train. It started back in the 1990s when I commuted downtown to Columbia College for three years. (I spent my first year of collage at Moraine Valley taking my core classes for far less money.  I’ll save that for another blog.)

There were far fewer trains coming and going from Oak Lawn back then. There was no shelter.  We didn’t have a nice heated train station to hide in during rain or snow storms.  In fact, there wasn’t even a Metra parking garage. There was only a small paved parking lot.  

The limited train station parking was all permit parking. Rumor had it that someone had to die before you could get a permit. I would walk one mile from my
home to get to the station.

Last Saturday, I had to go downtown for a work related conference. This was the weekend of the Lollapalooza concerts in Grant Park. As luck would have it, my conference was literally across the street from Grant Park. Taking the train was the only sensible option. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve taken the train from Oak Lawn. I think the last time was for jury duty.

Work has pulled me more towards the western and northern suburbs. My past few trips downtown involved the Midway el.  The el is still more convenient if you need to get downtown and back within a short period of time.

Oak Lawn hasn’t had a Saturday train for very long.  March 21, 2009 was when that service started. I remember the day because I was president of the Oak Lawn Chamber of Commerce at the time. The Chamber offered free coffee and donuts to riders courtesy of the neighboring Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts.   

The very first 7 a.m. train had around 30 people at the Oak Lawn station. I jumped on the second train along with some fellow Oak Lawn Chamber members and spent a few hours downtown. It was a blast.

So last Saturday, I got in my car first thing in the morning. I drove to the Metra garage where I found parking with little trouble. There is a nice mix or permit and non-permit parking. I walked across the street to the station and waited for the train to come. 

There were about two dozen people there. Many were teens and twenty-somethings taking the train to Lollapalooza. I overheard one of them saying to his other friends that there was no way he was going to drive downtown. Smart kid!

I want to mention in this blog that Metra announced plans for major cuts in their service. I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone that virtually all of our government agencies are having funding issues. Metra is no exception. I do believe that there is too much fat in government. We need to trim things. I’m sure that the southwest Saturday service is not used as much as services from other parts of the metropolitan area. I’m sure that there are also weekday trains that are lightly travelled. I still hope the southwest service doesn’t slide back into the less convenient service that I remember using as a college student.

Metra has handed out questionnaires to its regular riders. Most weekend riders are probably not regulars.  They plan on revisiting the service cuts issue in September. I'm sure I'm not the only local that will be interested in the results.