CHICAGO — A groundbreaking ceremony Monday marked the planned construction of a new, long-delayed station on Metra’s Rock Island District.
The station near 79th Street and Lowe Avenue in the Auburn Park neighborhood was originally planned in 2009, but state funding was held up and eventually cut in 2017. That funding was restored earlier this year, allowing Metra to announce it would go ahead with the Auburn Park station and another in Chicago on the Union Pacific North line. [See “Metra gets state funding for two new stations in Chicago,” Trains News Wire, April 17, 2019.]
The station will fill a gap between the existing 35th Street/”Lou” Jones and Gresham stops south of downtown.
While the ceremony was held Monday, WLS-TV reports that the station is still in the design phase and construction won’t begin until next year.
Great News!
More money for Chicago while roads in Southern Illinois are in total disrepair. All this from a state that’s not far from being broke!
This also happens to be on the same line that the mayor and county board chair are arguing over.