CHICAGO — Union Pacific is set to place a third track into service between River Forest and Melrose Park, Ill., this weekend, closing one of the two gaps in its triple-track main line between Chicago and Elburn, Ill. Metra service on the UP West line will experience delays as a result.
Metra is advising passengers that all trains could experience delays of 15 minutes between 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, to 5 a.m. Monday, Nov. 11. Trains will not stop at the Maywood station, on the stretch where the third track is being added, during that period. Also, all trains at the Melrose Park station will use the south platform on Friday night and Saturday, and the north platform on Sunday.
The addition of the third main on the 1.8 miles between Vale — the River Forest location where the main line currently reduces from three tracks to two — and the east end of UP’s Proviso Yard — will give UP uninterrupted triple track for 32 miles from Chicago to West Chicago. Preparations are under way to close the remaining 6.1-mile gap through Geneva, Ill. [see “UP aims to begin triple-tracking near Geneva, Ill, in spring 2020,” Trains News Wire, May 14, 2019.] That would give UP a three-track main for all 43 miles used by Metra’s UP West service.
C&NW had a lot less freight traffic. A LOT less.
Anyone know the backstory why the C&NW retained those double track gaps, or put them in?