Metra Rock Island District | Chicago LaSalle Street to Tinley Park

Metra is Chicago's commuter rail service. Trains leave from four different terminals in downtown Chicago. LaSalle Street was the terminal of both the New York Central Railroad and the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad, back in the day. Today, it only hosts the Metra Rock Island District line. This line is 40 miles long, with a 6 mile suburban branch line, connecting Chicago with Joliet. We rode it on a Saturday in April 2022. The Saturday schedule is not too bad for American standards: two trains every two hours, one local that terminates halfway at Blue Island, and one express that stops at all stops after Blue Island. We got off at Tinley Park station. The ride was 35-40 minutes and the fare was $3.50.
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[@victoryleadership1]

The green tint is an old-school type of thermal treatment to help reduce the transfer of heat and increase a/c efficiency. However, this is an outdated approach and is not likely to be repeated during retrofits and replacement equipment. Thanks for your contribution, the effort is appreciated.

[@yixnorb5971]

Sunglasses were green too

[@AlexCab_49]

I hope I one day get to visit Chicago and to also ride metra trains.

[@Thom-TRA]

One day you will! I recommend the Metra Electric District. Very interesting line,

[@newlywedbeth]

When you passed one of the stops, you were mere yards away from our house. My husband has ridden that train for 35+ years to work in the city. And his dad rode it for 30 years before that, from the same house. Lots of family history with that train line.

[@Thom-TRA]

That’s such a cool story!

[@danielueblacker9118]

Thom great seeing your sisters, I miss Bear. Love your honest opinion of the neighborhood. I trust your judgement fully. Respect.

[@Thom-TRA]

Thank you! I have 4 siblings, we’re a big family! Bear should be back soon, he’s spent a week filming some awesome stuff in Europe! Hope you’re doing well!

[@landon176]

LaSalle Street station is also where the annual Joliet rocket originates in the Joliet rocket is an excursion train pulling some old passenger cars and the locomotive is a steam locomotive, which is the nickel plate road 765

[@miragohar8966]

Metro is the best I’m going this week

[@tyhik9338]

Nice catch on the door chime too Lol. It never gets old

[@Thom-TRA]

I know I love it haha

[@CameronLandels]

Hi there. Thank you for the trip report. Need to visit the Windy City. It's always nice to see a double decker train (We don't have them in the UK). I do like the different seat moquette colours in the different cars. I believe trains run express on a weekday between La Salle and Tinley 80th :-)

[@Thom-TRA]

Do you think the UK doesn’t have double deckers because of the small loading gauge? I liked the Rock Island line, my hope is to ride all of the lines at some point.

[@CameronLandels]

@@Thom-TRA Hi Thom. Sorry for the late reply. I agree with your comment. We have quite low clearances for tunnels and bridges. Much of our infrastructure was built in the Victorian times. I'd definitely be interested in seeing a Metra express ride on the BNSF line 😊

[@Thom-TRA]

@@CameronLandels thanks for the request! I’ll make sure to consider it next time I’m in Chicago. For this weekend I have an Amtrak trip I will be uploading!

[@CameronLandels]

@@Thom-TRA I am looking forward to your upcoming Amtrak trip 🙂

[@Herowebcomics]

Wow! Those trains were cool! And it was awesome that you could bring family and friends along!

[@briansivley2001]

I've been on this line multiple times in the past. I've been on all but one Metra Lines and I haven't been on the Metra Electric and Union Pacific Northwest Line Branches. I remember once I happened to lost track of time and I missed the returning train back to LaSalle Street Station because I was so distracted by the Joliet Union Station Architecture and talking to my mom on the payphone on the platform so I had to wait for the next train to come. It wasn't much of a loss for me personally being that interchange at Joliet is pretty busy with freight train traffic which was cool to watch.

[@DiscoverWithDima]

Never taken the metro in Chicago, I'll need to check it out! I live in NWI so for me its a bit out of the way, but I am a huge rail fan myself so am excited to try it!

[@jfmezei]

CP Rail had 9 gallery cars purchased in mid 1970s for the Montr.al-Rigaud service (Québec, Canada) which included 2 cab cars The top level celing over the middle had air conditioning duch with vents on both sides for full elngth of section, below which was ample luggage rack accessible from both sides. It did not have that "shelf" on on side between the 2 levels. In those days, they really had conductios checking tickets on the train. The 17:15 was an express train and the conductors had to check tickets on the whole 9 cars within about 15 minutes until first station. On days when theye ere big snow storms and train was packed, they couodn't check tickets. (today, that service is operated by EXO and it is on an honour system so they seldom check tickets). While the gallery car is criticized, it is not as bad as it looks. 1- the wide middle doors allow 3 to get off at same time, whereas on conventional trains like comet/horizon, the doors at each end allow 2 ( 1 per door.) 2- all the air conditioning is placed above the vestibule which gives usable space on both levels to both ends of the car. The stairs are very compact and there are 2 stairs per section (4 stairs total) so less bottleneck to go down to main level. 3- the gangway is at normal level so a gallery car can be coupled with conventional cars. 4-The bi-levels and multilevels have 2*2 upstairs so appear to have much better use of space. However, the ends of the car at "mid deck" have limited seating. The Multi-levels have conventional vestibule at end AND hallway next to the stairs + high level platform doors. The Bi-levels can have more seating on mid-level (no doors) , but still need a hallway on each side for the stairs. And the lower level has two doors and large hallways that reduce seating. So in gallery cars, the greater amount of 2*2 seating downstairs compensates for the reduced 1*1 seating upstairs. (though the side by side seating upstairs does have greater passenger density). Remember that as a passenger you tend to only see half of a car since it is split into 2 separate section with vestibule in middle so this gives impression of much smaller capacity. You need to double what you see to get real idea of capacity of a car. For cab cars, the cab takes space only on upper level. Lower level is standard seating and standard gangway door to next car. (though since the Metrolink head-on crash some years ago, not sure this design woudl be tolerated on newer trains without some large "bumper" ahead for crash energy absorbtion to protect driver and passengers below. Gallery cars are not good at accomodating bicycles because they would need to be stored on main deck and cannibalize a lot of capacity whereas for multi-levels the bikes go to the low density mid level with flip up seats. On the bi-levels, the bikes cannibalise space in the "hallway" on lower deck between the doors and the wall that separates lower level from mid level so cannibalize less seating capacity (unless like on Metrolink, they kill off some seating to put bikes on seat side of doors. And Gallery cars are extremely challenging to allow wheelchairs since main deck is high level platform level but doors designed for low platform with each of the 3 "channels" to get people up/down stairs too narrow to allow wheelchair. Bi-levels can accomodate wheelchairs with a simple platform to train plank. Wheelchairs stay on lower level. Multi-levels can only accomodate wheelchairs from high level platforms but offer level boarding. Green windows: by filtering out the red it filters out heat/infrared as well. The resulting green-blue appears green. (try 0-128-128 for RGB colour in Phpotoshop and you'll see). More recent window tech uses special gas to filter infrared but not red light to give better colour balance.

[@Thom-TRA]

Saving all this great info for a future video!

[@AppLandon]

Never thought a KZbinr would go to my home town!

[@Coltrain78]

Your urban analysis at Tinley Park got my urban planner attention 😊.

[@BJH.]

Hi @Trains Are Awesome! The windows are green because, the light is actually that color, but our brains 'convert' it to white. Cameras do not have this 'color conversion', so the true color with the green tint is captured. by c604. When on a Metra train looking out the window, the whole world outside is green even when the lights are off.

[@Thom-TRA]

I don’t have a sciency mind at all, so I appreciate this explanation, but I’m still confused. Why do my eyes also see the windows as green?

[@amfm889]

LOL.

[@Thom-TRA]

@@amfm889 bro for real I speak a bunch of languages and I love history but you bring up a science fact and my brain goes in panic mode lol

[@dennisforner6090]

Those train carriages sure are unique apart from the green windows- however, the steps up to the seating area from the platform are not very 'user friendly' for people with mobility issues - I imagine they must have a form of ramp or mobile lifting device that I've seen Amtrak use for such a situation? Nice to see no snow for a change! around the Chicago area. Take care & be safe - I now have tested positive for COVID so my trip to Japan will have to remain on hold for now. Thank you for again proving that trains are truly awesome.

[@Thom-TRA]

I’m so sorry to hear that! Missing out on Japan is really sad… hoping for a full recovery for you and your wife! Metra has a ramp/elevator and staff assistance, but the climb really is ridiculous. Then again, the cars are from a long long time ago lol. Hopefully the new cars will be an improvement.

[@DrSeussFan]

Can you also do a train video of the Metra Southwest Service and also UP-West line please and thank you

[@Thom-TRA]

One day, yes. I currently have North Central, Southwest, and BNSF lined up. The other three will follow over the course of this year.

[@tyhik9338]

Cool

[@miragohar8966]

Metros is the best

[@rwulfsberg]

The interiors of New York's Grand Central Terminal and Chicago's LaSalle Street Station (as it existed in the 1950s) can be seen in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest.

[@favroitetiger2351]

Do you have the link for the crossword. You said their is digital edition available. I couldn’t find it online.

[@landon176]

I’ve ridden metra many times before

[@BlueLemonStudios]

its a massive shame that the cafe there in tinley station (cavallini's) has since closed down, the coffee there was amazing and the owner was awesome to talk to. the cafe that has come into the station after him just isn't as good. which is really unfortunate

[@Thom-TRA]

There are so many good food places that have closed…

[@Robbi496]

Back when smoking was allowed on trains, one section of the car was smoking and the other was mom-dmking

[@de-fault_de-fault]

I always think the hourly service on my nearest NJ Transit line on weekends is horribly inadequate (in fact I usually drive over to one of the NEC stations on weekends to access more frequent trains). I can't imagine it being halved, much less considering that halved version to be good by any standards. Reminders of what the rest of the country deals with, though, make me feel really fortunate to have even what I have.

[@landon176]

Today I’m taking the metra rock island district to Joliet

[@johnkolassa1645]

When you mentioned reduced fare ticket, was that referring to the half-fare metra program for suburban Cook County stations?

[@Thom-TRA]

Yes, the South side access reduced fare

[@johnkolassa1645]

@@Thom-TRA Thanks.

[@landon176]

Must have held 5 min of a delay at Vermont st

[@trainglen22]

LaSalle Street was originally Rock Island, not NYC( Michagan Central).

[@Thom-TRA]

It most certainly was the terminal for the New York Central, together with the Rock Island. I do research these things before I publish them, you know.

[@paulhurst7748]

The new Metra cars will most likely do away with that tinting.

[@davidburrow5895]

While I assume Metra did the window tinting to reduce glare, I agree it just looks weird.

[@paulhurst7748]

I don't know about the green tint on the windows. I guess that is something that Metra inherited and just kept it up. All my life, the CNW trains that I rode on had the green tint.

[@roadrambling8703]

no al capone cars anymore

[@hiawathafilms]

Are your sisters twins?!

[@midmichiganemdrailfan.4187]

Cool video I'm going try going here bu I'm going what until Protest is over I'm not taken any chances

[@Thom-TRA]

What protest?

[@midmichiganemdrailfan.4187]

@@Thom-TRA it's some kinda girl rights for freedom of speech or transgender or babys I don't know I don't pay attention but it's been going on for almost 2 mouth's after the racist protest in your area.

[@stevesteffen7001]

Glad you fuzzed your sisters faces. I think they are twins.

[@Thom-TRA]

They are