Railroading on 93rd Street - On Track - Metra Steel opens railroad station in South Chicago, Tom Judge comments - Brief Article

Railway Track and Structures, July, 2001

During my railroad PR and journalism career, I've attended too many station and facility openings to count. Each one is unique, but they all seem to share good feelings between the railroad and the community. As shocking as it may sound, such warm relations are not always the norm.

On a cloudy Chicago morning in early June, I added one more station opening to my record. Metra opened a brand-new station between 92nd and 93rd Streets on its Metra Electric District, formerly known as the Illinois Central Suburban Service. The South Chicago Branch terminated at 91st Street in 1926, and the IC built a temporary wooden shelter to serve commuters riding downtown. The $8.5-million new station replaces that 1926 structure, although over the years the IC and Metra have replaced every splinter of wood in the original shelter.

I'm a local boy. I took my very first train ride out of the South Chicago Station. When I was a child, my family would take the train from there downtown to look at Marshall Field's store windows at Christmastime. As a typical provincial Southsider, I thought the North Pole was just a few blocks beyond Randolph Street, the north end of the IC Suburban line. My father worked in train service for the IC, including many a run on the South Chicago line. I remember one time waiting for my girlfriend (now my wife of 32 years) to arrive there on the green heavyweight cars from downtown. The rhythmic sound of a pump replenishing the air for the brakes and the feel of wicker seats will never leave me.

So this was a homecoming of sorts for me. And it was a very positive one.

South Chicago, once a city in its own right before being absorbed into Chicago, used to be a major steel-producing center. The closings of U.S. Steel's South Works with 12,000 jobs and International Harvester's Wisconsin Steel with 6,000 jobs were double body blows from which the neighborhood never truly recovered.

But people out there are very resilient. Many political leaders and other just plain hard workers are striving to raise up the neighborhood in every way they can. And one way was to revitalize the South Chicago train station.

More than 1,000 riders use that station every day. Now they have a 700-car parking lot to use as well as plenty of "Kiss-and-Ride" space. The evening traffic jam with people meeting trains at 91st Street is gone now. And one local entrepreneur just opened a coffee shop across the street from the station.

The type of ceremony was familiar, with politicos such as the local congressman, state senator and alderman saying a few words. The local elementary school band made its way through "I've been working on the railroad." Officials unveiled a plaque. Coffee and sweet rolls were served.

The unusual part, perhaps, is that all these folks from different races and different economic backgrounds worked together on a railroad station. In the past century, a railroad station was a focal point of every community. Maybe it could be that way again. Times change.

South Chicago still has lots of problems to overcome. Opening a new station is no panacea that will cure all the community's ills. But it will, at the very least, make it easier for people to get around, to commute to jobs downtown or beyond.

It's refreshing to see local leaders realize what a huge role railroads can and do play in making a community strong. I'm seeing that kind of vision in more and more places. It gives me hope for the future even when I'm dwellng on the past.

Tom Judge, Editor