Milwaukee District / North Line

Milwaukee District / North Line
A Metra train approaches the Deerfield station along the line
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Metra
Termini	Union Station Fox Lake
Stations	22
Daily ridership	24,500 (Avg. Weekday 2009)[1]
Operation
Owner	Metra, Canadian Pacific
Operator(s)	Metra (Dispatched primarily by CP)
Technical
Line length	49.5 miles (79.7 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend Legend 73.6 mi  118.4 km  Walworth 67.3 mi  108.3 km  Zenda Wisconsin Illinois 55.8 mi  89.8 km  Solon Mills 53.8 mi  86.6 km  Spring Grove 49.4 mi  79.5 km  Fox Lake 47.8 mi  76.9 km  Ingleside 47.0 mi  75.6 km  Wilson Road 46.1 mi  74.2 km  Long Lake 44.2 mi  71.1 km  Round Lake 41.0 mi  66 km  Grayslake NCS 39.8 mi  64.1 km  Prairie Crossing 35.5 mi  57.1 km  Libertyville Des Plaines River Chicago River(north branch) Empire Builder to Seattle or Portland Hiawatha Service to Milwaukee North Shore Bike Path 32.3 mi  52 km  Rondout Chicago River(north branch) 28.4 mi  45.7 km  Lake Forest 24.6 mi  39.6 km  Deerfield 23.4 mi  37.7 km  Lake Cook Road 21.0 mi  33.8 km  Northbrook 20.2 mi  32.5 km  Techny 18.5 mi  29.8 km  North Glenview 17.4 mi  28 km  Glenview 15.4 mi  24.8 km  Golf Chicago River(north branch) 14.6 mi  23.5 km  Morton Grove 11.5 mi  18.5 km  Edgebrook Chicago River(north branch) 10.2 mi  16.4 km  Forest Glen CTA Blue Line UP-NW 9.2 mi  14.8 km  Mayfair 8.3 mi  13.4 km  Grayland 7.5 mi  12.1 km  Healy MD-W to Elgin Coach Yard 2.9 mi  4.7 km  Western Avenue UP-W Chicago 'L' Northwest branch UP-N UP-NW CTA Green and Pink Lines 0 mi Union Station BNSF to Aurora HC to Joliet SWS to Manhattan

The Milwaukee District / North Line (MD-N) is a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago, Illinois, and its suburbs. Metra does not refer to any of its lines by color, but the timetable accents for the Milwaukee District / North line are pale "Hiawatha Orange," honoring the Milwaukee Road's Hiawatha passenger trains.^[2]

The line runs from Union Station in downtown Chicago through northern suburbs to Fox Lake, Illinois. In April 2013 the public timetable shows 30 weekday departures from Chicago, 18 running to Fox Lake.

In the 1980s this line was the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road). With the demise of the Milwaukee Road, ownership eventually passed to Metra. Today this service is one of several Metra routes operated by Metra crews, but trains are dispatched, under contract, by the Canadian Pacific Railway which runs freight service over parts of this route.

The Milwaukee District/North Line route and Metra's track ownership diverges from the Chicago - Milwaukee - Minneapolis mainline at Rondout, Illinois and proceeds northwesterly toward Fox Lake. This secondary route, owned by Metra, was known as the Janesville Subdivision (J-Sub) of the Milwaukee Road. The mainline north of Rondout is owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). The mainline hosts Amtrak intercity passenger trains, the Hiawatha Service to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Empire Builder to the Pacific Northwest. These trains operate out Union Station stopping only in Glenview, Cook County, Illinois.^[3]

Until 1984 there was a stop in Rondout. The station building itself was demolished in the mid-1960s. The station was between the Lake Forest and Libertyville stops.^[4] Metra service and track ownership ends at Fox Lake. The tracks beyond Fox Lake are owned by the State of Wisconsin and operated for freight service by the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad. Commuter service beyond Fox Lake, abolished in 1982, served the communities of Spring Grove, Illinois, Solon Mills, Illinois, Zenda, Wisconsin, and Walworth, Wisconsin.^[5]

Station stops

Milwaukee District/North Line trains make the following station stops:

References

External links

• Metra Milwaukee District/North service schedule

Media related to Metra Milwaukee District/North Line at Wikimedia Commons