Life By The Tracks

Much has been written lately, most of it negative and much of it uninformed, about the impact of trains and railroads on life in suburban Chicago communities. Let me share with you the truth about life next to the tracks in one such suburban community called Downers Grove.

The Village of Downers Grove is an old community, originally founded by Pierce Downer in 1832. The CB&Q Railroad arrived in 1864 and has been an integral part of the area every since. Today's triple-track mainline of the BNSF Railway splits the Village in half and cuts through the heart of the downtown business district.

This route is one of the busiest in North America thanks to the passage of 8 daily Amtrak trains, 86 daily Metra trains, and an average of 45 BNSF freight trains per day. There's also a large rail-served plant operated by Pepperidge Farms on the east side of the Village.

Many of today's BNSF freight trains are well over a mile in length. The number and length of these freight trains has grown consistently during the past 30 years. During the same period the number of Amtrak trains using this route have doubled and there's been a 26 percent increase in the number of Metra trains rolling through the Village as well.

There are three Metra stations located in Downers Grove, and over half the Metra trains stop at one or more of these stations. Metra makes a real mess of the place during the morning and evening rush hours even though relatively few residents use Metra for their commutes.

Now if you listen to all those nattering nabobs of negativism, from places like Barrington and Lake Zurich, you might think that Downers Grove would easily fit the definition of a "suburban slum". Nothing could be further from the truth.

During the past 5 years over 300 new upscale residential condominium and townhome units have been constructed in downtown Downers Grove. Most of these are literally just a stone's throw from the railroad tracks. Downers Grove is also home to one of the highest rate of teardowns in the Chicago region; smaller residences are being torn down and replaced with much larger newer houses, primarily in the older section of town.

For caffeine fans, right next to the Main Street Metra Station, there's a Caribou Coffee on the south side of the tracks and a Starbuck's on the north side. Both have outside seating in the summer (to watch the trains go by). There's a wave of new restaurants opening up in the downtown area, joining existing establishments ranging from a Subway sandwich shop to Emmett's Ale House & Microbrewery. A recent addition to the Village's dining establishments is The Egg Harbor Cafe (just like the one they have in Barrington).

One of my personal favorites is the 2Toots Steamwhistle Grill located in the commercial area of the Station Crossings Condominium Tower. Located directly north of the tracks, this charming spot is decorated in a train motif. If you sit at the counter, you can watch the multitude of trains go by while your burger and fries are delivered to you on an operating Lionel O-Scale train.

Summers in downtown Downers Grove are really quite remarkable. Every Friday night, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the Village hosts the Friday Night Classic Car Show. From about 6 to 9pm the entire downtown area is flooded with classic cars, most from the fifties, sixties and seventies. All of the curbside parking is reserved for classic cars only, including the parking area around the Metra Main Street Station. If the weather cooperates, one can see a virtual history of the postwar American automobile industry cruising through the streets of the downtown area.

The Metra Station parking lot hosts a Farmer's Market, right next to the tracks, on Saturday mornings from mid-June through mid-October. One can shop for fresh produce while Amtrak's Illinois Zephyr and BNSF unit coal trains role by. For one weekend in mid-August, racing bicycles take over the downtown area as the National Criterium Championship comes to town.

Located about 90 feet north of the tracks is the entrance to the historic and beautifully restored Tivoli Theater (all tickets $4). Some shows are preceded by a short concert played on the theater's Wurlitzer organ. There's also a nifty bowling alley and bar in the basement of the same building. Nearby commuter parking lots are used by theater patrons attending evening and weekend shows.

Public safety has definitely been impacted by the large volume of rail traffic passing through Downers Grove. The Village maintains 4 state-of-the-art fire stations for a population of around 49,000, on about 14 square miles. Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital on the north side of town is home to the only Level 1 Trauma Center in all of DuPage County. Emergency vehicles from various communities in the region transporting to this facility from the south are routinely delayed by both passenger and freight trains.

Downers Grove has 6 at-grade crossings of the BNSF mainline. This is probably not surprising since Illinois has the second highest number of public highway-rail crossings in the nation. According to the Illinois Commerce Commission, Downers Grove is ranked second (behind Des Plaines) for the suburb with the total number of vehicles (over 13,000) delayed at grade crossings on a daily basis.

The Village is fortunate in that it was grandfathered in under the new Federal train horn quiet zone rules. Even so, the Main Street crossing was recently rebuilt at Village expense to conform with the new Federal grade crossing safety rules.

Like many of our suburban neighbors, we are concerned about the increase in hazardous material shipments being transported on the railroads today. It should be noted that the fastest growing hazmat commodity in terms of volume is ethanol. This is due in large part to a national policy, supported by both political parties (including Senators Durbin and Obama), to encourage ethanol usage. We also note that much of the ethanol being transported by rail today ends up in the gas tanks of vehicles driven by residents of Barrington, Lake Zurich and other communities opposed to the CN/EJ&E acquistion.

For almost 10 years now the Village has been attempting to construct a grade-separated viaduct at Belmont Road on the west side of town. Many of the same elected officials (Durbin, Biggert, et al) and planning agency managers (CMAP) who now complain the loudest about the CN/EJ&E acquisition have been conspicuously missing in action when it came to securing funds for this project.

Yes, life might be easier and simpler without all the aggravation created by Amtrak, Metra and BNSF. Yet in spite of this adversity, or maybe because of it, Downers Grove has thrived and prospered for over 175 years now, and its future looks brighter than ever.