By average, I mean there’s all the features in a station a customer would need, which includes adequate shelter, full ADA-compliancy, seating, information on fares/schedules, and regular service. The station excels at none of this, but there’s no flaws that could make waiting for a train at the Edgebrook Metra station actually a unpleasant experience. To understand what makes this station so average, I’ll give a very in-depth tour of Edgebrook from the 17 minutes I spent there.
Detailed description of Edgebrook’s “Facilities”
So, Edgebrook doesn’t actually have any facilities, no bathrooms, no ticket machines, no ticket agents (Metra got rid of the last ticket agents in February, and there’s no fully enclosed waiting space (there used to be a proper station house but it was torn down at some point in favor of a ugly but functional shelter). The current station has a brick shelter on the Inbound platform 1which has 2 benches inside, ads plastered on the wall, and 2 signs, one displays the schedule for trains that serve Edgebrook and the other shows the fare system for Metra. Here’s pictures of all the things I just mentioned.
I couldn’t find a picture of the schedules. Anyways, the rest of the platform is just more ads, and a short staircase out to adjacent Lehigh Avenue, as despite being an at grade station, Edgebrook is still a few feet above street level. There’s also a crossing so people can cross the tracks to access the parking lot, located next the outbound platform. In addition to the waiting shelter, there’s also a smaller “bus shelter” to pay for parking.
Speaking of parking, at the north end of the Inbound platform is a sidewalk of sorts leading the really long but really narrow north parking lot, which looked big to me, but is actually only about 1/3rd the size of a small city block. The sidewalk also leaves to the t-intersection of Lehigh and Algonquin, but the path seems more directed for the parking lot. The Outbound platform is a lot more simple, just a fancy bus shelter and a few staircases to Kinzua avenue, where the other (probably more used) parking lot is. Before the bus shelter, there was a old wooden canopy, which maybe was a remnant of a old station house but ApPaRenTly there’s ZERO information on Edgebrook station’s history online so this is just speculation. It has been brought to my attention, that there is some photos of old Edgebrook station and the Canopy was most likely unrelated. Anyways, it has also been brought to my attention that Metra considers street parking on Lehigh between Devon and Central to be a station parking lot, which is strange for a station that only sees 800 passengers daily, many of who probably walk, as the station is in a generally pretty walkable area. This concludes the description of the station’s facilities. Uhhh… Um… Uh… well… now what? I could explain how this stacks up against other commuter rail stations and why I call it average. Let’s have a look!
Comparisons
Let’s have a look at what I’d define the best, and what I’d define the worst commuter rail stations, and you can judge for yourself if you think Edgebrook slips handily into the mediocre average.
The best
Credit to a fellow transit blog (now only videos) for this, but Route 128 station on the MBTA commuter rail system in Boston could be considered one of the best. Take a look: https://milesintransit.com/2016/07/24/route-128/
The median
The Meriden CTrail/Amtrak station in Meriden Connecticut is nothing special. From the time I spent there, I had absolutely no trouble with the facilities provided. There was shelter, step free access, seating, and a place to throw away the plastic bag my Rajas Y Queso tamale came in (highly recommend La Poblanita if you find yourself craving tamales in Meriden). However, the station did not truly excel in any function, as it did not need to excel. If you’d like, here’s the google maps profile of Meriden station.
The bad
Sorry for staying in the Northeast, but the Northeast and Chicago are the only places I spend very much time in. Anyways, heading south to the Eddington SEPTA regional rail station, we lose having a real platform and end up with slabs of asphalt with shelters that look like the ones in Edgebrook, but that’s literally all. I mean, there’s staircases up to “Street road” which is a great name, but like, where’s everything else? Here’s the google maps profile of Eddington SEPTA.
Conclusion
This post was one of the more opinionated ones but I haven’t posted in 2 weeks and I need content. Edgebrook may look pretty pathetic even compared to Meriden, and it kind of is, but I’m going off functionality more than looks, and Edgebrook works just fine. Anyways, time to go to sleep.
Well, finished another Metra post! I rode the water taxi today, and I might do a post on that! Also, I will keep spelling anyways “anyways”. Anyways, I was in Milwaukee last week, and I rode the streetcar as well as the bus system. The buses felt like buses, the streetcar felt like a bus that needed to sit down with itself and think about who they want to be.
If you think Edgebrook looks bad, look at the next three stations south of Edgebrook.
-ek-
- Inbound to Downtown Chicago as opposed to just Chicago, as this station is on the city line ↩︎
Montrose Bus Rider 