History
The line south of the curve at the east end of the section aligned with 75th Street was built by the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway, which opened in 1880 to Chicago. That curve was a junction with the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad, of which the Wabash owned one-fifth, and used to reach Dearborn Station in downtown Chicago.
After several reorganizations the Wabash Railroad was leased by the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1964; by then the only passenger train was the Chicago-Orland Park commuter service. For several years N&W used a track west of Dearborn station. In 1976 the terminal moved to Union Station, via a new connection at Alton Junction, and the Regional Transportation Authority began to subsidize the service in 1978. N&W merged into the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1982, and for a while the line was known as the Norfolk Southern Line (NS). On June 1, 1993 Metra took over operations and renamed it the SouthWest Service.
The rail line expansion project, which includes 11 miles (18 km) of new track and at least two additional train stations, was completed (except for the Laraway Road station) in January 2006. The number of trains per day increased from 16 to 30, 15 in each direction. For years, Pace operated Route 835, whose bus service enhanced the limited train service in the SouthWest Service corridor. With the rail service expansion, ridership on route 835 became so poor that Pace eliminated it on August 17, 2007.
In the near future, SouthWest Service trains may shift from Union Station to LaSalle Street Station via a new connection at 75th Street. This would relieve congestion at Union Station and improve reliability for the SouthWest Service.
Read more about this topic: South West Service
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