Despite Metra Drama, Plans for Local Station Continue

Despite drama on the Metra Board, including the resignation of Chairman Brad O’Halloran, plans for a passenger rail line in Oswego are still full steam ahead.

“In the short term, we anticipate that the study and recommendations will proceed despite the distractions that are occurring,” said Oswego Village Administrator Steve Jones. He added that since the majority of the technical work is being accomplished by two outside consultants and the necessary funding has been approved, “it would appear that things will continue to move forward.”

In documents Jones supplied from the Metra board, the previous study only examined Oswego and Montgomery for the potential rail yard and train line. However, upon completion of the yard location study, Metra found that a new yard location needs to be selected to continue preliminary engineering.

Metra studied three other rail yard sites (see above image) and is recommending to proceed with Rail Yard 3 in Yorkville and to incorporate a third station at Yorkville into the preliminary engineering and environmental assessment.

Additional costs for the assessment are $439,631.28, which brings the total to $2,263,408.07

Jones said that the “momentum” and the Metra Board knowledge regarding the expansion “may suffer” as new leadership would need to be familiarized with the initiative.

“Nonetheless, Montgomery, Yorkville and Oswego will press on to bring a new mode of public transportation to the region for current and future generations,” said Jones.