J’burg explores Metra expansion at meeting

JOHNSBURG – Village officials will discuss a proposal to add a Metra train stop in Johnsburg at a meeting Thursday.

Talks about expanding the Union North Pacific line have been ongoing for years, but now Metra is in the preliminary engineering stages of the $507 million project, which would include a Johnsburg station.

“We’re working with Metra in the planning,” said Ed Hettermann, Johnsburg village president. “We’ve been discussing back and forth different things.”

Hettermann, who has been the chief liaison between Metra and the village, will discuss the project with Village Board members at 7 p.m. Thursday at Village Hall, 1515 Channel Beach Ave. He said the project still was in the early stages and that as it progressed, Metra would give a presentation for residents.

“We’ll have a status report on Metra ... to let the board know what I’ve been doing, make sure they’re in agreement,” Hettermann said.

The Johnsburg station would be built north of McCullom Lake Road, west of existing tracks. Elsewhere in McHenry County, Metra hopes to add stops in Prairie Grove and Ridgefield.

“Basically we would be extending the McHenry branch to Johnsburg, and then we would be making other improvements ... that enable us to run trains more efficiently and effectively,” said Michael Gillis, a Metra spokesperson.

Metra currently has outdated coach yards – areas where rail cars are stored overnight – in Barrington, Crystal Lake and McHenry. Gillis said those three yards would be replaced by new ones in Johnsburg and Woodstock.

The additional stops are intended to reduce commuter congestion and cater to projected growth in McHenry County.

“Population forecasts and economic forecasts point to a greater population in that corridor that the UP Northwest Line serves,” Gillis said.

According to the project Web site, www.metraconnects.metrarail.com, if funding is secured for the Chicagoland project, the improvements to service could be offered as early as 2014.