[Chicago-talk] Hackathon Train Directions

Brad Doty bdoty at efs-us.com
Mon Aug 28 13:50:41 PDT 2006


FYI,

If you are planning to fly to O'Hare and head out to Crystal Lake via
the trains...
The directions on the excellent Hackathon site advise you to take the
Blue Line El to Irving Park then walk to the outbound Metra UP Northwest
line.  If it was me, I'd get off at Jefferson Park to switch to the
Northwest line.  It's the Metra station touted as the "transfer" station
to trains, planes, and buses, and has a walkway to the El station.

Perhaps somebody else knows that the Irving Park El & Metra stations are
closer or better, but as far as I know, Jefferson Park is at least as
good and it's a couple minutes closer to O'Hare.  

You can always buy a ticket (and the $5 weekend pass at least on
Sat/Sun) on the (Metra) train, but there's a $2 surcharge if you get on
at a station while a ticket agent is on duty and you don't buy at the
station.

CAVEAT 1:  Jefferson & Irving Parks are served by local trains that take
a long time to get out to Crystal Lake.  When returning, you will have
to take a local back into Jefferson/Irving, or take an express to some
suburb like Park Ridge, Des Plaines or Arlington Heights, ASKING FOR A
TRANSFER PUNCH OF YOUR TICKET FROM THE CONDUCTOR, get off, cross to the
local track to Chicago, and then wait for a local to take you into
Jefferson or Irving Park.  Please check your schedule at
http://metrarail.com/Sched/cnw_nw/cnw_nw.shtml 

CAVEAT 2:  Crystal Lake is not the public transit mecca that Chicago is.
If you want to get around out there, you need a car or the phone number
of a taxi service.  (847) 368-0303 is 303 Taxi, which is good as far
northwest as Arlington Heights.

Someday I gotta learn to be more concise.

Brad Doty




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