West Chicago Metra Station and Rt 59 Traffic (Naperville, St. Charles: employment, live in)

[JuleeM13]

I was wondering if anyone can tell me about the parking situation at the West Chicago UP-W Metra station. I see there is permit parking available and there is a wait list for it, but from the map it doesn't look like there are many actual permit spots. I was wondering how fast they fill up even if you have a permit.

Also how is the traffic on Rt 59 from Warrenville to the station? I have been reading horror stories about the traffic south of 88 but wondering how it us further north. Thanks!

[nikitakolata]

I can't really comment on the traffic since I have not had to drive that particular stretch of 59. There is a fair amount of daily paid parking in West Chicago and in my experience it does not completely fill up until later in the morning, if it does at all. So, until you get a permit you can use it and should not have to worry about taking super early trains. I previously took trains from West Chicago between 7:00 and 8:00 am and didn't have trouble with parking.

If you get a permit you should never have to worry about finding a space. That's the point of the permit; they only sell as many permits as there are spaces.

[chet everett]

The reason that the south end of Rt 59 is a traffic nightmare has a lot to do with overly ambitious retail strip center development. This is not the case north at all, fact is West Chicago would love to have more retail development but the demographics are not as attractive to national merchants. There is a legacy of more blue collar employment and not as many folks that commute to the Loop. I know a few folks that live in the east end of Geneva or St. Charles that use the West Chicago Metra lots and they have never not gotten a space. The get to the lots before 8AM and are at their desk by 9AM.

[pvande55]

Rt 59 is backed up frequently at the I88 interchange. A project to build a diverging diamond at that point is expected to relieve that in the future. City of Naperville

[TempesT68]

From 59 and 88 southbound into naperville it's pretty much complete gridlock. Going northbound on the other hand is far less congested.

It's a major road so there will always be fairly heavy traffic, but for in the area you are traveling it won't be much of an issue.

[chet everett]

It nonsense to say it is complete gridlock without giving any context. On weekends there is considerable amount of shoppers that manage the roadway just fine. The problems exist mostly in the AM rush and even worse in the PM rush when large amounts of workers all trying to leave at the same time do cause some issues at the busier intersections. Even then the traffic does move about as well you'd expect given volumes of cars-- there are no less cars trying to snake past Lincoln Park, O'Hare or the Hillside terminus of I-88...

North of Butterfield, which is the portion of 59 that the OP would be concerned with, traffic is much much less.