Route 59 Metra parking in Naperville/Aurora. what time does it fill up? (Downers Grove: travel)

[ramblin man]

Interested to know from those of you who commute using Route 59, what time does the station fill up in the daily commuter parking lot? I've heard times ranging from 6:30am to 7:15am.

Could someone help me out who actually commutes it? Thanks.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by ramblin man

Interested to know from those of you who commute using Route 59, what time does the station fill up in the daily commuter parking lot? I've heard times ranging from 6:30am to 7:15am.

Could someone help me out who actually commutes it? Thanks.

Ramblin Man,

I take the Route 59 train and pull into the Aurora side parking lot at 7:10 and have never had a problem getting a space. There's a constant stream of people coming in, though, so it's usually filled up by 7:30.

[gzlatin]

Frank The Tank,

I am probably moving to the area soon and will be commuting from Route 59. Just curious, how is your commute? Are there ever any problems or anything. I currently take the red line to work and don't have to worry about sticking to schedules or anything so I'm a little bit nervous about it.

Do you ever take the PACE bus? If so, how is that?

[Frank the Tank]

gzlatin,

It will be an adjustment from not being able to grab the El at any time that you want (I lived in the city prior to moving to Naperville so it was also a change for me), but the commute from Route 59 is generally fine. If you're leaving for work from 6-8 am or leaving downtown between 4-6:50 pm, there are frequent rush hour trains that take only 40 minutes. On this front, all of the towns on the BNSF train line (includes Western Springs, Hinsdale, Downers Grove, Lisle, Naperville, and Aurora off the top of my head) have great rush hour service as compared to the other suburbs that are similar in distance from the city (i.e. I lived in Libertyville for a couple of years, which distance-wise was the same amount of miles from the Loop as my current house in Naperville, but the train ride from the north suburbs was at least 20 minutes longer each way). There are a lot more express options since the BNSF line has 4 tracks as opposed to other lines that only have 2 tracks or even only 1 track.

The problems with using Metra occur when you're traveling during off-peak hours - the last express train of the day leaves Union Station at 6:50 pm. The trains after that only run once an hour while making all stops on the line (which means the train ride to Route 59 would be a little over 1 hour), so if you have to stay that late frequently, it would be pretty brutal. As far as suburbs go, however, it's definitely as frequent and fast of service as you can find for the distance that you'd be traveling.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by gzlatin

Frank The Tank,

I am probably moving to the area soon and will be commuting from Route 59. Just curious, how is your commute? Are there ever any problems or anything. I currently take the red line to work and don't have to worry about sticking to schedules or anything so I'm a little bit nervous about it.

Do you ever take the PACE bus? If so, how is that?

Also, I haven't taken the PACE bus. For Route 59, the PACE bus service is generally from remote parking lots, so not many people are able to walk to a bus stop. Since I would have to get in my car anyway to get to a remote parking lot, I prefer to just drive the entire way to the train station. PACE is more frequently used for those traveling out of the downtown Naperville station because (1) those particular bus routes actually do go through neighborhoods as opposed to just remote parking lots, meaning that patrons are able to walk to the bus stop and (2) as busy as Route 59 might be, the parking lot situation is exponentially worse in downtown Naperville, so there's more incentive for people out of that station to use alternative modes of transportation.

[gzlatin]

Thanks for the info Frank!

I would be traveling mostly during rush hours so I think i'd be ok.