Public transportation options from chicago to oakbrook(mid american plaza)? (Elmhurst: rental, car insurance)

[celim]

In this thread

http://www.city-data.com/forum/chica...oak-brook.html

posters strongly cautioned against driving, but there was mention of a cta line, or at least a cta/pace bus combo that would get one from chicago to oak brook. Google maps takes me as far as elmhurt, and the rta chicago site says its domain has expired. (the one google serves up anyways)

I checked the pace site which gave me

http://www.pacebus.com/pdf/RTA_System_map.pdf

which shows a bus will get me pretty close to mid america plaza, mybuilding, but I'm too stupid/lazy to really get a good grasp of what the entire commute from city to suburb is like. The reason I'm not simply moving to Oakbrook is two fold. One, I'm more partial to the downtown area. Two, my company headquarters are downtown, but my boss has assigned me to Oakbrook for in his words, what could be a couple months or longer, but with a good possibility of moving back downtown. So in either case I will be forced to make the commute unless magically my job reassignment falls exactly at the end of my rental lease.

So to sum it up, is the public transportation option (if it even exists?), despite looking like quite a long trip, and maybe a bit of truding through unshoveled sidewalk in the winter, worth it over buying a used car + insurance + parking + registration fees + gas + maintance, etc etc etc?

[Avengerfire]

You would be better off taking metra and seeing if there is a bus that you can take from the metra station.

[celim]

sorry if this sounds ignorant, haven't lived in the city before. would the only way to do the metra be get on at union station?

[Avengerfire]

^ It depends which line you take. BNSF is out of Union Station, but UP-W is out of Ogilvie. ^

[deadplant]

The line you want is out of Oglivie. The line you want is the Union Pacific West line. It actually runs express to/from Elmhurst a couple of times a day, so that part should be a quick trip.

[Jandur]

I commute to Oakbrook from Lincoln Park every day, and I'll admit it's a bit of pain. It takes about an hour going to work and sometimes an hour and a half going back in. But to be honest, by the time you get to Ogilvie, get to Oakbrook, then get the bus to your office, it's probably going to be close to an hour anyway.

For me, I would have to take some form of CTA transportation to Ogilvie, then the Metra, then the Pace. That in an of itself would require 3 passes and probably cost a fair amount. On the flip side my car insurance is $30/mo (older car) and my gas is generally about $100/mo.

Either way the commute sucks and I really wouldn't recommend it long term. My office is moving to the Loop in Feb. which is the only reason I tolerate it right now.

[Mr Downtown]

Why not look at the RTA's Trip Planner to see your options? You take the Blue Line to Forest Park and then express bus 747 (18 minutes) to Oakbrook Center. A slightly longer trip, if you're traveling off-peak, is the local Pace bus 322 from the west end of the Pink Line. If you take Metra to Elmhurst, local Pace bus 332 takes you from there to Oakbrook.

[css9450]

Can you considered doing the commute without using Metra? Pace Bus has a #322 route which runs along Cermak from the 54th Ave/Cermak station all the way west past Oak Brook and Yorktown Malls and it has the advantage of running busses a lot more frequently than some of the other routes. You'd need to go from downtown out to 54th/Cermak via the CTA Pink Line and transfer to Pace there.

If you're taking Metra, the best bet would probably be the UP West Line out to Elmhurst and then transfer to the Pace #332 bus there which follows York Road down to 22nd and then west to the Oak Brook Mall (I'm assuming your office building is near there?). This would work OK but you don't have as many or as frequent busses / trains to choose from.

EDIT: LOL you beat me to it! I need to learn to type faster.

A slightly longer trip, if you're traveling off-peak, is the local Pace bus 322 from the west end of the Pink Line.

[chicagojlo]

Originally Posted by Jandur

I commute to Oakbrook from Lincoln Park every day, and I'll admit it's a bit of pain. It takes about an hour going to work and sometimes an hour and a half going back in. But to be honest, by the time you get to Ogilvie, get to Oakbrook, then get the bus to your office, it's probably going to be close to an hour anyway.

For me, I would have to take some form of CTA transportation to Ogilvie, then the Metra, then the Pace. That in an of itself would require 3 passes and probably cost a fair amount. On the flip side my car insurance is $30/mo (older car) and my gas is generally about $100/mo.

Either way the commute sucks and I really wouldn't recommend it long term. My office is moving to the Loop in Feb. which is the only reason I tolerate it right now.

You can get a CTA/Pace component added to your Metra ticket rather than getting 3 passes, and if your company participates in Wage Works then you can also get them pre-tax.

[Jandur]

Originally Posted by chicagojlo

You can get a CTA/Pace component added to your Metra ticket rather than getting 3 passes, and if your company participates in Wage Works then you can also get them pre-tax.

Ah good to know that. I don't plan on taking public transportation anytime soon, but if my car takes a dive in the next few months I probably will. Thanks