River North vs River West, close to Union Station? (Naperville: lease, live in)

[Mirinjobra]

I work out of Lisle once or twice a week, usually once a week. I've been commuting from Lakeview to Lisle for 2 years now, and I'm SICK of it. It's usually 60 mins in the morning, and 120 mins in the evening.

That being said, I was originally planning to lease a nice car and live in River North to shorten my commute just a little bit, and make commuting more bearable with a nice car.

However, I just realized that my workplace is a mile from the Lisle metra station, and the metra can take me to Lisle within 30 minutes. A coworker could easily drive me to work every time I'm at Lisle.

Based on that info, would it be reasonable to take the metra from River North to Lisle? Is River North close enough to Union Station?

This would seriously free up a ton of my time and I might not even need to lease a car if it's possible.

Thanks

[chet everett]

Yes, this is a decent commute MOST of the year. I have had friends that did that sort of commute for quite a while. Assuming that you are not in a situation where you absolutely GOTTA BE in Lisle on days with nasty weather or a delay on the reverse commute side of the BNSF (which is GENERALLY the case when your employer lets you work from some other location 3 or more days a week) this is a doable.

Make sure the coworker is also in a role that won't result in them being in hot water if your train is delay and/or figure out a way to rely on Pace or even a bicycle in good weather and this can actually be "fun"in a goofy sort of way. The buses in River North generally do not run directly to Union Station but in decent weather the area is generally quite walkable, figure maybe 20-30 minutes to the station. There are more Pace buses from Naperville to the Warrenville Rd stretch of office campuses in Lisle, figure a hour or so of combined non-express train service and bus or co-worker pickup for about 90 minutes or so travel time. I would not do this daily but a couple times of week, especially the schedule is flexible when weather is horrible is not the worst...

[Mirinjobra]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Yes, this is a decent commute MOST of the year. I have had friends that did that sort of commute for quite a while. Assuming that you are not in a situation where you absolutely GOTTA BE in Lisle on days with nasty weather or a delay on the reverse commute side of the BNSF (which is GENERALLY the case when your employer lets you work from some other location 3 or more days a week) this is a doable.

Make sure the coworker is also in a role that won't result in them being in hot water if your train is delay and/or figure out a way to rely on Pace or even a bicycle in good weather and this can actually be "fun"in a goofy sort of way. The buses in River North generally do not run directly to Union Station but in decent weather the area is generally quite walkable, figure maybe 20-30 minutes to the station. There are more Pace buses from Naperville to the Warrenville Rd stretch of office campuses in Lisle, figure a hour or so of combined non-express train service and bus or co-worker pickup for about 90 minutes or so travel time. I would not do this daily but a couple times of week, especially the schedule is flexible when weather is horrible is not the worst...

I do have quite a bit of flexibility when commuting to Lisle - usually only need to do it once a week just to make an appearance at work.

I don't think walking to Union Station is an option - it's about 1 mile, would probably find a bus route. So I was thinking this:

20 min bus ride from River North to Union Station
30 min train ride to Lisle
10 min drive to work from coworker

[chet everett]

Reverse commute expresses are pretty rare, you need to bump up the train travel time and depending on where the office is relation to the Naperville or Lisle stations adjust accordingly...

[Mirinjobra]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Reverse commute expresses are pretty rare, you need to bump up the train travel time and depending on where the office is relation to the Naperville or Lisle stations adjust accordingly...

Looks like it's express all day.. From union station to lisle, BNSF railway

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Mirinjobra

I do have quite a bit of flexibility when commuting to Lisle - usually only need to do it once a week just to make an appearance at work.

I don't think walking to Union Station is an option - it's about 1 mile, would probably find a bus route. So I was thinking this:

20 min bus ride from River North to Union Station
30 min train ride to Lisle
10 min drive to work from coworker

1 mile is not long. It's a 20 minute walk, and you don't have to wait for the bus or spend on bus fare and you get a bit of exercise. Ride a bike part of the year (Divvy is a good option) to cut that time in half. If you do that most of the time, you can spring for a cab in the winter with barely any impact on your overall annual costs.

[Ace Rothstein]

Originally Posted by Mirinjobra

Looks like it's express all day.. From union station to lisle, BNSF railway

The Metra website schedules are station to station so you aren't viewing the in between stops. That being said it looks like there area couple reverse commute express trains during moring and afternoon rush.

[Mirinjobra]

Originally Posted by Ace Rothstein

The Metra website schedules are station to station so you aren't viewing the in between stops. That being said it looks like there area couple reverse commute express trains during moring and afternoon rush.

How can I tell the actual time then? Or whether it's an express train?

Originally Posted by emathias

1 mile is not long. It's a 20 minute walk, and you don't have to wait for the bus or spend on bus fare and you get a bit of exercise. Ride a bike part of the year (Divvy is a good option) to cut that time in half. If you do that most of the time, you can spring for a cab in the winter with barely any impact on your overall annual costs.

I can probably do this, seems reasonable.

[marothisu]

If you live in River North, you'd be looking at probably 10 or 15 or so minutes to get down there depending on where you are. Right around Union Station is not bad, but a little boring. West of the expressway is a little better. Guess it depends on what you want in life. Since you only commute once or twice a week, then River North might not be as bad as if it were every single day.

[Mirinjobra]

Originally Posted by marothisu

If you live in River North, you'd be looking at probably 10 or 15 or so minutes to get down there depending on where you are. Right around Union Station is not bad, but a little boring. West of the expressway is a little better. Guess it depends on what you want in life. Since you only commute once or twice a week, then River North might not be as bad as if it were every single day.

I want to be near the nightlife/restaurants. I commute on I-55 three days a week, and Lisle once a week.

I heard River West was cheaper, but basically pretty boring in the evenings.