Star Line Public Transportation Systems - Chicago Northwest Suburbs, Schaumburg

Spotlight on STAR Line...

In May, 2003 - after six years of debating mass transit options, a consortium of Chicago Northwest Suburban Mayors endorsed Metra's proposed STAR line as the way to usher suburb-to-suburb commuting into the 21st Century.

The STAR Line would be 55 miles of rail lines from O'Hare International Airport to Hoffman Estates and south to Joliet. running along Interstate Highway 90 from O'Hare to Hoffman Estates and via the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad line to Joliet.

The new service would connects suburb to suburb and people's homes to their jobs. It will spur commuters to leave their cars at home and ride the train to work.

The proposed stops on the northwest line are: O'Hare Airport; Des Plaines at Elmhurst Road; Elk Grove Village at Busse Road; Arlington Heights at Arlington Heights Road; Rolling Meadows at Golf Road; Schaumburg at IKEA; Schaumburg at Roselle Road; Hoffman Estates at Barrington Road; and Hoffman Estates at Prairie Stone Development. The stops along the EJ&E rail would be: Hoffman Estates at Golf Road; Elgin-Bartlett at Spaulding Road; West Chicago at Washington Street; Aurora at Ferry Road; Aurora-Naperville at Eola Road; Naperville at 95th Street; Plainfield at Illinois Highway 126; and Joliet at Division Street.

Each car would carry 100 passengers and be self-propelled by an advanced diesel engine, making it more fuel efficient and quicker to accelerate than conventional locomotives. The STAR Line's projected price tag is $543 million for the I-90 portion of the route, or $26 million per mile

How would the STAR Line benefit the business community in Chicago's Northwest Suburbs?

The STAR Line would provide greater access to the growing regional labor pool, safe and reliable transportation for employees, improved transport of goods and streamlined transportation between O'Hare and DuPage airports. Additionally, the STAR Line would connect key business centers in the region and attract new businesses eager to take advantage of access to a new high-quality transit line.

Neither a long-term plan nor a funding formula have received final approval yet, but they likely will in 2007.

The Regional Transportation Authority was created in 1983 as a financial oversight body that doesn’t actually operate the buses and trains with which it’s concerned. The biggest part of the RTA’s responsibilities is to insure its budget is balanced.

Current estimates show the Chicago area wasting $4.2 billion a year from congestion — about $1,000 per person. Congestion levels are already five times worse than 20 years ago, with another 2 million people expected to live here by 2030.

If congestion does worsen, it will mean all the rosy projections about new businesses and jobs in the area won’t happen as they prove too hard for people to get to. While the current transportation system in the Chicago area is the second-largest in the country — and the envy of congestion-clogged Los Angeles — there are still some basic flaws in it for the 21st century.

Public transportation is still set up to deal with a Schaumburg area that’s largely a bedroom community — able to move people to and from Chicago but not much else.

The STAR line will allow for north-south travel without going to the city first, and make Schaumburg a true transportation hub west of O’Hare.