Geneva council gets update on Union Pacific’s third track construction

GENEVA – The long-awaited Union Pacific third rail project is on target to begin construction next month, a railroad official said at the Geneva City Council meeting Monday.

The third track on the UP/Metra West Line will go from Kress Road in West Chicago to Peck Road in Geneva. The six-mile stretch of new rail would be set 20 feet south of the current tracks.

The project began in 2008 as a joint effort between UP and Metra, said Lindsey Douglas, senior director of public affairs for Union Pacific.

“This project has been going on for quite a long time,” Douglas said. “This is our territory that we share with Metra, so the commuter trains operate over the Union Pacific North Line, the Northwest Line and the West Line. What is unique about the West Line and why we are pursuing this third main line project is because we have quite a bit of overlap with commuter service and freight service.”

The overlap is causing a lot of challenges, Douglas said.

“I hear from folks a lot about delays on the West Line, trying to get into and out of the city because of freight interference,” Douglas said. “So one of the things this project is going to do … is really help to preserve Metra’s performance for the commuters as well as help us on the freight side as well.”

Part of the project is also to address station safety concerns, she said.

These include:

• Completing pedestrian gate coverage on the road or for moving pedestrians to the safest area to cross.

• End of platform diversions to channel commuter flow away from tracks and eliminate mid-platform pedestrian crossings.

• Another train warning system to alert commuters that a second train is entering the station.

The project is scheduled to begin in mid-August and take 24 to 36 months to complete. Initially it was estimated to take two years, but Douglas said with supply chain problems, the timeline was expanded.

The UP requested a list of Geneva events so that road closures would not impact any event, Douglas said.

“We want the city to be a party and a partner with us throughout the construction of the project so you can communicate to us any challenges that our construction schedule might provide,” Douglas said.

As to the effect of the third track in residential neighborhoods, Douglas said it will not increase the number of trains, but will move them through more quickly.

“Just two years ago, Metra had 60 or maybe 70 ... trains and then we had 56 Union Pacific trains on this line. It was a huge increase. Metra is still recovering from the pandemic, so we anticipate they are going to want to add trains at some point,” Douglas said.

“Union Pacific has lost coal volume on this route, so that business is probably not coming back. Another part of that reduction is the way we are operating. We’ve lengthened some of our trains, which actually reduced the number of trains coming through. So we are looking at our system. We hope we can see increased volumes, but that’s not necessarily going to equate with increased trains.”

As to whether they would replace the trees taken down by Western Avenue in preparation for constructing the third line, Claire Anderson, an engineer and manager of track construction for UP, said that would only be for the parks at Western, Sunset and Dryden.

“For us, as we go through this and do the construction there, we really don’t want trees there because they grow and infringe on signals,” Anderson said.

Douglas said the UP has a foundation that can provide funding for replanting trees.

Route 31 will be closed to traffic for bridge replacement and expansion and that is going to last 16 weeks, Douglas said.

“Part of the construction agreement is to maintain commuter service throughout construction,” Douglas said. “There’s going to be some road implications. We want to coordinate really closely with the city to try to reduce those as much as we can and not interfere with local events and things as well.”

The UP has a contractor chosen and is working on finalizing the contract. More information will be provided as it becomes available, she said.