Randolph Street Station (Metra) 1998
Deep in the heart of Chicago, between Michigan Ave and Lakeshore Drive, lies the West end of the South Shore Line.
In 1998 there were three platforms serving five tracks at this station, which is just East of the Metra Electric
terminus at Randolph St. The entire station and platforms are now under Millenium Park. A fourth platform (the third
high level platform) and a sixth track were added.
Left to right - 1998 Track 12, Track 11, and Track 10 (at other platform). These tracks have been renumbered 13, 12
and 11 (respectively) and an additional track for car storage (no passenger loading) was built to the left (east) of
this photo.
Left to right - 1998 Track 9 and Track 8 - Track 9 is served by two platforms. (In 1989 NICTD leased a METRA low
floor diesel double decker train set and ran one trip per day each way on the South Shore as an express. Track 8 was
its home during the day. The METRA train was replaced with standard South Shore cars when the trailers were added to
the rolling stock in 1992. Metra Electric double deckers could not be used, as they are high floor and at the time
there were no high level platforms east of Kensington.)
These tracks have been renumbered 10 and 9 (respectively) and a new high level platform has been built to the right
(west) of this photograph. A new platform track is on the far side of the newest high level platform (Track 8).
In 1998 South Shore train crews used this small building at the end of Track 8 for their breaks. The building is now
gone, with the new high level platform for (new numbering) Tracks 8 and 9 in it's place. The low level platform that
this picture was taken from still exists but is not used for passenger service.
A new building for train crews was built to the east of the platforms.
As they appeared in 1998, the tracks going down into the Randolph Street METRA Station - designed to avoid conflicts during
the rush hours when trains are scheduled to arrive or depart the six METRA platforms nearly every minute. (In 1998 there were
32 arrivals in 2 hrs, some scheduled at the same minute, plus trains leaving for the Roosevelt Road Yard to make room for new
arrivals. This load, with South Shore Line trains mixed in, runs on three tracks from Randolph Street to Roosevelt Road, then
four tracks - express and local - to Kensington.)
These signs are located at every South Shore station - they have raised features to help the site impared. This is how the sign
appeared in 1998, with a stop at 59th St instead of 57th St and the 1998 station names.
|