Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Cumberland Station to be Replaced in 2012


Cumberland Station 1952

The Chicago Tribune reports that as part of a $136 million state-funded public works program, the Cumberland Metra Station and platforms will be replaced starting in 2012, at a cost of $4.5 million.

The station is definitely due for replacement. It is severely underutilized, with only about 400 passengers daily.

if you had 20 minutes to wait for the train in the middle of "nowhere" and "nowhere" had these plastic chairs, you'd be doing this too
(photo by katherineofchicago)
Would you want to wait for a train here? It's not so inviting. Given the choice, I think most people would go to one of the nicer stations down the road.

However, the RTA has recognized that there is a lot of potential for growth, and clearly the station is the centerpiece of that potential. So they have funded the creation of a Transit Oriented Development plan, which I blogged about in October. Transit oriented development is a great idea to enhance the neighborhood as long  as it doesn't overwhelm the existing residents and businesses. And a new station house can be a focal point and inspire future growth around it. That is the main reason train stations usually have such distinctive architecture.

I think it would be wise for the new station to either replicate or imitate the old Tudor-style station.


Cumberland Station 1952

The old station wasn't just one picked from a stock book of train station plans. Rather, in 1927, the H.M. Cornell company was creating the Cumberland neighborhood, its site chosen for its proximity to major highways (Golf, Wolf, and Northwest) and the train. So a train station was a necessity. And since the Tudor style was the architectural style of the subdivision, it only made sense to make the station Tudor. Tudor is the character of the neighborhood - and it WAS transit-oriented from the start. If the goal now is to enhance the character of the neighborhood and give it an identity, the new station should follow the lines of the old. It had neat streetlights too - maybe matching new ones should be used in the new platforms and Northwest highway.

That old station burned to the ground in 1956, victim of young boys accidentally starting a fire. So the current station has now stood more than twice as long as the old one. I don't think anyone will be sorry to see it go, though - what good is an ugly, ill-maintained train station you don't even notice when you drive by?

11-Cumberland
Posted by BW Des Plaines at 12/09/2009 04:05:00 PM

2 comments:

  1. I remember the old Cumberland outpost in the historic photo and the hideous old Des Plaines Chicago Northwestern station. Sorry, but I think the Metra stations are just fine. Sure, some may need updating and rebuilding, but the whole frigging lines? Thanks, Metra, for robbing the opportunity from the CTA to repair and refurbish the urine-smelling stations on the North Red Line and fixing the crumbling infrastructure where chunks of cement and debris fall from the viaducts every time an el passes overhead.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm, good point. I use the north red line frequently. A lot of the stations have been improved recently but the viaducts are really bad. I'll see if I can figure out what logic, if any, there was in not allocating money to the Red Line. Wilson needs total rehab desperately. I was also very surprised to not see the Clybourn Metra on the list, that station is brutal.

    They're not rebuilding the whole lines, though - this graphic shows the extent of it: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi091207metrastations_gfx,0,6857312.graphic So that's 27/230+ stations.

    I'm surprised to hear the old Des Plaines station described as hideous - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwchicago/4182382854 This one, right? I've always thought that it was a more attractive building than the metal-roofed one we have now. But it was gone before I was around. I'm sure it was in disrepair by the time it was demolished, but maybe rehabilitation was the answer.
    ReplyDelete

Please be civil and constructive!

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)