Joliet Gateway Center is a multimodal mass transit center in downtown

Joliet, Illinois Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County, Illinois, Will County. It had a population of ...

. It opened in 2018, replacing the nearby Joliet Union Station as the commuter and passenger train station serving Joliet. The station is the terminus of the

Metra Metra is the primary commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 243 train station, stati ...

Rock Island District The Rock Island District (RI) is a Metra commuter rail line from Chicago, Illinois, southwest to Joliet. Metra does not refer to its lines by color, but the timetable accents for the Rock Island District line are "Rocket Red" in honor of the Ch ...

and

Heritage Corridor The Heritage Corridor (HC) is a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago, Illinois, and its southwestern suburbs, terminating in Joliet, Illinois. While Metra does not refer to its lines by colors, the Heritage Corridor appears on Metra timetables as ...

, and an intermediate stop for the

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

Texas Eagle The ''Texas Eagle'' is a long-distance passenger train operated daily by Amtrak on a route between Chicago, Illinois, and San Antonio, Texas, with major stops in St. Louis, Little Rock, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin. Three days per week, t ...

'' and ''

Lincoln Service The ''Lincoln Service'' is a higher-speed rail service operated by Amtrak that runs between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. The train is a part of the '' Illinois Service'' and is partially funded by the Illinois Department of Tra ...

'' trains. The station's bus terminal opened in 2021, and serves 10 Pace bus routes.

History

The first passenger train services to Joliet began in 1852, and the city quickly grew into a railroad hub. A railroad improvement project began in 1909, which removed

grade crossings Grade most commonly refers to: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...

and constructed a new

union station A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

to replace multiple stations in Joliet. Joliet Union Station opened in 1912, and at its peak served over 100 trains per day. Passenger train traffic to Union Station declined in the late 20th century, but freight traffic increased, and Union Station was operationally deficient after the tunnels connecting its platforms to the station building were filled in. Following the revisions, freight trains on the north-south tracks through the station were required to stop while passenger trains boarded, which led to conflicts. The city of Joliet applied for a TIGER grant to improve its passenger station facilities in 2009, and received additional funding from the state of Illinois,

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

, and the city of Joliet. Union Station closed in September 2014, replaced by temporary facilities. Groundbreaking for the new replacement station took place late in 2016, with construction beginning shortly afterward. After several delays, the station building officially opened on April 11, 2018. The original plans for Joliet Gateway Center included a bus terminal, which was omitted from the project following cost overruns. Pace committed additional funding for the construction of the bus station, and construction began in early 2021, over 10 years since the project's proposal. The bus terminal opened in December 2021.

Services

Joliet Gateway Center is the terminus of the Metra

and

lines, to Chicago LaSalle Street Station and

Chicago Union Station Chicago Union Station is an Inter-city rail, intercity and commuter rail terminal station, terminal located in the West Loop neighborhood of the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side of Chicago. Amtrak's flagship station in the Midwest, Uni ...

respectively. It is an intermediate stop on the Amtrak ''

'' from Chicago Union to

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and on the ''

'' from Chicago to

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

and

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

. , Joliet is the 51st busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 996 weekday boardings. , Joliet is served by 42 Rock Island District trains (21 in each direction) on weekdays, 21 trains (ten inbound, eleven outbound) on Saturdays, and 16 trains (eight in each direction) on Sundays and holidays. On weekdays, the station is also served by three inbound Heritage Corridor trains in the morning and three outbound trains in the evening. For Amtrak, as of 2024, Joliet is served by eight ''

'' trains (four in each direction) and two ''

'' trains (one in each direction), every day. The Joliet Gateway Center is from

on Metra's

, and from Chicago's

LaSalle Street Station LaSalle Street Station is a commuter rail terminal at 414 South LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago. First used as a rail terminal in 1852, it was a major intercity rail terminal for the New York Central Railroad until 1968, and for the Chicago ...

on the

. It is the only Metra station outside of its Chicago stations where two lines terminate. In Metra's zone-based fare system, Joliet is in zone 4 on both lines.

Future services

Amtrak announced a proposal to improve its ''Texas Eagle'' and ''Lincoln Service'' trains in 2022. The Amtrak trains, along with the Metra Heritage Corridor, currently use the

CN Joliet Subdivision The Joliet Subdivision is a railroad subdivision of the Canadian National Railway in the Chicago metropolitan area. The 33-mile route runs from Joliet, Illinois to Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, largely paralleling the route of the Illinois and ...

from Joliet to Chicago. Train traffic on the Joliet Subdivision causes frequent delays to Amtrak trains, and Amtrak proposed to reroute the ''Texas Eagle'' and ''Lincoln Service'' over the Rock Island District. Metra owns and manages the Rock Island District, and it sees little freight traffic, making it an attractive route for Amtrak. To operate Amtrak trains over the Rock Island District, modifications would be required in Joliet and Chicago. A third platform would need to be constructed at Joliet Gateway Center, and Amtrak would need to improve the connection between the Rock Island District and Chicago Union Station. The current connection from the Rock Island District to Union Station via the St. Charles Air Line sees occasional use during maintenance and emergencies, but it limits trains to a maximum speed of and requires trains to reverse into Union Station.

Connections

* Pace Bus routes 504, 505, 508, 509, 511, 512, 832, 834

References

External links

{{Authority control Amtrak stations in Illinois Buildings and structures in Joliet, Illinois Metra stations in Illinois Transportation buildings and structures in Will County, Illinois Transportation in Joliet, Illinois Railway stations in the United States opened in 2018