Kenosha is a railroad station in

Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Wisconsin, fourth-most populous city in Wisconsin, with a population of 99,986 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. S ...

, United States, served by

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 ...

Union Pacific North Line The Union Pacific North Line (UP-N) is a Metra line in the Chicago metropolitan area. It runs between Ogilvie Transportation Center and Kenosha, Wisconsin; however, most trains terminate in Waukegan, Illinois. Although Metra owns the rolling st ...

. It is the northern terminus of the line, which runs south to the

Ogilvie Transportation Center The Richard B. Ogilvie Transportation Center (), on the site of the former Chicago and North Western Terminal, is a commuter rail train station, terminal in downtown Chicago, Illinois. For the last century, this site has served as the primary t ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Kenosha is the only Metra station outside of Illinois, and is from Ogilvie Transportation Center. Because it is located outside the

RTA RTA may refer to: Media * Radio and Television Arts, program at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada * Radio Television Afghanistan ** RTA TV, an Afghan channel * Radiodiffusion Télévision Algérienne * Real time attack, a game speedrun Sci ...

's jurisdiction, the service to the station is partially subsidized by the city of Kenosha. It is the northernmost station of the entire Metra system, making it the most northern station in the entire RTA network. As of 2018, Kenosha is the 135th busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 345 weekday boardings. It is the only passenger station in

Kenosha County Kenosha County () is located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 169,151, and was estimated to be 168,754 in 2024, making it the eighth-most populous county in Wisconsin. Its co ...

, since

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 ...

's closest station is in Sturtevant. The station is linked to Kenosha's

streetcar line A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segment ...

, which stops on the far side of the station's parking lot. As of February 16, 2024, Kenosha is served by twelve trains (six in each direction) on weekdays, by twelve trains (five inbound, seven outbound) on Saturdays, and by six trains (three in each direction) on Sundays and holidays. There is a small coach yard at Kenosha where trainsets are stored overnight and on weekends as well as a Union Pacific maintenance facility.

History

The station was opened in 1855 by the

Chicago and Milwaukee Railway The Chicago and Milwaukee Railway was a predecessor of the Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) in the U.S. states of Illinois and Wisconsin. The Illinois portion was chartered on February 17, 1851, as the Illinois Parallel Railroad. Its ch ...

and was acquired by the

Chicago and North Western Railway The Chicago and North Western was a Railroad classes#Class I, Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of t ...

in 1869. The station served many C&NW trains such as the

Twin Cities 400 The ''400''Chicago & North Western Railway Route of the "400" The Streamliners and the Challengers ime Table Rand McNally, January 15, 1939. Chicago, IL (later named the ''Twin Cities 400''Chicago & North Western Railway Through Passenger Sche ...

, Flambeau 400, Shoreland 400, Valley 400, and Peninsula 400. The last intercity passenger train stopped in Kenosha in 1971; since then it has only been used for commuter services. Other commuter services extended from Chicago into Wisconsin but were eventually discontinued. The KD Line ran from Kenosha to

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

and closed in 1939. The Northwest Line had a branch to

Williams Bay Williams Bay is a village in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. It is one of three municipalities on Geneva Lake. The population was 2,953 at the 2020 census. On June 22, 2024 the town was hit by an EF-1 tornado, there were no injurie ...

that was cut back to

Lake Geneva Lake Geneva is a deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France. It is one of the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lakes in Western Europe and the largest on the course of the Rhône. Sixty percent () ...

in 1966 and discontinued north of the state line in 1975. The

Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), better known as the Milwaukee Road , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States from 1847 ...

had commuter service to

Walworth Walworth ( ) is a district of South London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. It adjoins Camberwell to the south and Elephant and Castle to the north, and is south-east of Charing Cross. Major streets in Walworth include the ...

until 1982 when it was cut back to Fox Lake. Though Kenosha Station pre-dates the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, it was restored in the period between 2004 and 2006. Metra does not have a ticket office there, and the waiting room serves as dining area for a fast food restaurant. The station has been chosen as the southern terminus of various forms of the proposed Kenosha–Racine–Milwaukee regional rail service, first in the KRM Commuter Link proposal from 2010 (with cross-platform transfers to Metra), then later in the Wisconsin Transit & Realty proposal from 2022.

Transit connections

Kenosha Area Transit Kenosha Area Transit is a city-owned public transportation agency based in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The system maintains a fleet of 47 buses and seven streetcars operating on seven bus routes and one streetcar route throughout the City of Kenosha an ...

* Kenosha Streetcar *

Coach USA Coach USA, LLC is a holding company for various American transportation service providers providing scheduled intercity bus service, local and commuter bus transit, city sightseeing, tour, yellow school bus, and charter bus service across the ...

( Wisconsin Coach Lines) - Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Route

References

External links

Metra - Kenosha station
* ttps://www.google.com/maps/@42.5861435,-87.8255352,3a,75y,236.52h,89.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHxt4bKTj0-lh1luEnwMorQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Station House from Google Maps Street View {{Metra stations navbox Metra stations in Wisconsin Railway stations in the United States opened in 1855 Kenosha, Wisconsin Former Chicago and North Western Railway stations 1855 establishments in Wisconsin Union Pacific North Line