Is that the W1, W2, or W3? That's the train I took when I used to have to go to Chicago. The voice that tells you the stops pronounces Wheaton like Stewie pronounces Wil Wheaton.

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Hey! Fucking focus man. Jesus.

What happened... to the fucking Hancock building?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Oh, it hasn't been the Hancock for years now. But no one's calling it anything else, which kind of gets to the folly of renaming a Metra line "W3."

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if the W2 is the one that goes to elburn, it would be that one. i once fell asleep on the last train out of downtown and wound up at that stop. i felt like i was in the twilight zone. luckily cab service was available. but it cost a bunch.

I haven't been but my neighbor across the street says it is.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

"Hickory Creek" off 191st and Lagrange Rd.
"Kensington" at 115th in the middle of the Roseland-Pullman war zone
"Calumet" in East Hazel Crest, miles west of Calumet City and south of Calumet Park

I forgot "Cumberland" in Des Plaines near Mount Prospect (or vice versa?), broadly close to Cumberland Avenue but not on it. It's on Wolf Road, the way "Dee Road" is on, well, that.

There are lots of weird names of Electric stations I'll never go to: Woodruff, Cheltenham, Burr Oak. I think there's an Ivanhoe on 130th and definitely not up by Mundelein, too. City stops should all be the streets they're on or the recognizable neighborhoods they're in (Edgebrook, Ravenswood, Rogers Park can stay). But I'm sure there are reasons beyond my comprehension for a bunch of those, and besides, we're bad at name changes anyway.

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I only know this because my wife's former employer was a very big sponsor of the annual event where hundreds of dumb-asses climb the stairs of the building formerly known as the Hancock Center. (yes, for 3 years I was one of these dumb-asses). The branding was changed from "Hustle Up the Hancock" to "The Chicago Hustle".


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock_Center

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Join me on the HoDar and L.E. Jack

Still weird to think that the Lake and Dan Ryan branches were on the same line once.

I like that they're trumpeting 15-minute headways on the Dan Ryan at 3 in the morning. I'm lucky if the Howard branch runs every 15 minutes on a Saturday afternoon.

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Yeah, I think that's the W2. I take that into and out of the city (pick it up in Wheaton) when I'm in town and I know I'm having more than a couple of drinks.

That's the one that could, in theory, be extended to DeKalb. It'd be a boon for NIU, especially if they could run express part of the way, but the city/county would fight it tooth and nail. There's still an old depot rotting away downtown, too, or was the last time I went to a DCI show there.

I noticed that they're treating the Beverly Branch as a separate line in these maps, M11 or something. I wonder if they'd split the lines up and add more service. Probably not.

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DeKalb should fucking get over itself with that and realize it's pretty much part of Chicagoland at this point. The boom that looked like it was going to happen in the 2000s got wiped out by the spike in gas prices making it a bridge too far for commuters combined with the crash of '08, and instead the influx it DID get was Section 8 in former student housing. You'd be wanting to make both NIU and the city itself more attractive destinations at this point.

The line I've heard against Metra service is "we don't want to invite a criminal element." You already did.

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i've been hearing about the dekalb extension for like 15 years or more...talk about a long ass trip from the city.

if you're driving on 88 West, and you forget to get off at sugar grove...well, enjoy dekalb.

If you're a pussy.

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