City: Chicago, IL

Category: Getting Here, Getting Around

Telephone: (312) 496-4777

Address: 500 W. Madison St.

Description: Locals of a certain age still refer to this train terminal as the North Western Station because of its beginnings as the home of the Chicago and North Western Railway. In 1984, the original 1911 building was razed and replaced with the bulky, glass-and-steel Citigroup Center (said to resemble a locomotive). Chicago and North Western Railway merged with the Union Pacific Railroad in 1995, and two years later, the terminal was renamed the Ogilvie Transportation Center in honor of past Illinois governor Richard B. Ogilvie, who was instrumental in forming the RTA (Regional Transportation Authority), parent of the Metra commuter train lines. These days more than 40,000 people travel through the Ogilvie Center on three Metra rail lines. The Union Pacific North Line runs from Kenosha, Wisconsin, paralleling Lake Michigan into the city; the Union Pacific West Line rumbles in from far west Elburn; and the Union Pacific Northwest begins in far northwest Harvard, Illinois. The station also includes a food court, shops, and access to the new French Market, a year-round market of local, fresh, gourmet European, and Asian food vendors. The station’s upper-level waiting room is open Mon through Sat from 5 a.m. to 12:40 a.m. and on Sun from 7 a.m. to 12:40 a.m., with ticket agents available starting at 5:30 a.m. Mon through Sat and from 7 a.m. on Sun. The lower-level waiting room is open Mon through Sat from 5 a.m. to 6:40 a.m. and closed on Sun, with ticket agents available only Mon through Fri from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.