To help her constituents with access to public transportation state Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-16th Dist., has secured funding to begin the process of building a new Metra station in the Auburn-Gresham area.
To help her constituents with access to public transportation state Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-16th Dist., has secured funding to begin the process of building a new Metra station in the Auburn-Gresham area. The station will be built at 79th Street and Vincennes Avenue on the commuter train’s Rock Island Line. “While there are other nearby Metra stations, they do not run on the Rock Island Line. Once the Rock Island Metra train leaves from downtown, the first stop in a Black community is at 87th and Halsted. That is unacceptable,” Collins told the Defender. “In the Beverly community there are several Metra stops.” Completion of the station is expected by 2011. And because Metra receives funding from the state Collins said it makes no sense that her constituents are paying taxes to provide transportation they do not have access to. So far, Collins has secured $11.5 million for the public works project, which she said could cost as much as $20 million to complete. Collins added that the Auburn-Gresham station would give residents better access to suburban jobs and would also bring economic development to her district. According to a 2008 community survey by the U.S. Census, the neighboring communities of Auburn-Gresham, Englewood, Washington Heights and West Englewood combined for a 23.2 percent unemployment rate in 2008.
