Travel Tuesdays: Traveling By Train to Chicago

The train is coming. Woot! Woot!

Sharee and I looked at the train station schedule mapping out how we will travel from Bloomingdale, IL, where we were staying with a host family, to Chicago. We have been to Chicago prior in May 2012 for a conference my sister was attending, but we were already downtown and walked everywhere.

For this trip we came as filmmakers for the St. Matthews Catholic Church SeptemberFest Film Festival. The train ride from the suburb we were staying at to Chicago was going to take 50 min. We first had to decide which station we were going to leave from: Roselle via the Milwaukee District/West Line or Glen Ellyn via the Union Pacific/West Line. They were both equal distance. We decided to depart from Roselle with arrival into Union Station in Chicago.

Inside the train heading to Chicago.

It only cost $10.50 for a round trip ticket. Sharee and I settled into the lower level of the train and we were off. This train was on time and was on a schedule. It was Friday morning with commuters going to work, running errands, or just visiting the city like us. Wi-Fi was accessible to those who had laptops or tablets. The train was clean and very well maintained.

One of more than a dozen stations we stopped at on our way to Chicago.

We have arrived at Union Station.

In another post we will blog about our time in Chicago. After 4 hours we walked back to Union Station. We looked at the train station board to see which gate we needed to wait at. It was Gate 9. After a fifteen minute wait time a sign above Gate 9 flashed: Now Boarding. We boarded, but this time sat in the upper level.

Heading back to the suburbs.

Sharee and I settled once again into the train. Closed our eyes and went to sleep. "Roselle Station is next" the conductor says. We gather our belongings and hop into the minivan of our host who was waiting for us in the parking lot.

Have you stayed in the suburb or outlying area of a major city? Did you take a train into the city? Leave comments of your experience below.

Rhonda W. & Sharee W.