Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisLA
BTW did they finally finish all of upgrades on the Red & Purple line, or would Metra be a better option heading there from downtown Chicago?
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as i live downtown and work up in evanston, i'm eminently qualified to answer this question.
if you can catch a purple line express train which only run at weekday rush hours, the L trip from downtown to downtown evanston is about 45 minutes, if you're doing a red line to purple line long-haul that will take about an hour. conversely, metra will take you about 20 minutes to go from ogilvie up to downtown evanston. the draw backs to metra being that it's more expensive, the schedules are FAR less flexible, and oglivie train station is all the way over in the west loop, which can be a bit of an annoyance if you're already in the east loop/near north side and just want to hop on the L and get going.
though i've found that the best and most satisfying way to get from downtown up to evanston is to ride my bike
you should definitely try and make it up to evanston if you can, the downtown has certainly changed quite a bit over the last 2 decades.