How to Do Chicago via Trains

Monday, August 08, 2005, at 09:15AM

By Eric Richardson

Tomorrow evening I fly back to LA. The plan is for Kathy and I to head into Chicago (she's here in MI for a few more weeks), hang out for the day doing whatever, and then I'll take the Blue Line to the airport in the evening and she'll head back home.

This gives me another chance to figure out one of those trips I like so much. What's the best way to get from Muskegon, MI, to Chicago, IL, spend the day, and have one person make it back in the evening while the other heads on to O'Hare?

Ideally we'd do sort of the reverse of what I did getting in -- drive to a train station somewhere closer to here and take a train into the city. The problem is that I'll have a pair of bags with me, and have no desire to tramp around Chicago with a duffel bag. I had thought that might mean we'd have to drive into Downtown somewhere, park, and leave the bags in the car for the day. I think, though, that I'm satisfied enough there are going to be lockers at Chicago's Union Station capable of holding my bags that we can go for the train.

Amtrak is the first guess, since there's a train that runs from Holland, MI (about 45 minutes from here), to Chicago. Of course that line only runs once per day in each direction, but that should be ok, right? We only want to do one trip.

The "Pere Marquette" line gets crossed off the list when the Amtrak site shows $80 for two tickets there and $20 for a ticket back. I'm sure the base fare is a heck of a lot cheaper, but that's what's showing up right now and it's ridiculous.

Instead we'll take the NICTD South Shore Line from Michigan City, IN and get off at Van Buren. Michigan City is a longer drive -- about 90 miles farther than Holland -- but the train runs many times each day and the fare is just $7.55 per person per direction. The ride into Chicago is about an hour and a half, which is likely less time than it would be to drive it when you add in any sort of traffic.

Oddly, Chicago's Union Station is entirely disconnected from the CTA's rail system. It's about ten blocks from Van Buren to the station, and I guess we'll just walk it. They're short blocks, though, so that's not a huge deal. Assuming the locker bit works out as planned we can wander Chicago for the day and then take Kathy back down to Van Buren to catch a 7:18pm train back. That'll put her into Michigan City at 8:53pm (9:53pm Eastern) and back home around midnight.

From the station I can walk back to Union Station, pick up my bags, and head to the Blue Line (either via walking back to Jackson or catching the Orange Line at Quincy and transferring at Clark -- though that's L to subway, so not sure if it would save time). It's about 45 minutes on the Blue Line from Downtown to O'Hare, so for a 10pm flight I'll want to be on a train at 7:45pm or so. I think I can manage that. I'm not checking any bags, so security lines are all I have to worry about at the airport.

I'll be sure to report back on how all of this actually works out.