Original Illinois Central main line serving Chicago, now Canadian National. Passenger trains originally operated out of Central Station at Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road, south of downtown Chicago, and continued to use Central Station through the early days of Amtrak. But effective March 6, 1972, Amtrak finally achieved consolidation of all its trains into Union Station, although in a somewhat complicated way. Two different routings are available for Amtrak, both of which require a back-up move in or out of Union Station. Trains departing Union Station may back south to 21st Street, before proceeding forward northeast over the Canadian National line to the junction at Clark Street and 16th Street. Or trains may back south and west to the Burlington Northern's Union Street interlocking, before proceeding forward east over the St. Charles Air Line to Clark Street and 16th Street. Clark Street is the crossing with Metra's Rock Island District, and a short distance east of there is "South Wye Junction", near Soldier Field, where the route finally joins the original Illinois Central line. The line then parallels the Metra Electric line through University Park (Stuenkel Road).
Radio Frequency - 161.190 (AAR Channel 72)
4.4 Bridgeport (junction-IC)
2.9 Cermak (junction-Amtrak)
2.7 21st Street (tower/crossing-Amtrak)
1.5 16th Street (tower-Metra crossing)
4.6 39th Street
8.1 67th Street
14.5 Kensington (NICTD crossing/remote-Metra dispatcher)
15.5 Wildwood
20.0 CN Jct.
20.0 Harvey
23.5 Homewood (north end 3 tracks)
26.0 Vollmer (south end 3 tracks)
29.7 Matteson
31.6 Stuenkel (south end 2 tracks)
34.2 Monee
40.5 Peotone
46.7 Manteno
49.5 Indian Oaks (north end 2 tracks)
54.2 Bradley
55.3 Kankakee Jct. (NS crossing/south end 2 tracks)
55.9 Kankakee
57.5 Gar Creek (north end 2 tracks)
60.3 Otto
61.6 South Otto (south end 2 tracks)
64.3 Chebanse
69.1 Clifton
73.1 Ashkum
77.4 Danforth
78.4 North Gilman
81.1 Gilman (TP&W crossing/north end 2 tracks)
84.6 Onarga
87.6 Delrey (south end 2 tracks)
93.2 Buckley
98.7 Loda
102.8 Paxton
108.3 Ludlow
113.8 Rantoul
118.8 Thomasboro
122.5 Leverett
124.1 Leverett Jct. (north end 2 tracks)
127.8 Champaign (NS crossing/south end 2 tracks)
Stuenkel and North: 2 tracks, CTC in use, controlled by Dispatcher Desk #1 in Homewood. Some segments of 3 and 4 tracks.
South of Stuenkel: 1 track, CTC in use, controlled by Dispatcher Desk #2 in Homewood. Some segments of 2 tracks.
Information is subject to change, and is based on observations, along with information from employee timetables.
The following colors are used to indicate types of operation:
BLUE - manual interlocking
RED - centralized traffic control (CTC) or bidirectional signals
GREEN - automatic block signals
BLACK - unsignaled
Thin lines across tracks indicate signals. In CTC or bidirectional signal territory, signals usually exist for both directions at all locations, except at interlockings where the signals usually are only in the direction entering the interlocking.