Glenview, IL (GLN)

Amtrak/Metra Station
1116 Depot Street
Glenview, IL 60025

Station Hours

Annual Ticket Revenue (FY 2023): $1,655,317
Annual Station Ridership (FY 2023): 47,591

• Ownerships
• Routes Served
• Contact
• Local Community Links

• Facility Ownership: Metra
• Parking Lot Ownership: Metra
• Platform Ownership: Metra
• Track Ownership: Metra / Soo Line Railroad (Canadian Pacific Railway)

• Borealis
• Empire Builder
• Hiawatha

Ismael Cuevas
Regional Contact
governmentaffairschi@amtrak.com
For information about Amtrak fares and schedules, please visit Amtrak.com or call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245).

• Village of Glenview
• METRA commuter rail
• PACE buses

Built in 1994, the station on Glenview’s west side is an example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture. It is constructed of red masonry with a stone base and features a clock tower and broadly arched portico, making the facility easily identifiable. Additionally, it possesses a slate roof; timber beam cathedral ceiling; period lighting; and copper flashing, gutters and downspouts.

As early as 1990, the village of Glenview had made a comprehensive plan that included a new train station as part of downtown redevelopment efforts. While it was not considered an eyesore, their 1950s-era station was not completely sound mechanically. An architectural study of the old building showed that a new structure wouldn’t cost much more than renovating the older one.

By 1993, Metra, the owner of the land on which the station stood, had committed $1.3 million toward a new depot, platforms, and features that included improved lighting and more efficient passenger drop-off facilities. At that time, the village set aside $300,000 of income tax surcharge funds, and Amtrak and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) each pledged $200,000. Metra commissioned Legat Architects of Waukegan to design a traditional-looking modern building that would fill the needs of commuters. The new station opened in March, 1995, and the old commuter station demolished.

The project was funded from a number of sources, with Metra contributing $2.1 million in total. The Illinois Department of Transportation’s Operation Greenlight project (geared to easing traffic congestion) contributed $442,000. Amtrak contributed more than $300,000. The village of Glenview added $329,000 to the rehabilitation; the Glenview funding was used for aesthetic touches, a coffee shop, and under floor heating.

The area that would become Glenview had been settled by mound-building Native Americans long before the European settlers arrived in the 1830s. After the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, when the remaining native dwellers relinquished their lands, many more settlers arrived from Fort Dearborn (Chicago) to farm this land near Lake Michigan. The Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad constructed its line through the town subsequent to the 1871 Chicago fire, opening opportunities for manufacturing and the delivery of farm products to the city. Glenview was incorporated on June 20, 1899.

The Naval Air Station Glenview was a major military presence in the area from 1923 to 1995, when it was closed. The air base primarily operated seaplanes on nearby Lake Michigan and later, P-3 Orions, stationed there as a staging point for Anti-submarine warfare against Soviet submarines. The former air base has now been redeveloped into a residential subdivision and commercial area called The Glen, although the control tower has been preserved as a historic building. The village managed the overall redevelopment, which was funded in part by IDOT, which contributed more than $2.5 million for engineering work and the construction of a new Metra station that Amtrak could share with Metra, after some additional improvement.

The Hiawatha is financed primarily through funds made available by the Illinois and Wisconsin State Departments of Transportation (DOT). The Borealis is financed primarily through funds made available by the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois DOTs.

Station Building (with waiting room)