On the right track? Glen Ellyn village president hopefuls talk train station redo
The next Glen Ellyn village president will have a say in a number of big-ticket projects in the works or under review — a list that includes a proposed Metra station overhaul and a pedestrian tunnel beneath the train tracks.
James Burket, a former village trustee running for the president’s post, says the one-story depot needs to be replaced. But Burket questions what he considers “the overbuilding of it,” while opponent Gary Fasules, a sitting trustee, says, “Metra tells us the specs.”
“Some of us question why we need such a big building, but if we scale it down and go back and try to get the grants, we may not get the grants that we've already been earmarked for,” Fasules said. “Now, will those grants be there? I don't know. We're in an uncertain world, but if we can do it with all grant money, then let's do it.”
As proposed, the project is much larger in scope than a new downtown station, incorporating warming shelters, a plaza, parking reconfiguration, utility and streetscape work as well as ADA-accessibility improvements.
The village and engineers have examined a redesign of the station site, and in the years before the pandemic sent ridership tumbling. Burket, in a candidate questionnaire, noted the “significant reduction in ridership, which seems to be long-term, does not justify” the proposed increase in station size.
“Rarely is there a time that you don't have your own seat on the train,” Burket said in a joint interview with the Daily Herald Editorial Board. “I walk by that station every day after walking to Starbucks, and even in the coldest of days, I don't think I've ever seen more than five to 10 people inside, all of them with all the room they could ever want. And I just don't, I don't see the need for putting up a building … that large.”
Commuters and downtown visitors now cross over the tracks at Main Street or Park Boulevard.
“I understand why people want it. I think it's a luxury more than a necessity,” Burket said of the pedestrian tunnel.
He acknowledged that “we have a lot of train problems in our town, living on what's essentially the busiest freight line in the Midwest. But I'm not against it, I just don't think it's going to be used quite as much as people think.”
The pedestrian tunnel below the tracks would “not only make it easier for customers to access the station from either side of the railroad but going under in lieu of across the tracks at nearby grade crossings will save time and provides an additional level of safety,” according to a preliminary design report by CDM Smith.
Fasules reiterated if the grant money doesn't come in, “we don't put a shovel in the ground. It's simple as that.”
“We've got other needs in the town that we've got to use those monies for,” he said. “If we can do it with grants, go for it.”
Fasules, a lifelong Glen Ellyn resident, wrote in his questionnaire that a top issue is unfunded projects in the various planning stages, including removing lead water pipes.
“We have so much unfunded infrastructure needs, we as a board need to prioritize those projects,” Fasules said in the interview. “Once we get them prioritized, we have to put them in a timeline to see when they can be built out. And then we've got to model how we get the finances.”