Suburban Transit Access Route
Overview
Status	Canceled
Locale	Cook County,DuPage County,Will County
Termini	O'Hare, Chicago Joliet, Illinois
Stations	17
Service
Type	Suburb-to-suburbcommuter rail
System	Metra
Technical
Line length	55 mi
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend River Road |Rosemont I-294 NCS Devon Avenue Mannheim Road Elmhurst Road Busse Road Arlington Heights Road Golf Road I-290 IKEA Roselle Road Barrington Road Prairie Stone I-90 MDW Spaulding Road North Avenue Washington Street UPW Butterfield Road I-88 North Aurora Road BNSF 95th Street Van Dyke Road Renwick Road This diagram: view talk edit

TheSuburban Transit Access Route (orSTAR Line) was a proposed railway project in northwest and outer suburbanChicago, Illinois, United States. On January 30, 2003,Metra announced plans to build a new service line that would introduce a new fleet ofDiesel multiple unit trains (DMUs) to connect nearly 100 communities in the region and form Metra's only suburb-to-suburb service. Currently all of Metra's services are oriented on suburb-to-city travel.

The route of the STAR line was planned to travel along theEJ&E right of way and in the median of theNorthwest Tollway (Interstate 90). The tollway median was a proposed extension of theCTA Blue Line westward to Schaumburg, but construction plans of the Suburban Transit Access Route caused the extension to be canceled. Very high ridership was expected due to its unique travel theme: around 80,000 passengers a day. The line was to be 55 miles in length.

The cost estimate for the STAR Line was $1.1 billion. The project was authorized under what was, in 2005, the most recent federal transportation funding bill:SAFETEA-LU. The project underwent Alternatives Analysis before cancellation.

The 55-mile (89 km) Metra route would have been the first suburb-to-suburb train line in the Chicago area since 1943. Chicagoland has had at least three suburb to suburb lines in its early history. There was the New York Central line between Gary, Indiana and Joliet (Until 1925). The Chicago & North Western line between Kenosha, Wisconsin and Harvard (Until 1939). The Burlington Route line between Aurora and West Chicago (Until 1943). The line would have started atO'Hare International Airport, run west alongInterstate 90 towardsHoffman Estates, then south along theElgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway towardsJoliet.^[1] The line would have connected almost 100 communities inWill,DuPage, andCook County. The route would have used a new fleet of European-style trains running at 79 miles per hour (127 km/h), providing service at 15-minute intervals during peak periods.^[2]

In June 2003, theRegional Transportation Authority board unanimously signaled their support for the proposed STAR Line. The project would have cost $1.1 billion and would have taken 10 years to build, depending on funding.^[1]

In January 2012, theDaily Herald reported that Metra was no longer actively studying the project, partly due to a lack of funding from federal and state governments. Other transport modes, such as bus rapid transit, offered a cheaper alternative to the STAR Line.^[3]

• Pace I-90 Express

• Official Metra New Starts site
• Northwest Municipal Conference
• Updated Map
• "Metra Connects" STAR line website
• Map of current EJ&E right-of-way

• Metra
• Railway lines in Chicago
• Proposed railway lines in Illinois

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata