Clarendon Hills station

Clarendon Hills is a station on Metra's BNSF Line in Clarendon Hills, Illinois. The station is 18.3 rail miles (29.5 km) from Chicago Union Station, the east end of Metra service on this line. In Metra's zone-based fare system, Clarendon Hills is in zone 3. As of 2018, Clarendon Hills is the 66th busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 799 weekday boardings.

The inbound station building (south of the tracks) was staffed until June 11, 2018. It later was replaced with an unmanned building. Groundbreaking was on Jan 6, 2020; ribbon-cutting was on Nov 7, 2022. The outbound side has only two small covered shelters, one of which also provides bicycle racks and the other is a weather-protected warming center. Clarendon Hills' central business district is directly southwest of the station.

As of April 29, 2024, Clarendon Hills is served by 30 inbound trains and 27 outbound trains (57 total) on Weekdays along with 33 trains (16 inbound and 17 outbound) on Weekends and Holidays.

Accident
Clarendon Hills was the site of a collision at 8:16 AM on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, between inbound Metra train no. 1242 and the cab of a box truck stopped on the tracks. It was not immediately known why the truck was stopped, as there had been sufficient room for it to safely clear the crossing. One person, a 72-year-old Downers Grove woman aboard the train, was ejected from the first car and killed. At least four people were injured, including the train engineer and a conductor. The driver and two passengers of the truck had escaped prior to the impact and were not injured.

The preliminary NTSB report was issued June 15, 2022. A 661-page Project Summary containing 59 docket items was released to the public by the NTSB on May 17, 2023. It reported that there were nearly 1500 ft of clear viewing of the crossing from a train rounding the curve east of the station. The track speed limit is 70 mph; the train was moving at 69.8 mph. The initial brake action was initiated within 2 seconds and full emergency brakes had been applied within 9 seconds. The train had been slowed to 55 mph at the moment of impact 18 seconds after the first view. It finally stopped 29 seconds later another 1508 ft down the track.

The schedule in effect on the day of the collision shows train no. 1242 as a local train, making all stops between Aurora and Chicago and departing from Clarendon Hills at 8:00 AM. However, on the day of the incident the assigned trainset had suffered a mechanical failure; a replacement trainset originated at with orders to bypass all stations between  and  to get back on schedule.

Following the incident, inbound service was curtailed for the rest of the day, with outbound evening rush service being reduced; Clarendon Hills station was open only to discharge passengers. Alternative options for passengers included and Westmont stations, or the Union Pacific West Line. The following day Metra ran a modified Saturday schedule, with all local trains serving all stops except Clarendon Hills. The station reopened on May 13 with regularly scheduled service, and the Prospect Avenue grade crossing has since reopened.