Arlington Park station


Arlington Park is one of two Metra commuter railroad stations along Metra's Union Pacific/Northwest line in the Village of Arlington Heights, Illinois. The station is located at 2121 West Northwest Highway and Wilke Road, within Arlington Park Race Course, and lies from the Ogilvie Transportation Center in Chicago. In Metra's zone-based fare system, Arlington Park is in zone E. As of 2018, Arlington Park is the 15th busiest of the 236 non-downtown stations in the Metra system, with an average of 1,738 weekday boardings.
The Arlington Park station was designed originally to serve just the Arlington Park Race Track, but now serves postal employees at the Processing and Distribution Center in Palatine as well as residents of southeast Palatine and west Arlington Heights, although a fence blocks most of the access to the station from the Palatine side. Despite its original purpose as a racetrack station, Arlington Park is located along the Union Pacific / Northwest Line's main line, rather than a spur or a sidetrack. No bus connections are available, although a Pace route, 723 previously served rush hour commuters to and from the east side of Palatine and the Rolling Meadows courthouse.
Parking is available within a section of the track complex's property dedicated for Metra commuter parking. As of June 2010, the price was $1.50 per day. The commuter parking lot is operated by Imperial Parking Corporation, operating as Impark. Impark has sometimes drawn criticism over business practices related to parking payment; at this lot in particular, commuters are required to pay a surcharge to use pay-by-phone when the lot's payment machines are out of order. In October and November 2008, there were a rash of car break-ins at the lot during daylight hours while commuters were parked.