Metra Metropolitan Rail – itasca

My husband works in Itasca, so I met up with him on Friday to take the train into the city. There is a lot of parking, but make sure to bring exact change. I had $ 1.50 for my husband but ended up only having another $ 2 for mine with no change. They keep whatever you put in, so make sure to bring your quarters. (And if you think you’ll get around this by using your credit card, the CC minimum is $ 2. Womp womp)
The train was on time and we made it to the city just fine. However, there’s nowhere to kill time inside or to use the bathroom. You’ll just have to sit on the platform and wait, so bring a book or a bottle of vodka like I did.

Oh Itasca — you can do so much better. This train station is the definition of meh.
The Good:
–Parking is fairly ample — I haven’t had trouble finding a spot in the main lot at 8am during the week
–The station is situated across the street from a Starbucks and just a few blocks away from Bank of America
The Bad:
–The station is bare bones at best — no heat on the platform, no amenities whatsoever inside the station
–There’s no bathroom. Seriously. Not a single stall.
–Parking is $ 1.50 per day in the electronic meters and no change will be given *and* $ 2 minimum on credit card transactions. Enjoy my extra $.50, Itasca.
–Lighting in the parking lot is moderate at best.
Consider me unimpressed with the Itasca train station; there’s lots of room for improvement here.

Dirty inside and usually have vomits on Monday mornings. Broken door for almost a year now. The parking lot seems to have unlimited broken beer bottles.

This train station annoys me to death. There’s not a single source of heat anywhere on the pad, the machines for parking only take exact change (but it’s happy to take more than the minimum as a generous donation to the village of Itasca) and the train station itself has absolutely no amenities. There’s not a toilet to be found, and again, no sources of heat. There isn’t enough eating, either. Unilocal’s assessment for this star rating is spot-​on «Meh. I’ve experienced better.»