shedd aquarium: I'll be coming in from Rockford, IL and was just wondering which Metra station would be the best to use for heading into Chicago. I'd be getting to the station mid-morning on a Friday. I'm going into Chicago to visit the Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, etc.|||There is no passenger train service of any kind to, from, or through Rockford IL. There has been feasibility planning going on for a proposed Amtrak Chicago-Rockford-Galena-Dubuque route, but that is still in the planning/proposal stages. At this time there is no train service of any kind to Rockford. Amtrak does market "Amtrak Thruway" bus service between Rockford and Chicago for the convenience of Amtrak passengers. The bus service is operated by Van Galder/Coach USA. You do not have to book through Amtrak however. Van Galder/Coach USA operates service between Rockford and Chicago Union Station and O'Hare and Midway Airports directly for the public. No reservations needed, you can pay the driver (cash). Just show up at the bus stop and board. It's cheaper and easier not to get Amtrak involved. Bus service is frequent and here is the schedule: http://www.coachusa.com/CoachUsaAssets/f鈥?/a> The nearest Metra station, as others have pointed out, is in Harvard. Service is not very frequent. For example, the last morning train leaves Harvard at 9:35 a.m. and the next train leaves at 1:35 p.m. Most trains terminate at Crystal Lake and only a few go on to Harvard. You are apparently planning to stay overnight in Chicago. Unless you can get someone to give you a ride to/from Harvard, you are also going to have to make arrangements for overnight parking. Most Metra stations do not allow overnight parking without special arrangements. Call 815-943-6468 for parking questions in Harvard. There is one Greyhound bus a day from Rockford to Chicago that leaves at 5:35 p.m. For those of you who looked at the Amtrak web site, compare the schedule listed on there to the Van Galder bus schedule and you will notice a striking similarity. http://www.coachusa.com/CoachUsaAssets/f鈥?/a> I would recommend the Van Galder/Coach USA bus.|||Besides Harvard, don't forget you also can ride from downtown Elgin into town. On weekdays(but not weekends, as there's no service past DT Elgin), you could park and ride from Big Timber Rd. Also to set the record straight, Amtrak trains DO NOT serve Rockford! They once did 3 decades back, though. Report Abuse |||I would stick with metra out of Harvard,IL. http://metrarail.com/metra/en/home.html I assume that you want to stay in Downtown Chicago, so here is a link for hotels in the downtown area. http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Hotels+鈥?/a> Call a few for rates as rates change from day to day. If you have narrowed it down to a few write back & ask us if we know anything about the hotels you think you would like to stay at.|||Amtrak is a train greyhound has buses the nearest Metra is at Harvard IL that runs to Chicago Amtrak does run from Rockford to Union Statioon in Chicago|||Your closest Metra station is in Harvard, IL. You might want to check if Amtrak goes out of Rockford.|||Amtrak does go to Rockford. It arrives in Union Station. There are very few hotels in the area, it would be best to look at the hotels at Michigan and downtown. I think the Marriott is nice.