Harvey is one of two Metra Electric commuter rail stations along the line's Main Branch in Harvey, Illinois. The station is located at Park Avenue and 154th Street, and is 20.0 miles (32.2 km) away from the northern terminus at Millennium Station.[2] In Metra's zone-based fare system, Harvey is in zone 2. As of 2018[update], Harvey is the 102nd busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 471 weekday boardings.[1]
Compared to most stations along the Metra Electric line, including Harvey's other station at 147th Street, Harvey is quite grand in its appearance, at least in the vicinity of its given location. The station is located two blocks from City Hall, and next to Pace's Harvey Transportation Center.[3]
Parking is available along Park Avenue and the west side of the tracks between 155th Street and a bridge for a Canadian National Railway line that crosses underneath the Metra Electric Main Branch, as well as the Amtrak line that runs parallel to it, carrying the City of New Orleans, Illini, and Saluki trains. These tracks carried the intercity-trains of the Illinois Central until 1971, and most trains stopped here. It also contains a much larger parking lot on the east side of the tracks surrounded by 155th Street, Commercial Avenue, and 156th Street.
On the evening of October 12, 1979, a switchman incorrectly aligned a switch in front of an oncoming Amtrak train, leading it to go across a now-removed crossover into a stationary freight train. The resulting crash killed 2 crew members of the freight train in what would become known as the Harvey, Illinois train collision.
Pace