Homewood Station at 7:44 am

[BillVas]

We are taking the City of New Orleans back to Chicago and will be leaving the train at HOmewood. How safe is it to use this station at this time , 7:44 am.?? I know it is a busy commuter station, but is there plenty of parking available as we are being picked up by a friend.

Thanks for your input.

bill

 

[Steve4031]

There is parking there, but I do not know if it is reserved for commuters or not. If your friend reads the signs carefully, there should be no problem. You could probably park for a few minutes to picks somebody p with no problem. Your friend should keep tabs on the train's status.

 

[Sam31452]

How safe is it to use this station at this time , 7:44 am.??

How many reports about crimes being comitted at 7:44am on a weekday morning have you ever read?

 

[Trogdor]

The Homewood station is fine.

 

[Steve4031]

I'm not aware of any significant level of crime there. Keep in mind that this is during rush hour so there will be metra commuter trains passing through as well as Amtrak. There is usually a significant amount of passengers getting off of Amtrak here, so there will be other people there. You should not have any problems.

 

[MikefromCrete]

Homewood is a fine community. There is restricted parking around the station, your friend just has to read the signs carefully.

 

[Ispolkom]

How many reports about crimes being comitted at 7:44am on a weekday morning have you ever read?

Police shot a black bear in a residential section of St. Paul about 7:00 a.m. a couple of years ago. They thought that he wouldn't interface well with children waiting for school buses. Me, I noticed that the Natural Resources bill was coming up in the house that morning, and figured that he was coming down to the state Capitol to lobby.

But in general my brother-in-law the prosecutor says that they always round up perps at the crack of dawn, as none of them are early risers.

 

[daveyb99]

I would make sure to have your ride waiting the car in drive and doors ready to be unlocked - but only at the last second. The typical Homewood thief can lift a set of tires off a moving vehicle in about :45 seconds. Given you will likely be wearing tennis shoes, you should be able to make the dash in less than that. Just hope they do not get your rides wheels before the train gets there....

Seriously, all will be fine.

 

[rtabern]

You should be fine at Homewood... I have been there at 7:44AM and also around 8:50PM and never had any problems. (I sometimes will do AGR point runs from CHI-HWD and HWD-CHI because you can get back on Metra to Chicago... and they still sell you a $6 ticket CHI-HWD). Anyway, some of the neighborhoods #58 and #59 pass through going from Chicago to Homewood are a little dicey... but once you get to Homewood you're okay.

There is even a railroad watchers shed opposite the station (with indoor seating and a speaker with CN scanner traffic on it) you can check out. I go down there and train watch a couple of times a year, and again, no problems.

 

[mercedeslove]

As someone who lived in Homewood for about 17 years I can say that you will be fine that time of day. The Metra is right across from the Amtrak platform, and if it is a weekday will be filled with people heading to work.

Also across the street from the station if the police department and FD.

Downtown Homewood (where the station is located) is a safe place. The most that usually happens there, are commuters getting their bikes stolen or cars broken into.

if you are looking for a quick little something to eat before boarding. Head over to Nielsen's bakery, which is down the block from the station on Ridge rd. They have great stuff there.

There is also a Starbucks acros the street on Harwood Av.