New Bartlett station place to be

Commuters from Bartlett weren't quite as eager as usual to hop aboard their trains Tuesday morning.

Instead, they took an extra moment to lounge leisurely about the Bartlett's new Metra station, which opened just hours earlier.

Riders who normally would have been stuck waiting for their trains in the freezing rain were instead treated to a warm building in which to wait.

On this inaugural day, they were also treated to homemade cookies courtesy of Olga Basarub, the South Elgin neighbor of ticket agent Sheila Putyrski, and, she said, "cutest little old lady you'll ever meet."

But the new amenity winning the most rave reviews wasn't the shelter, heat or the soon-to-be-open coffee shop at the station.

No, it was the bathrooms -- that and the new parking lots. Here's a sampling of reactions to the new station:

• Peter Wendt of Bartlett was heading downtown for his annual holiday outing with his daughter Gretchen. They planned to see the window displays, shop at Macy's, have tea at the Four Seasons and go out for dinner: "I'm a traditionalist and I thought the old station added an awful lot of charm to town. I was sorry to hear it wouldn't be used. But I walked in here and said, 'This'll work.'

"And before, there was no parking unless you got here early morning, especially in the summer. I'd leave a big enough slot in my schedule in case I had to run up to Hanover Park."

• Denise Laurin of Bartlett is an art instructor at Elgin Community College and at the Illinois Institute of Art: "This is phenomenal. Quite artistic, too. It's clearly Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired with the openness, the intricate windows and the Prairie style. It makes the downtown look nicer. I'll be looking forward to the coffee shop. Right now, I'm annoyed that I left my hot chocolate in the car and there's not enough time to go get it."

• Nicole Mills of Bartlett is a student at the University of Illinois-Chicago: "It's nice, but I wish it was in the same spot as the old one. Now I have to go through the light at (Oak and Railroad avenues), which is the longest light ever. I can't stand it."

• Therese Hanen of Bartlett was on her way downtown to a tradeshow: "I got here 30 minutes early by accident today. If that had happened yesterday, I would have been out there freezing on that platform."

• Sheila Putyrski, South Elgin, Metra ticket agent: "The old office had mice in the winter. It was cold and had no insulation. I was resetting circuit breakers all the time and you couldn't run more than one heater. I had to ask myself, 'How cold am I today?' Here, the heating system is phenomenal.

"And, before, people would come all in a panic saying there wasn't any parking and I'd have to tell them to go to Hanover Park. That won't happen now."

The new Bartlett Metra station by the numbers

157: New parking spaces in two new lots

855: Total parking spaces

1,200: Average daily ridership, making the Bartlett station the Milwaukee District West line's second busiest after Schaumburg

1873: Year the original depot was built, making it the third oldest Chicago-area station, according to the Bartlett History Museum

$4.8 million: Cost to build new station

$421,000: Portion the village kicked in for architectural details such as brick pavers, period lighting and a copper roof; Metra paid the remainder

$1: Cost to park

300: Square feet set aside for Tazza, a high-end coffee vendor scheduled to open by early January

49: Number of weekday inbound and outbound trains that stop in Bartlett

3,136: Square feet of the new station, making it 15 times the size of the original depot

Sources: Metra, village of Bartlett