As noted yesterday, for most of the 1970s Rock Island still ran Chicago-Peoria and Chicago-Rock Island intercity trains. But it also ran commuter trains between Chicago and Joliet. Like most Chicago commuter railroads, Rock Island had adopted bi-level commuter cars, sometimes called gallery cars, in which the upper level seats looked down upon the center aisle of the lower level, thus allowing the conductor to collect tickets on both levels without climbing the stairs.

Click image to download an 1.9-MB PDF of this 2-page timetable.

Starting in 1974, these trains were subsidized by the Chicago Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) but were still operated by the Rock Island. RTA took over the commuter trains and ran them itself, under the name Metra, in 1983.

Click image to download an 1.9-MB PDF of this 2-page timetable.

One side of each of these timetables shows weekday schedules and the other side shows Saturday and Sunday/holiday schedules. The timetables show 13 trains each way between Chicago and Joliet on weekdays, with 9 on Saturdays and 6 on Sundays/holidays. Other trains went shorter distances.