South Suburbs Of Chicago: Map And List Of 46 Towns, Metra

Forty-six towns sit on or near the two Metra lines that run south through Chicago’s South Side, the Metra Electric and the Rock Island. In the 20 with a station, median home values run from $88,100 in Harvey to $401,400 in Mokena, and a scheduled morning train reaches downtown in 34 minutes from Riverdale or Robbins and 65 from Joliet.

Metra’s weekday timetable and the Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey · read October 19, 2026

Together the 46 towns hold about 770,000 people. Twenty have a Metra station of their own; the other 26 are towns whose closest station is on one of the two lines. This page lists all of them by line, with the Census figures that start most comparisons, the weekday train service at each station town and a map. It is the third of our suburb lists, after the west suburbs and the northwest suburbs, and it follows the same rule: start from the railroad.

Map of the south suburbs of Chicago

The south suburbs, by railroad. Orange: Metra Electric, with its Blue Island branch. Blue: Rock Island, with its Beverly branch inside the city. White circles are suburban stations. Filled dots are the 20 towns with a station; hollow dots are the 26 towns without one (South Chicago Heights, Thornton, Ford Heights unlabeled for space). Track and stations from Metra’s schedule feed; town points from the Census Bureau’s 2024 gazetteer.

What are the south suburbs of Chicago?

No official map draws the line, so this list uses the railroad: the two Metra lines that run south through Chicago’s South Side. They are the Metra Electric, from Millennium Station to University Park with a branch to Blue Island, and the Rock Island, from LaSalle Street Station to Joliet. A town is on this list if it has a station on either line, or if it is an incorporated town in Cook or Will County whose closest Metra station, in a straight line, is one of those suburban stations and no more than 8 miles away.

That rule settles the edges. Orland Park, Oak Lawn, Worth and the Palos towns ride the SouthWest Service, and Lemont, Romeoville and Lockport the Heritage Corridor, so they belong to the southwest list rather than this one. Evergreen Park’s closest station, Ashburn on the SouthWest Service, is inside the city, so it is not here either. Lansing, Calumet City and Burnham sit near the Indiana line, where the South Shore Line runs. It stops at Hegewisch, inside the city, but the South Shore is not a Metra line and is not in Metra’s schedule feed, so those towns are listed by their closest Metra station. Unincorporated places, such as Frankfort Square, are left out.

List of south suburbs by Metra line

Metra Electric line stations

The main line runs from Millennium Station to University Park; its Blue Island branch leaves it at Kensington. Twelve towns, listed from nearest downtown to farthest.

Metra Electric station towns. Census 2020–2024 five-year estimates. * Margin of error above a quarter of the estimate
Town	Population	Median home value	Median household income	Median rent
Calumet Park	6,855	$184,700	$53,556	$1,288
Riverdale	10,340	$113,800	$39,833	$1,231
Harvey	20,230	$88,100	$42,429	$960
Hazel Crest	13,792	$185,300	$68,393	$1,320
East Hazel Crest	1,068	$158,300*	$54,950	$1,504
Homewood	19,294	$221,100	$100,139	$1,333
Flossmoor	9,391	$344,800	$133,663	$2,164*
Olympia Fields	4,734	$329,000	$123,875*	$3,500+
Park Forest	21,156	$115,300	$61,072	$1,365
Matteson	18,645	$250,600	$95,457	$1,580*
Richton Park	12,521	$220,900	$64,554	$1,294
University Park	7,306	$153,200	$73,844	$1,649

Rock Island Metra stations

The Rock Island runs from LaSalle Street Station to Joliet. Blue Island has six stations, four on the Rock Island and two on the Metra Electric’s Blue Island branch, and is listed here. Eight towns, nearest downtown first.

Rock Island station towns. Census 2020–2024 five-year estimates. * Margin of error above a quarter of the estimate
Town	Population	Median home value	Median household income	Median rent
Blue Island	21,741	$178,700	$59,489	$1,072
Robbins	4,556	$121,300	$40,668*	$1,553*
Midlothian	13,948	$207,000	$70,000	$1,249
Oak Forest	26,805	$255,100	$91,990	$1,328
Tinley Park	54,842	$299,900	$105,189	$1,495
Mokena	20,021	$401,400	$123,889	$1,254
New Lenox	28,006	$399,900	$140,865	$1,431
Joliet	150,445	$265,800	$92,201	$1,276

How long is the Metra ride to downtown from each town?

The table gives Metra’s own schedule for one station in each station town, the one with the most weekday trains toward downtown: how many of those trains there are, and the scheduled ride on trains reaching Millennium Station or LaSalle Street between 6 and 9:30 in the morning. The typical ride is the median of those trains; the fastest is the quickest of them. Most Metra Electric main-line stations have 27 weekday trains toward downtown, Homewood 31, and the Blue Island branch 13; most Rock Island stations have 22, and Blue Island’s Vermont Street station, where the Beverly branch joins, has 39.

Scheduled, from Metra’s weekday timetable as posted in October 2026. Metra Electric towns first, then Rock Island, each nearest downtown first
Town	Station	Weekday trains toward downtown	Typical morning ride	Fastest morning ride
Calumet Park	Ashland	13	62 min	62 min
Riverdale	Riverdale (other stations in town: Ivanhoe)	27	34 min	33 min
Harvey	147th St. (other stations in town: Harvey)	27	38 min	37 min
Hazel Crest	Hazel Crest	27	42 min	41 min
East Hazel Crest	Calumet	27	44 min	43 min
Homewood	Homewood	31	46 min	39 min
Flossmoor	Flossmoor	27	46 min	42 min
Olympia Fields	Olympia Fields	27	50 min	45 min
Park Forest	211th St.	27	52 min	48 min
Matteson	Matteson	27	54 min	50 min
Richton Park	Richton Park	27	58 min	53 min
University Park	University Park	27	62 min	58 min
Blue Island	Blue Island-Vermont (other stations in town: 119th St., 123rd St., Blue Island, Burr Oak, Prairie St.)	39	44 min	26 min
Robbins	Robbins	22	34 min	30 min
Midlothian	Midlothian	22	37 min	33 min
Oak Forest	Oak Forest	22	41 min	37 min
Tinley Park	Tinley-80th (other stations in town: Tinley Park)	25	51 min	34 min
Mokena	Hickory Creek (other stations in town: Mokena)	22	44 min	39 min
New Lenox	New Lenox	22	55 min	50 min
Joliet	Joliet	22	65 min	60 min

Which towns have no station of their own?

These 26 towns qualify by their closest station. Several are among the larger south suburbs: Calumet City (35,100 people), Lansing (28,284), Chicago Heights (26,736) and South Holland (20,911). Distances are straight lines from the Census Bureau’s internal point for each town to the station; a drive is longer.

Corridor towns, alphabetical. Census 2020–2024 five-year estimates. * Margin of error above a quarter of the estimate
Town	Population	Median home value	Median household income	Median rent	Closest Metra station
Alsip	18,583	$225,000	$66,585	$1,140	Robbins (Rock Island), 3.0 mi
Burnham	3,937	$161,300	$57,790	$1,208	Riverdale (Metra Electric), 4.1 mi
Calumet City	35,100	$145,200	$55,369	$1,177	147th St. (Metra Electric), 5.4 mi
Chicago Heights	26,736	$161,000	$54,798	$1,038	Olympia Fields (Metra Electric), 3.0 mi
Country Club Hills	16,324	$192,000	$75,197	$1,709	Flossmoor (Metra Electric), 2.8 mi
Crestwood	10,579	$195,200	$75,752	$1,334	Midlothian (Rock Island), 2.0 mi
Crete	8,386	$228,500	$97,147	$1,309*	University Park (Metra Electric), 5.3 mi
Dixmoor	2,948	$84,400*	$44,600*	$1,272	Robbins (Rock Island), 1.5 mi
Dolton	20,825	$151,300	$57,887	$1,384	Ivanhoe (Metra Electric), 1.7 mi
Ford Heights	1,331	$66,300*	$36,053*	$1,056	Flossmoor (Metra Electric), 5.5 mi
Frankfort	20,651	$481,200	$154,375	$2,442*	Mokena (Rock Island), 1.8 mi
Glenwood	8,603	$198,100	$77,391	$1,493	Homewood (Metra Electric), 3.3 mi
Lansing	28,284	$177,000	$75,569	$1,268	Harvey (Metra Electric), 5.9 mi
Lynwood	9,083	$218,000	$85,237*	$1,368	Homewood (Metra Electric), 6.7 mi
Markham	11,355	$135,300	$57,302	$1,621	Hazel Crest (Metra Electric), 2.1 mi
Merrionette Park	2,354	$173,400	$56,515	$1,296	119th St. (Rock Island), 1.5 mi
Monee	5,108	$240,500	$91,969	$1,477	University Park (Metra Electric), 3.2 mi
Phoenix	1,751	$96,200	$30,288*	$994*	Harvey (Metra Electric), 0.7 mi
Posen	5,292	$172,900	$73,051	$1,372	Robbins (Rock Island), 0.9 mi
Rockdale	2,553	$188,300	$59,135	$1,256	Joliet (Rock Island), 2.7 mi
Sauk Village	9,678	$110,800	$69,973	$1,502	Olympia Fields (Metra Electric), 6.5 mi
Shorewood	18,343	$337,800	$122,105	$1,479*	Joliet (Rock Island), 7.0 mi
South Chicago Heights	3,907	$149,300	$58,691	$1,196	Matteson (Metra Electric), 3.5 mi
South Holland	20,911	$217,200	$85,280	$1,856	Harvey (Metra Electric), 2.2 mi
Steger	9,418	$156,700	$66,575	$1,076	Matteson (Metra Electric), 4.7 mi
Thornton	1,940	$155,100	$59,647	$1,107	Hazel Crest (Metra Electric), 2.1 mi

Where are home values lowest and highest?

Among the 20 station towns, the median home value is lowest in Harvey ($88,100) and highest in Mokena ($401,400). Counting the towns without a station, the range runs from Ford Heights, where the Census estimate of $66,300 carries a wide margin, to Frankfort, at $481,200.

Does a shorter ride to downtown cost more here? On these two lines it tends to cost less. The nine station towns with a typical morning ride under 45 minutes have a median home value of $178,700; the eleven at 45 minutes or more, $250,600. Riverdale and Robbins, the two shortest typical morning rides at 34 minutes, post $113,800 and $121,300; Harvey, at 38 minutes, $88,100. The pattern is loose, and Park Forest and University Park sit low near the end of the line. On the Rock Island the median climbs at every station town from Robbins ($121,300) through Midlothian, Oak Forest and Tinley Park to Mokena ($401,400), then eases at New Lenox ($399,900) and drops at Joliet ($265,800). On the Metra Electric main line the high point comes midway, at Flossmoor ($344,800), with Olympia Fields ($329,000) next, and the line ends lower again at University Park ($153,200).

Our reading: that is the reverse of the northwest suburbs, where our list found home values falling as the Union Pacific Northwest line runs out toward McHenry County. South of the city the towns nearest the city line are the least expensive part of the corridor, so a longer ride on these two lines generally comes with a higher median, until the last stops. The tables describe whole towns, though, and a single town can hold very different blocks.

What do renters pay?

Median gross rent, which counts rent plus utilities the tenant pays, is lowest in Harvey ($960) and runs past $2,000 in Flossmoor and Frankfort, where the estimates carry wide margins. Olympia Fields reaches the survey’s ceiling: the Census reports its median only as $3,500 or more. Across all 46 towns the middle value is $1,324 a month.

What this list can’t tell you

On the recordWhich towns have a station on the Metra Electric or Rock Island and, at the station in each town with the most trains, how many weekday trains run toward downtown and the scheduled morning ride. From Metra’s timetable feed.
On the recordEach town’s population, median home value, household income and rent, as Census five-year estimates.
Not establishedWhat any one home costs now. The home value is what owners told the survey their homes were worth, pooled over 2020 to 2024, and it trails the market.
Not establishedWhether trains run on time. The ride times are the timetable’s.
Not establishedSchools, property taxes or what a particular street is like. None of the sources here measure them.

How we counted

Stations and lines. Metra’s GTFS schedule feed (schedules.metrarail.com/gtfs), read October 19, 2026: every stop the Metra Electric and Rock Island serve, placed in its town by the Census Bureau’s geocoder. Stops inside Chicago and the downtown terminals are not counted as suburban stations.
Train service. Weekday trains whose last stop is Millennium Station or LaSalle Street Station, counted at each station they serve. Morning rides use those arriving downtown from 6:00 to 9:30 a.m.: scheduled arrival downtown minus scheduled departure from the station. A town with several stations is shown at the one with the most trains.
Which towns. Incorporated cities, towns and villages in the Census Bureau’s 2024 gazetteer. A town without a station is included if it lies in Cook or Will County and its closest Metra station on any line, measured from the Census internal point, is a suburban Metra Electric or Rock Island station within 8 miles.
Census figures. American Community Survey 2020–2024 five-year estimates, tables B01003, B25077, B19013 and B25064, from the Census Bureau’s table-based summary files. An asterisk marks a figure whose margin of error is more than a quarter of the estimate; read those as rough. Rent is median gross rent.
What we did not do. We did not rank the towns or score them, and nothing here weighs schools, taxes or safety.

Compiled by KCM Desk from Metra’s schedule feed and Census Bureau files read October 19, 2026. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.