Berkeley (pronounced BURK-lee) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States.

[2] The town has a commuter railroad station on Metra's Union Pacific West Line with service to downtown Chicago.

Berkeley has instant access to the metropolitan area, with Interstates 290 and 294 comprising its western and part of its southern boundaries, and the Union Pacific Railroad (originally the Chicago & North Western) and the large Proviso classification yard to the north.

However, the transit arteries that link Berkeley to separate locations also function to isolate the village from its close neighbors, providing it a small-town atmosphere.

Farmland was provided for what is now known as Old Settler's Cemetery a short distance west on St. Charles Road (which was finished in 1836).

[5] The Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad (interurban) opened in 1902, providing the area with its first passenger rail service at Berkeley.

Berkeley also lost a number of homes when the Interstate 290 expansion was built in the late 1950s, cutting a north–south swath across the village's western part.

Berkeley bought property from the railroad in the 1960s to stretch its northern borders, enabling for the development of a small industrial park.

The village anticipated large residential turnover when these long-term homeowners sold their homes at the turn of the twenty-first century.

The Berkeley station provides Metra commuter rail service along the Union Pacific West Line to the community.

Trains travel east to Ogilvie Transportation Center in Chicago and west to Elburn station.