Metra pilot program for more midday trains

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Joined
Dec 18, 2007
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1,148
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suburban Chicago (Deerfield)
Beginning mid-July, Metra will be running a pilot program on four lines -- Electric, Rock Island, BNSF, and UP-North -- to operate a more frequent and regular schedule in the midday on weekdays. Link.

To give an example, here is the present Rock Island schedule and here is the pilot-program Rock Island schedule.

Or the present UP-North schedule and the pilot schedule. While I don't have a pre-Covid UP-North schedule at hand, I'm quite sure there wasn't half-hourly service from Winnetka south from 7a to 8p or north to Winnetka from 5:30a to 6:30p! The North Shore suburbs as far as Winnetka (I'd say up to Lake Forest, really) are dense enough to support this level of service, and it'll be a real game-changer! I'm a bit surprised Metra got UP to go along with this considering the tantrums UP has been throwing as part of their contract-renewal fracas.*

The BNSF pilot schedule isn't quite so ambitious -- hourly service in the middle of midday -- but there's a whole lot more freight to work around on the BNSF than any of the other lines in the pilot program. If it can work on BNSF, then it could also be done on the similar (freight-heavy but three-track and dense suburbs as far as West Chicago) UP-West, the two Milwaukee lines (mostly two-track but not nearly as much freight traffic), and most definitely on the UP-Northwest (dense suburbs as far as Palatine or Barrington, three tracks but not much freight).

Due to Covid impacting its ridership, Metra has mentioned running more regular "regional rail" instead of rush-hour-focused "commuter rail" and now it's showing that it meant it seriously.


*The most prominent being UP conductors not checking tickets and holing up except to open/close doors, ostensibly due to Covid. However, Metra's own conductors were checking tickets and patrolling trains through Covid. I had reliable accounts that, for want of enforcement, masking on UP trains was Wild West-ish during even the worst of Covid, and I don't mean people wearing bandannas.
 
Hourly midday service is still a pretty big deal, especially if clockface. The proposed BNSF schedule isn't quite clockface due to morning and evening rush, but it's close. This is great.
 
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