The Future of Metra

Its great to see Metra moving in this direction. I think Chicago has some great bones for a good regional rail service, they just need to take action.

With students making up a good portion of riders, I personally would like to see trains every half-hour (at least until 10-11am). Mainly because the line that I use, usually has its trains arrive at Chicago around 15 minutes before the hour ends. This means if you have lecture at 11am and you want to take the 10am train, you likely only have 15 minutes (if not less sometimes) to get to class, which means you’ll probably be late unless you happen to catch the bus as soon as you arrive or if you take a Divvy. This leaves you with having to take an hour earlier train if you want to be on time which usually means waiting around for like 50 minutes before your class begins.

It's nice to see American rail finally catch up with the times and move in the right direction. This shows that when Americans actually appreciate their history, in this case their rail heritage, they realize what has truly unified the country. Rail is simply the way to go. We don't have a regional rail system but five of the lines (Pyongui Line, Pyongbu Line, Pyongdok Line, Pyongnam Line, and Pyongra Line) of the Korean State Railway network begin or end at Pyongyang station. Can't believe you didn't bring up the crucial fact that in Australia there are 48 million kangaroos and in Uruguay there are 3,457,480 inhabitants, so if kangaroos decide to invade Uruguay, each Uruguayan will have to fight 14 kangaroos

100% agree, I would love a more consistent schedule so I'm all in favor of a 'regional rail' model. You shouldn't have to memorize the schedule for a system like Metra. As is, it's almost easier to keep track of the Lincoln Service than Metra's goofy scheduling lol.

Chicago is actually situated better for pan-regional rail than Boston, New York City, Philadelphia or Washington DC, or any other US metro area because of all its multitude of circumferential railway lines. And Metra could be profitable if it were to leverage real estate development and obtain an income stream that's not dependent on the farebox or the largesse of the state or feds.

I can definitely see a regional rail system working in Chicago and NYC. Especially the NYC metro considering the LIRR which is the busiest commuter rail in North America, the Metro-North Railroad (which is second), and NJ Transit (which is third). MNR's Penn Station Access, which will make NY Penn even more of a hub is part of making this possible. Regional rail for both these metro areas would boost ridership and economic opportunity by making public transportation more accessible, and offering higher-frequency service would bring in new users beyond the traditional 9-to-5 commuters. The existing system largely operates as a premium shuttle service for a niche market. And as more people work from home, commuter rail needs to evolve. Towns on Long Island grew because of rail, and passengers have shown that they still take the LIRR during the day and not just at peak periods, whether it's to spend the day in the city, see family members or watch a hockey game. The LIRR is very much an important asset to Long Island and making it regional rail would enhance that. We have the bones for a very robust rail network, we just don’t really operationally have a system that meets the needs of more of the region’s population.

We really need to push for the STAR line to happen and PACE to be be more densely present in the distant suburbs... There is no reason for the lack of consistent bus service on Route 59 to make Metra more accessible to people between the Joliet and Route59 train stations.

I love, love, love riding Metra when I can, however, the schedules make it difficult for my needs. This last week I had a gig downtown and found that it took less time to drive 30 minutes to CTA Cumberland Station and ride from there than it would be to drive over to Palatine or Barrington stations on the UPNW line and ride in that way. And the best part about riding CTA was that I never had to wait longer than 10 minutes for a train. If I miss a non-commuter Metra train I'd have to wait another hour. I recognize that it's difficult to increase frequency of trains without ridership but perhaps this is one of those "if you build it they will come" situations..

Thx for riding with me yesterday thom hope u liked our crew

Until they truly connect Metra into a system, regional rail isn't going to work. This is why the Chicago Access Project is so important; it connects BNSF, Milwaukee District, Southwest, Heritage Corridor, Metra Electric, North Central, and South Shore together, and hopefully they also somewhat take the opportunity to integrate Rock Island too. But they also need to integrate fares with bus and rapid transit providers, mainly the CTA. Chicago's past land use and missed opportunities also cause trouble -- putting almost a one block gap between LaSalle Street Station and the Loop L; overdeveloping Union Station and making it difficult to integrate into a high capacity through station; failing to retain the direct connection between the L and Union Station after the closure in 1957 of the original link. A further challenge exists with the UP services; Ogilvie Station is 50 feet above most of the other downtown tracks, and doesn't even have the benefit of a bypass line to hook into like LaSalle Street potentially does. The only option here is the Green Line, which is why the L connections become so important.

It’s quite amazing how similar Chicagos commuter/regional rail network is to Toronto’s. Both are in a similar spot rn with similar issues (like increasing frequencies and changing commuter-only lines to have all day two way service). The most annoying thing with Torontos regional rail rn is how they are doing this massive multi-billion dollar overhaul, track and station expansion and electrification of all the main lines except for the Milton (Orange) and Richmond Hill (Light Blue) lines. The Milton line serves residents from the dense nearby city of Mississauga and is only limited to one way commuter rail service because it’s line operator Canadian Pacific is notoriously anti-passenger rail and always prioritizes freight traffic on the Milton line so they can secure their profits (even at the cost of lengthy passenger delays). Idk if a similar situation exists with any of the Metra Lines where the transit agency desperately wants to upgrade their services but can’t due to the freight company that owns said line

That system you proposed could work for the L network too, for example: Red line: R1, R2 Orange line: O1, O2, O3 Yellow line: Y1, Y2 Green line: G1, G2 Blue line: B1, B2, B3 Purple line: P1, P2 Brown line: B1, B2, B3 Pink line: P1, P2 [New lines] Silver line: S1, S2 Gold line: G1, G2 Maroon line: M1, M2 Lime line: L1, L2

Your naming system reminds of of SEPTA’s new naming system for the trollies

Nice video, I just wonder if Metra would ever consider replacing their old gallery cars with the new Alstom-built cars, but it doesn’t look like they’re doing that anytime soon 😂

I'd like to see a shuttle train betwen the west lines

Metra seems to be heading in the good direction with those ideas of Memory scheduling and a variety of frequencies thruout the day, all things that are, for a long time, tools of the trade here in Europe. I'm doing something similar on a project comprising some NJT lines (Morris & Esses, Montclair)Boonton) and the proposed Amtrak service to Scranton, but with lots of enhancements not considered in the original proposals that are now being worked out. It is bring fun. It's like a big chess game of service design.

San Francisco Bay Area transit options are pretty much a joke. In the 34 years I’ve lived in this area, it took twenty of those years to come up with a common pay scheme that was useable for the myriad of transit agencies. The Clipper card is now useable throughout the area but they have built in a money grab scam. If you are a casual user of the system, you may not burn through the balance on your card on a regular basis. If not used within six months, your funds on account simply disappear. That means that your next rare trip to the City will be the first time that you notice that your card is no longer valid even if you know you had a balance on your account. Getting your money back is a designed hassle (they assume that you’ll just give up) and is worse for survivors trying to manage the postmortem affairs of their late family members. If they want people to use the system, they can do better than to end up on the “(channel) Seven on Your Side” segment of the local news broadcast.

I think you have an excellent plan for Metra and I sincerely hope they listen to you!!! Love your videos, thank you!!!

Thom, I hope the folks at Metra watch this! Your schedule looks fantastic, and you have very good suggestions.

Moscow’s metro network actually has its own circle route (ring) that connects all the metro lines without having to connect through the city center.