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Metra

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Metra
Overview
HeadquartersChicago, IL
Reporting markMETX, NIRC
LocaleChicago and suburbs, expanding northward out of the suburbs
Dates of operation1973–present

Metra (officially the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation) is Chicagoland's commuter rail system, serving over 200 stations on 11 lines across the Regional Transportation Authority's six-county service area (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will Counties) providing over 67 million rides annually.

History

The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) was formed after a March 1973 referendum to provide financial support from local and county governments to railroads providing commuter service between Chicago and its suburbs. Purchase of service contracts with all the railroads operating commuter service in the area were signed in 1976. In the wake of the 1980 bankruptcy and liquidation of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, the RTA also inherited ownership and operational responsibilities of that railroad's commuter operations (now Metra's Rock Island District) in 1982. The same year it also leased the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad's (Milwaukee Road) lines, now the Milwaukee District/West Line and Milwaukee District/North Line, buying them in 1985.

Metra system schematic

The RTA Amendatory Act of 1983 created the current organization, with three management boards for Chicago area public transit - the CTA for city rapid transit and buses, Pace for suburban buses, and Metra for suburban rail. The Metra service mark, short for Metropolitan Rail, was adopted in 1984.

Metra has since acquired the operations of the Metra Electric Line (1987), Heritage Corridor (also 1987) and SouthWest Service (1993). In 1996 it began operating the North Central Service over the Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation, now part of the Canadian National Railway. Commuter service had previously been operated on that line by the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway, ending by 1971.

Metra's other lines are still operated by the freight railroads that own the trackage. The Union Pacific Railroad operates three ex-Chicago and North Western Railway lines - the Union Pacific/North Line, Union Pacific/Northwest Line and Union Pacific/West Line. The other line, the BNSF Railway Line, is operated by the BNSF Railway.

Commuter service in Chicagoland is also provided by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District's South Shore Line to South Bend, Indiana, one of only a few remaining interurban streetcar lines in the U.S. From 1971 to 1991 service was provided into Indiana by Amtrak's Calumet to Valparaiso. Amtrak still provides intercity service to Chicago, including frequent Hiawatha service to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, used by some commuters to Chicago.

Lines and stations

Metra F40PH-2 120 "City Of Woodstock" approaching the Deerfield station, June 23, 2006.
Millennium Park Station, previously known as Randolph Street Station

Until the 1960s, Chicago had six major intercity terminals. Three of them - Central Station, Dearborn Station and Grand Central Station - have closed. Metra still uses the other three - LaSalle Street Station, Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center - as well as the Randolph Street Station, a terminal for commuter lines that operated through Central Station.

Union Station serves all Amtrak intercity trains. It also serves Metra trains on several lines that operated into Union Station from before the 1960s:

Since the 1960s, other routes have been rerouted into Union Station:

The Ogilvie Transportation Center, originally the Chicago and North Western Terminal, serves the three lines formerly operated by the Chicago and North Western Railway - the Union Pacific/North Line, Union Pacific/Northwest Line and Union Pacific/West Line.

LaSalle Street Station serves only trains of the Rock Island District, originally operated by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.

Randolph Street Station serves the ex-Illinois Central Railroad Metra Electric Line, and the South Shore Line interurban streetcar service to South Bend, Indiana, operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District.

News

Despite the State of Illinois's current budget crisis, Metra is planning vigorous expansion in the coming years. Some of this expansion has already been realized: the Union Pacific/West line has been extended from Geneva, Illinois through La Fox to Elburn, and the SouthWest Service line has been extended from Orland Park to Manhattan. Metra also plans to extend the McHenry branch of the Union Pacific/Northwest into Johnsburg. There are also plans for an extension of the Milwaukee District Line-West from Elgin/Big Timber to Huntley and eventually all the way to Rockford.

Metra also plans to offer new service as well. It recently announced its intention to create a new SouthEast Service line from downtown Chicago to Crete, as well as Metra's first entirely intra-suburban commuter line, the Suburban Transit Access Route, or "STAR" Line, which would operate between Joliet and O'Hare Airport, linking together Metra lines in the western suburbs. Preliminary engineering has also begun in expanding Metra further north into cities outside of Chicagoland, as it has already done with Kenosha, and is planning to do with Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Metra Accidents

Metra, as all passenger rail, has a reputation for being a safe and reliable mode of transportation. There have been several accidents in the past that have caught regional, and sometimes national, attention:

  • On the morning of October 25, 1995, a Metra train hit a school bus which was stopped along the tracks at the stoplight at Algonquin Rd. and Northwest Highway in Fox River Grove. The accident resulted in seven deaths, multiple injuries, and a massive overhaul in safety, especially with respect to school buses and at short crossings. Millions of dollars was spent by several parties in lawsuits and safety improvements.
  • On September 17, 2005, a Metra train from Joliet to Chicago derailed about five miles from LaSalle Street Station, killing two people - Allison Walsh, 38 and Jane Cuthbert, 22 - and injuring approximately 80 others. While the investigation is still proceeding at this time the indications are that the train was traveling at excessive speed, one report stating that the train was moving at more than 60 mph over the posted speed limit of 10 mph, and this was a factor in the accident.
  • On November 23, 2005, a Metra train from Chicago to Antioch, IL collided with multiple cars at the Grand Ave crossing in Elmwood Park, Illinois. The railroad tracks cross Grand Ave at a shallow angle, therefore creating a longer-than-normal crossing. Just past the tracks on Grand Ave. (heading east) there is a traffic signal that can trap drivers disregarding the signs around the crossing warning them not to stop on the tracks. No one died at the scene, but 15 people needed to be sent to hospitals throughout Chicago. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the signals were working properly and have implied in statements to the press that fault for the accident lies with motorists who disregarded signs and stopped across the railroad tracks.

Awards and recognition

Metra has been honored with several E.H. Harriman Awards for employee safety, most recently with a Bronze award in class B (line-haul railroads with between 4 and 15 million employee hours per year) for 2005. Previous Harriman Awards conferred to Metra include Gold awards for 2003 and 2004 and a Silver award for 2002.[1]

See also

References

  • "Leaders Agree to Push for Metra". Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Online, 22 December 2004. Retrieved 20 January. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  • "Village board seeks Metra extension". McHenry Online. Retrieved 20 January. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  • "Metra: Driven by its history, A modern Chicago railroad carries its past with it". Trains Magazine, July 2003, by J. David Ingles. Retrieved 21 January. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  • "The CTA's "Doomsday Budget"-and what it means to Metra riders" (PDF). On the Bi-Level, May 2005 Special Edition. Retrieved 8 June. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  • J. David Ingles, Metra: "Best Commuter Train", Trains July 1993
  1. ^ Association of American Railroads (reprinted by Norfolk Southern Railroad) (2006-05-16). "Railroads Set Another Employee Safety Record in 2005". Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
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