In a nation often split by urban and suburban priorities, Metra has worked to unite Chicagoland for three decades, with considerable success. Given the reputation for hardball politics shared by city, region, and state—including within Metra itself, critics will quickly assert—that’s no small accomplishment.
As well, Metra must coordinate, and cooperate, with major Class I freight railroad landlords BNSF and Union Pacific, as well as with Amtrak (owner of Chicago Union Station), and other transit agencies, notably heavyweight Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).
It does just that while serving 241 stations, including not one or two but five in downtown Chicago (four of them terminals), while canvassing six Illinois counties constituting the majority portion of Chicagoland with 703 trains each weekday, protecting 11 service routes covering 487.7 route-miles. One route, Union Pacific-North, crosses the border to serve one stop in southeast Wisconsin.
Roughly 300,000 riders per day, or 81.3 million per year, avail themselves of Metra service, and not all of them are commuters. Indeed, for much of its 30-year history Metra has made it a point to be more than just a “commuter railroad,” hence its focus on customer service, regardless of day or time of day.
“Here in Chicago at Metra, it’s ‘Customer No. 1’” in a transparent manner, says Metra Executive Director and CEO Don Orseno, a Chicago native, 30-year Metra veteran, and former locomotive engineer who assumed his current post late last January, after serving as interim CEO since August 2013.
“Success is driven by capacity and what kind of service you can provide the customer,” Orseno says. “We want to provide the best service whether it’s inbound or outbound, rush hour or the weekend.”
Acknowledging Metra’s annual difficulties operating during Chicago’s famed winter weather (while also noting other modes struggle in similar fashion), Orseno says, “Our goal is to operate on time about 95% consistently—all the time.” Metra achieved 95.4% on-time performance in fiscal year 2013.
And while reliability is certainly a major driver of such service goals, it isn’t the only criterion. “Customer satisfaction is important to Metra, to myself, to our board,” Orseno notes, and that “includes outlets in cars for electrical use, installing WiFi, communicating with customers constantly to inform them of potential service disruptions.”
New equipment
Satisfaction should be achievable as Metra continues to receive 160 Highliner cars for use on its Metra Electric Line, about half of which are now on the property. The Metra Electric Line runs over 32 miles from far south suburban University Park through to both Van Buren Station and Millennium Station in Chicago’s downtown, and includes two branches to Blue Island and South Chicago. As the third-busiest Metra line, it carries roughly 20,000 passengers a day.
Metra in 2010 awarded Nippon Sharyo, in conjunction with Sumitomo Corp. of America, a $585 million contract. The cars are similar to Metra’s fleet of diesel-hauled gallery cars that have typified Metra’s fleet for decades.
Metra, long a stickler for gallery cars as opposed to the more numerous bilevels that serve most other U.S. and Canadian regional passenger properties, believes its choice offers better “customer comfort,” and is efficient not just for conductors checking on fares and other matters, but also “for capacity and loads that we have,” Orseno says.
The new cars have to address not only existing capacity but also anticipated future increases; some rush-hour trains already are carrying maximum loads, Orseno says. “We are staying with the same style of cars that we have,” he says. “It’s a design that we like.”
Coordinating transit coverage
With equipment both new and older, Metra’s goal is to “try to work with the marketing department and various people to get people in those seats” and to get enough seats for that effort.
That includes working on adding “reverse-commute” travel options to serve, among other things, corporate headquarters located outside Chicago proper. It also means coordinating with other Chicagoland bus transit agencies, notably Pace, like Metra overseen by the Regional Transportation Authority, to adequately address the “first- and last-mile commutes,” Orseno says.
Of course, Metra’s more traditional Chicago-bound riders often require the same benefits of such coordination, and Orseno notes Metra and the Chicago Transit Authority have a good working relationship in moving people to, within, and from the city proper. “We have a wonderful relationship with CTA; we work very closely with them,” Orseno asserts. Both agencies look at the “regional market, not suburb to city or city to suburb”— an approach that increases the reach of each organization. “It’s more of a global-type thinking, [advanced] in a regional perspective,” he says.
The partnership approach also applies to Amtrak, Orseno says, particularly when it comes to Chicago Union Station. Though Amtrak owns the station, “we run about 80% of the trains going in and out. When you go for on-time performance of 95% or better, you can’t do that without constant communications.”
Orseno and Metra are keenly aware of the criticism leveled at the Amtrak station, confusing to even daily riders. “One can certainly see ways of improving traffic flows,” he allows, adding that Metra will work closely with Amtrak in advancing plans to ameliorate the problem.
Funding needs examined
Right now, Metra’s capital program is focused on state-of-good-repair needs, including but not limited to its 2,000 signals, 1,100 pieces of rolling stock, 821 bridges, 571 grade crossings, 24 rail yards, 15 electrical stations, and 12 fuel facilities. And, like other large railroads across the U.S., Metra is working to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) equipment on its consists, as well as assist host freight railroads in PTC implementation on rail routes.
“PTC is a wonderful safety enhancement, which folks want installed quickly. But the interoperability, and the 220 spectrum, are issues” to be addressed, Orseno says. The Federal Railroad Administration last month expanded its list of exemptions concerning the deadline for PTC’s implementation, and Orseno hopes Metra will qualify for reasonable extensions “based on good-faith efforts,” acknowledging Metra is unlikely to meet the baseline deadline of Dec. 31, 2015.
PTC also puts a strain on Metra’s capital budget just as it impacts Metra’s passenger rail counterparts and, indeed, freight railroads large and small. “We’re like everyone else; starved for capital,” Orseno quips.
That paucity hasn’t stopped Metra from pursuing big dreams, however. Metra remains an active partner in the Chicago Region Environmental And Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) consortium that slowly is streamlining freight and passenger rail operations in the Chicago hub, with emphasis on reducing conflicting moves and resultant train delays for numerous parties. Along with those other parties, Metra is advancing construction of the Englewood Flyover, which when completed will separate Metra from freight and Amtrak moves.
Metra is developing a strategic plan codifying its capital needs for the next decade, including an estimated $9.9 billion needed for capital maintenance, far more than it has readily available at present. Identifying those needs is the first step, Orseno says, adding, “Dedicated, sustainable funding is needed to make good solid plans.”
Orseno says that Metra still has not given up on its long-range plan to institute a circumferential, 55-mile Suburban Transit Access Route (STAR Line), connecting 100 municipalities in Chicagoland and uniting numerous Metra radial routes to foster intra-suburban rail travel. “It’s in our long-range vision,” he says, allowing that, for now, such an ambitious plan remains out of range.
Then again, Metra’s ambitious determination to set its own course, be it driven by customer service or equipment preference, has contributed to what set the railroad apart from many other properties for three decades. Expect more of the same in the years ahead.