Metra to boost Union Pacific Northwest service as it anticipates the return of commuters
Anticipating the return of more weekday commuters, Metra is significantly boosting service on its Union Pacific Northwest line and tweaking the Union Pacific North schedule.
Metra plans to add 21 trains per weekday to the 45 currently operating on the Northwest Line, which runs from Ogilvie Transportation Center to McHenry and Harvard. That will bring the total number of weekday trains to one more than pre-pandemic levels, Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said.
It’s the latest line that will see increased service, after Metra made steep cuts at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as ridership on the commuter rail service plummeted. Metra also recently added trains to the BNSF Line that runs between Chicago Union Station and Aurora.
Ridership remains low, as workers have returned to offices in fits and starts and often have new work and commute patterns. On Wednesday, ridership across all 11 Metra lines was 34.8% of April 2019 levels, Gillis said.
On the Union Pacific Northwest Line, trips were about 27% of pre-pandemic levels, he said.
Metra has said it planned to restore service even before ridership fully returned to ensure there is space for riders, Gillis said.
“When they do come to our trains, we don’t want the first thing that they encounter is a crowded train, because that might turn them off to resuming ridership,” he said. “We want them to find a train that has room for social distancing, and not to mention as clean as we can make them.”
In addition to more trains, Metra is tweaking the Union Pacific Northwest schedule to address early shifts and reverse commutes, with six outbound trains leaving before 9 a.m. The first train will arrive in downtown Chicago at 5:32 a.m., and depart the city at 5:05 a.m.
Most midday trains will arrive in Chicago on the 10-minute mark, intended to make schedules easier to memorize and allow better connections with other lines, Metra said. Service during rush periods will be divided into a three-zone pattern that Metra said is intended to better balance passenger loads and improve express service to stations far from Chicago.
On the Union Pacific North Line, which runs between Ogilvie and Kenosha, one more train will be added in the morning from Kenosha, and one more evening train will be added to Kenosha. Midday service will be reduced by four trains because of ongoing construction work, including the new Peterson/Ridge station in the Edgewater neighborhood.
That will bring the total number of Union Pacific North trains to 72 per weekday, compared with 70 before the pandemic, Gillis said.
“We have said since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that Metra is committed to adjusting its schedules to meet growing ridership and our riders’ changing needs,” Metra CEO and Executive Director Jim Derwinski said in a statement. “We are greatly encouraged by the growth in ridership so far this year and we are happy to be welcoming returning riders and new ones ...” to Metra.
The changes will take effect April 25.
