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Bridge rebuilding will mean changes for Metra commuters

Friday, July 16, 2010

A major program to rebuild nearly two-dozen century-old railroad bridges on Metra's Union Pacific North line is expected to start next month and will mean schedule changes for thousands of commuters, the Chicago Tribune reports. Although the bridges are on Chicago’s North Side, the entire line will be affected because the project will force northbound and southbound trains onto a single track at work sites, officials said.

As a result, Metra is revising UP North arrivals and departures, and some trains will skip certain stops. Rush-hour commutes will be affected most, Metra said.

With nearly 10 million passenger trips a year, the UP North is Metra’s third-busiest line, after the BNSF and the Electric lines.

Metra will officially announce the first phase of the eight-year, $185-million program at its board meeting July 16. The new schedules will start about the third week of August and be available by next week. Train times will vary by about two minutes, Metra said.

"The staff has been working on preparing a phased program that will be done with the least disruption in terms of schedules," said Jim Labelle, a Metra board member who represents Lake County. "Metra riders are creatures of habit. If I’m used to getting on the 8:03 [train] and its now 8:05, that’s a big change in my lifestyle."

Metra is also building a new Ravenswood station, the most-used stop on the UP North and ninth-busiest of all stations. Currently, passengers must wait on an open platform south of Lawrence Avenue. The new station will be accessible for the disabled and will also accommodate longer trains.

Metra had planned to build the new station north of Lawrence, but community concerns prompted a review by Metra and a final decision has not been made, spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said.

At a recent open house for area residents, concerns were raised about the loss of landscaping and neighborhood gardens that line the tracks.

Metra had previously planned to keep double-track service by building new retaining walls and widening the right-of-way to accommodate a temporary track. The plan would have wiped out some gardens, but was scrapped because it would have cost an additional $80 million, Metra said.

Some money for the project is coming from federal job-stimulus funds. Metra awarded the contract to Walsh Construction, which has already been paid $67 million. The rail line estimates the project will create 358 jobs. (2094 symbols)

*Metra is a Northeast Illinois commuter rail system. The system serves Chicago and its metropolitan area through 240 stations on 11 different rail lines.

http://www.rtands.com/newsflash/bridge-rebuilding-will-mean-changes-for-metra-commuters.html

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Amtrak Today and the Future of Passenger Railroading

Today, Amtrak (officially known as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) and passenger rail, as a whole, are stronger than ever and increasingly gaining support as oil prices soar and we look for cleaner and more efficient ways to travel. Since 2000 when the Amtrak introduced high-speed Acela service (and more trains/routes in general) along its Northeast Corridor growth for the carrier has become much more prominent. Since 2002 Amtrak has broken annual ridership records.

Along with Amtrak, state passenger railroading operations are gaining support and receiving increased attention and funding, particularly as highways become increasingly congested.

When Amtrak began it used private equipment donated by the participating railroads and while it was originally setup to become financially self-supporting this was completely an illusion (passenger railroading, is, again, almost never profitable and requires some sort of subsidy to operate).

In its first year Amtrak earned $163 million with expenses of $310 million. By 1980 things were not much better as the carrier saw $454 million in revenues and $1.08 billion in expenses. Regardless of all of the problems during its early years and the claims by critics that it is a waste of taxpayer money and should be eliminated, travel by train is not only a very needed transportation artery but also continues to receive public support year after year. And, even though a statute expired in 2002 ensuring annual funding for Amtrak, public support has continued and Congress overwhelmingly continues to provide funding for the carrier.

Today ridership numbers for Amtrak have broken 25 million and as transportation issues are becoming more of a discussion in our country passenger railroading is gaining more and more support and its future looks very good.

In December 2007 a report was released that proposed giving $357 billion towards passenger rail (federally and state funded) over the next four decades. Then, in the spring of 2009 President Obama granted $8 billion for the development of high speed rail along ten different corridors ranging from 100 to 600 miles in length. While this amount of money is not enough to develop an entire high speed rail network it is a start and very encouraging sign for passenger rail in the years to come.

In closing, it is somewhat embarrassing that our country still does not have a more properly developed passenger rail network, particularly when compared to other countries around the world such as France, Germany, Japan, and England. Critics like to point to Amtrak’s long distance, intercity, services as a money-losing, fruitless operation that should be scrapped in favor of a more streamlined, corridor operation (i.e., like the Northeast Corridor). (2300 symbols)

http://www.american-rails.com/amtrak.html