They're also considering numbering them by direction, so the Northwest Line would become N4 and the Southwest Line would be S2.

I think they're solving a problem that doesn't really exist: the issue, to me, has always been that lines named for railroads tell you nothing or confuse you: "Union Pacific North" doesn't run out of Union Station, and "Milwaukee District North" doesn't go to Milwaukee. The Union Pacific North, however, goes to Kenosha, which gets you closer to Milwaukee than Fox Lake. The Rock Island District goes to Beverly and Joliet, but certainly not Rock Island. No one knows what "Heritage Corridor" means.

So there's a simpler solution than either one they're suggesting here, which is to just tweak the directional names they have now. I'm never going to say "I live off the N4."

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They should give each line its own indivdual pronoun

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I always thought they should just name them where they terminate.

Doing so may spur tourism to exotic places like “Big Timber,” which sounds much more interesting than “we’re dumping you on the west side of Elgin.”

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But that gets tricky because most of the time the "Harvard Line" doesn't make it to Harvard. Crystal Lake or Barrington, generally.

A related problem is how many stations, particularly in the city, have confusing or irrelevant names. There's a station on Jeffery called "Bryn Mawr." "Clybourn" is on Armitage and Ashland. I don't know what a "Healy" is. Change those.

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And how much would this silly name change cost?

Does it help restore Metra's lost ridership? Get us closer to a championship? Or even help with Illini recruiting?

Otherwise it's nothing more than a solution looking for a problem. PASS.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

go with old school nfl redistricting and call UPW the AFC Central.

NHL divisions...the one that runs through the West side can be the Norris

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I've only taken one train line in 50 years so the naming has never been an issue, can see why it would be though.

Seeing Bryn Mawr near 71st and Jeffery is always confusing.

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Name a line the Sears tower. Another the Docks at Millennium Park.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I like this....Possible line names:
Sears Tower
Meigs Field
Comiskey Park
Chicago Stadium
John Hancock Building

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Name them after serial killers. Ed Kemper for the most prestigious line.

Name them for great Bears’ QBs.

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UP-West Line will now be referred to Austin Rooftop Blowjobs

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Hinsdale Oasis Line.

I guess the Union Pacific is finally going to stop running the Ogilvie lines, so they need to take "UP" out of those names anyway and figured now's the time for an overhaul. I just don't see how changing the names to numbers helps anyone.

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Let's keep them totally incomprehensible to an out of towner, just like an AM radio traffic report.

"You are now leaving the Damn Ryan and entering the Rosemary Kennedy."

After seeing this thread I completed the Metra survey. The other option they present is also IMV quite strange.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

That's even more confusing, made worse by the map where the, ahem, "N4" apparently starts jogging straight east to west from I guess Norwood Park to Barrington or something. News to me.

Honestly, the reality of Metra commuting for the majority of riders is just that you get on and off at the same place every time. It's a steep learning curve for like a day and then you pretty much have it down--I remember the first time I took the North instead of the Northwest in like 2010, I walked off the train the wrong way and went up the stairs to Madison Street and was very confused. From a 10,000-foot view, it's unhelpful that the line for southern DuPage is the "BNSF Railway," but it doesn't seem to bother the people who have been getting on and off at Hinsdale for 30 years.

I would like them to stop bothering with stuff like the Milwaukee Road or Rock Island branding that only serves the most grizzled of railfans, but I realize it's not a priority, and that drastically rethinking the whole system is liable to make it worse.

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I just don’t really know what the point of Metra at all is anymore.Bringing people from the suburbs where they hate the city to a dying/dead downtown that will look Memphis’ CBD within ten years? Don’t get me wrong, I love the train, but this is the definition of lipstick on a pig.

What was once an indispensable public utility is now not much more than a monument/jobs program. This grand rebrand really just exposes how sensitive RTA is to this harsh truth.

i love the W line. lombard, elmhurst, geneva, wheaton, are all great downtown areas to hop on and off.

The city will bounce back. We won't become Memphis.

I think they're trying to reorient a little and put a little more emphasis on weekend trips into the city, but that's tough when you can't run the train more than once every two hours on Sunday, or for the Southwest and North Central, not at all. I take the train into the city about once a week and generally see decent ridership, but I don't think I'd see more people if the lines had numbers instead of names.

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I feel similarly about the NW line. Norwood Park, Edison Park, Park Ridge, Des Plaines, even Mt. Prospect and Palatine are all jaunts we often take from Arlington.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Hey, is Tony's Subs in Edison Park any good? Thinking of hopping off and back on to try one.

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The ridership on the BNSF is also strong. Anyone who thinks Metra is some lightly used death train does not ride it with any regularity.

It’s not anywhere near what it used to be and fellas the trend is bad. It’s not about where Chicago is today, its about where Chicago is going.

I’m pretty sure Metra was still relying on Covid money as of its last financials.

Might not be a sustainable model.

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The Hancock building isn't the Hancock building anymore?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014