Run the rail lines on heating oil.

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Oh, there's no doubt they're poorly managed. The fact that they not only can't but actively won't work together with the CTA is stultifying. The whole thing needs to be reorganized.

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Back in the Chicago & Northwestern days I recall their conductors wore crisp uniforms and were professional and efficient, and the trains were always on time.

Nowadays the trains are often late ('heavy loads' or 'track construction' are the excuses) and the conductors, when you do see them, often look like they either slept in their uniforms or just got off from their bouncer jobs.

They probably need to raise the fares so they can keep up with the payments on Alex Clifford's $750,000 severance.

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

dude you're OLD!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Although officials say a fare increase hasn't been proposed yet, Metra is being squeezed by $49 million in higher costs next year as well as by $9.7 billion worth of unmet capital needs for equipment, infrastructure and maintenance, according to agency financial data. I would say that's the reason for the fare increase more than anything. They don't have any cash to fix ,maintain, or buy new equipment, hence the old shit keeps breaking and costs more to fix each time. No money to fix tracks, install new switches, etc. Shit breaks when it gets old, hence more delays . Kind of goes hand in hand. Oh, and the BNSF and UP are freight railroads first and foremost. They could give 2 shits about delaying commuter trains when they have a 2 million dollar oil train that needs to move, thats what is going to get priority every time. Freight pays the bills on those 2 railroads, passenger trains are a break even low priority nuisance to them. Of course they will never come and say that but trust me, thats what their dispatchers are instructed to do. Move freight first. Enjoy your commute.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

crudely 300,000 rides/day, 2mil/week, 100mil/year. to raise $10billion in a year, you'd have to have a $100 surcharge on each and every ride. OK, let's spread it out over 10 years and make it $10 surcharge on each and every ride.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I believe CN owns the North Central as well, which is why they can't even run a single train out of Antioch on the weekends. That's particularly unfortunate because the real way to have done an O'Hare express would have been to run express trains on that line from O'Hare to Union Station, not that cockamamie Block 37 thing. People who want the luxury of going from O'Hare to the Loop would want to do it on a full-sized commuter car to stretch out and put their luggage somewhere.

There's so much unrealized potential to our rail system. It annoys me how half-assed everything is. New York and Boston don't have these problems.

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The marketing campaign Metra put out for the last increase two years ago really irritated me. Not only did they compare our ticket prices to other systems like New York City (hello, their cost of living is much higher all around), but also argued that riders could absorb the big increase because they could deduct a portion of the fares from their taxes. Fuck that...

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Many Tri-State commuters are also riding more miles than we are. The Metro-North and LIRR lines go about 90 miles out; one branch of the LIRR goes all the way to the tip of the island. Our only line that long is the South Shore. Most of our lines only go 30 to 50 miles out, and just for an example, there's no one aboard the line to Fox Lake north of Libertyville (except the one dickhead who has to get off at Ingleside so that you can't skip it).

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No, there's ridership up to Round Lake.

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

Yes but they're also don't do that well in cold/"extreme" weather. Metra's a lot more resilient.

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry