Cars pack the parking lot at the Metra stop at University Park to travel north for work and other activities. The potential for a reduction of service approaching half of what the suburban commuter rail line offers now demands the attention of the public and government policymakers.
Cars pack the parking lot at the Metra stop at University Park to travel north for work and other activities. The potential for a reduction of service approaching half of what the suburban commuter rail line offers now demands the attention of the public and government policymakers.
The headline from a discussion last week of the prospects for Metra in the coming years was certainly attention-getting: “Metra could drop 40% of trains in 2027.”
The potential for a reduction of service approaching half of what the suburban commuter rail line offers now demands the attention of the public and government policymakers, though there is at least one statistic that can take some of the sting out of Executive Director Jim Derwinski’s estimate to the Metra board of directors. According to the agency’s Strategic Plan through 2027, patronage of the service remained at about 40% of what it was in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic’s devastating influence.
Considered purely in that context, a 40% reduction in service to respond to a 40% drop in demand for service may not seem so alarming. But it’s important to realize than operating the nation’s largest commuter rail line, based on length of track, is more complicated than the simple context of those two numbers may suggest. And, recognizing ridership has increased more than 20% since the 2023 figure, it is disturbing to contemplate what will happen to the line’s service if a 40% reduction in service applies to a revitalizing operation. How, one wonders, can the present level of service be sustained, and, even more at issue in the long run, how can the agency hope to rebuild to its pre-pandemic condition and then beyond?
Make no mistake, that is an important question. Changing work habits that find more and more people working remotely rather than making daily trips into and out of the city will doubtless affect the commuter population Metra serves. But it also is just one factor in the agency’s reduced customer base.
Another, and an important one, is the volume of commuters — and not just workers, but people heading downtown for entertainment and recreation as well — who have become accustomed to the highway congestion, downtown parking costs and increased flexibility that come with driving oneself to and from the city.
That component of the equation is not lost on Metra officials, who have implemented new fee models and other actions to try to lure riders back. It should not be lost on the rest of us, either. An affordable, comfortable and efficient rail service has value for every individual rider, but it also plays an important role in reducing the amount of traffic on our highways and, in so doing, helping reduce the effects of climate change.
These are important messages to repeat and reaffirm for the commuting public. Eventually, as Metra — and for that matter, the CTA, Pace and RTA, as well — begins turning to the state and federal government for resources, they are also important messages for policymakers and the general public to keep in mind, too. A strong public transportation system is a great value for the people who use it regularly. It is also a great value to everyone else in the region.
“On average, taking transit results in 60% less carbon pollution than driving a car by yourself, and a lot of the time, it eliminates all your footprint because you’re just one more passenger on an already traveling bus or train. The more people take transit, the more efficient it gets, unlike driving, which worsens as more people do it by creating traffic,” said Lena Guerrero Reynolds of the Environmental Law & Policy Center in an address last month to the Cook County Transportation Committee.
To head off that looming $750 million fiscal cliff in 2026, Metra and the other Chicago-area public transportation agencies will continue “really looking at the leading indicators,” as Derwinski said, and lobbying for resources they need and efficiencies they can take, including possibly merging the three agencies into a single super-hub. Clearly, steps must be taken to shore up their business models.
But it’s important to remember that the impact of their budget-balancing act will be important to all of us, not just in terms of dollars spent but also in terms of everyone’s quality of life.
