Modern Metra Electric featured in Crain's Forum
June 4, 2020
Coalition for a Modern Metra Electric Co-Chair Andrea Reed discusses why lower fares and better service on the Metra Electric are more important now than ever in a new article published in Crain's Forum.
Coalition for a Modern Metra Electric Co-Chair Andrea Reed discusses why lower fares and better service on the Metra Electric are more important now than ever in a new article published in Crain's Forum.
Send a message to your legislators with one click: Support lower fares and transfers on the Metra Electric!
November 5, 2019
We have the opportunity to take a major step forward in transforming the Metra Electric into a rapid transit system. The Cook County Department of Transportation has offered to fund a three year demonstration project that will cover the costs of lowering Metra Electric and Rock Island fares in the city to CTA levels, offering low cost transfers between the Metra Electric, Rock Island, CTA, and Pace, adopting the Ventra card on the Metra Electric and Rock Island, and holding harmless Metra and the CTA for any resulting loss of revenue.
Mayor Lightfoot opposes the demonstration project, saying she can’t support anything that causes CTA to lose riders. This is a short-sighted view that makes numbers on a spreadsheet more important than meaningful improvements to transit service for us and our communities.
We need the CTA to be on board with this project. To require their participation, two legislative bills have been introduced: House Bill 3834, sponsored by Marcus Evans, Jr., and Senate Bill 2277, sponsored by Bill Cunningham.
We've made it easy to send a message to your state representative and state senator. Please act now!
We have the opportunity to take a major step forward in transforming the Metra Electric into a rapid transit system. The Cook County Department of Transportation has offered to fund a three year demonstration project that will cover the costs of lowering Metra Electric and Rock Island fares in the city to CTA levels, offering low cost transfers between the Metra Electric, Rock Island, CTA, and Pace, adopting the Ventra card on the Metra Electric and Rock Island, and holding harmless Metra and the CTA for any resulting loss of revenue.
Mayor Lightfoot opposes the demonstration project, saying she can’t support anything that causes CTA to lose riders. This is a short-sighted view that makes numbers on a spreadsheet more important than meaningful improvements to transit service for us and our communities.
We need the CTA to be on board with this project. To require their participation, two legislative bills have been introduced: House Bill 3834, sponsored by Marcus Evans, Jr., and Senate Bill 2277, sponsored by Bill Cunningham.
We've made it easy to send a message to your state representative and state senator. Please act now!
Plus: Have you signed our petition yet? Please sign our petition now!
Demand a Metra Electric that works for you!
Tired of slow buses and high Metra Electric fares? Sick of living in a transit desert? Want transit justice for residents of the South Side and south suburbs?
The Coalition for a Modern Metra Electric is a group of Chicago residents and organizations that want improved service and connections on the Metra Electric. This means:
The Coalition for a Modern Metra Electric is a group of Chicago residents and organizations that want improved service and connections on the Metra Electric. This means:
- An equitable fare structure that uses the Ventra card: Match CTA fares within the City of Chicago
- Transfers and coordinated connections with CTA and Pace service
- Trains every 10 to 15 minutes
- A combination of local and express trains
- Clean, safe, bright, accessible stations
- Connect Metra Electric to Chicago Union Station and O'Hare via CrossRail Chicago
Download a printable petition (PDF) you can use to gather signatures in your community! Please contact us when you have signed petitions to submit.
Why a modern Metra Electric?
When the Metra Electric was built 100 years ago, it was designed to offer fast and frequent service. It offered frequent local trains within the city that operated like CTA trains to today, as well as express trains to the suburbs.
Today, however, trains come as infrequently as once an hour on the Main Line south of 63rd St. The South Chicago branch only has trains every two hours off-peak and on Sundays, as does the Blue Island branch during the day. It has no Sunday service at all. These infrequently-served stations are in areas that lack CTA express buses or other rapid transit service.
Meanwhile, CTA trains like the Green Line offer service at least every 10 minutes throughout the day.
In addition to the less frequent service, Metra Electric fares are higher. A ride from Hyde Park or a South Chicago branch station costs $4.25, 70% higher than a CTA train fare. A ride from Pullman (111th St.), within the City of Chicago, costs $5.50, or 220% higher than a CTA fare. Monthly passes are also more expensive than CTA passes.
Preliminary results from a study of mobility in South Cook County suggest that lowering fares on the Metra Electric (and nearby Rock Island line) to match CTA fares within the City of Chicago--and offering transfers to CTA and Pace--would increase Metra ridership by 33%.
With the right upgrades and fixes--many of which need to happen anyway as part of regular maintenance--the Metra Electric could once again offer fast and frequent service to the South Side of Chicago and south Cook County.
Learn more about the improvements that would make Metra Electric work for you!
Today, however, trains come as infrequently as once an hour on the Main Line south of 63rd St. The South Chicago branch only has trains every two hours off-peak and on Sundays, as does the Blue Island branch during the day. It has no Sunday service at all. These infrequently-served stations are in areas that lack CTA express buses or other rapid transit service.
Meanwhile, CTA trains like the Green Line offer service at least every 10 minutes throughout the day.
In addition to the less frequent service, Metra Electric fares are higher. A ride from Hyde Park or a South Chicago branch station costs $4.25, 70% higher than a CTA train fare. A ride from Pullman (111th St.), within the City of Chicago, costs $5.50, or 220% higher than a CTA fare. Monthly passes are also more expensive than CTA passes.
Preliminary results from a study of mobility in South Cook County suggest that lowering fares on the Metra Electric (and nearby Rock Island line) to match CTA fares within the City of Chicago--and offering transfers to CTA and Pace--would increase Metra ridership by 33%.
With the right upgrades and fixes--many of which need to happen anyway as part of regular maintenance--the Metra Electric could once again offer fast and frequent service to the South Side of Chicago and south Cook County.
Learn more about the improvements that would make Metra Electric work for you!
The Metra Electric serves top destinations
The Metra Electric's historic route through the South Side of Chicago and south Cook County has stations near major destinations, including:
- Millennium Park
- Museum Campus
- Soldier Field
- McCormick Place
- Burnham Lakefront (Michael Reese and marshalling yards) redevelopment site
- University of Chicago
- Museum of Science and Industry
- Obama Presidential Center
- South Shore Cultural Center and Golf Course
- Chicago State University
- Pullman National Monument
- Governors State University
- US Steel South Works redevelopment site
- Altgeld Gardens
- Ford Chicago Assembly
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- Fulton Market District
- O'Hare Airport and nearby jobs