Metra Extra/Modified Schedules

As most of us know, St. Patrick's Day is nearing... which means two parades will be happening, South Side Irish Parade and the Downtown St. Patrick's Day Parade. Last year Metra added an additional inbound and outbound train to RI, the first time Metra added service for the event. From my ride on a Jammed 8 car inbound(Which was full after Oak Forest, bypassing Midlothian and Robbins), it appeared to be a success. I'm surprised nothing has been announced for additional service this coming Sunday. And if I'm not mistaken, Metra usually adds service on BNSF for the downtown parade... nothing has been posted for that one either. Wonder what the plan is for the next two weekends.

Here's the answer for the south side irish parade...i'm sure extra service for the downtown parade will be posted sometime this upcoming week:

http://metrarail.com/Service_Advisories ... _2008.html

Metra wrote:The Rock Island will supplement scheduled service with additional trains to and from the Beverly area.

After the parade, there will be extra inbound trains running shortly ahead of trains #218 (arrives LaSalle Street at #3:45) and #222 (arrives LaSalle Street at 5:45), and extra outbound trains running ahead of trains #215 (arrives Joliet at 3:51), #219 (arrives Joliet at 5:53) and #223 (arrives Joliet at 8:03).

In addition, regular Sunday service is available. Click here to see that schedule.

To promote a pleasant experience for all, Metra will ban alcoholic beverages and glass containers on all trains on Sunday, March 9th.

This is an interesting move.. There were two listings of the extra outbound trains on the listing board at LaSalle tonight, one leaving at 10:20A and the other at 12:15P.. both ending their run at 115th Street. But I'm glad to see Metra is adding additional service instead of cutting back and that the Weekend Pass is still being used.

2 extra express trains serving all stations between Aurora and Downers Grove on BNSF for Saturday's St. Pat's parade downtown...one leaving Aurora at 10:10am ahead of #1310 and the other leaving at 3:25pm ahead of #1313. I wouldn't be surprised if an 11 car set is used for the extra train, especially the inbound run.

Schedule adjustments for UP-North and UP-Northwest lines effective March 24th...
All very minor changes... Some UP North trains have been padded with more time, most notable was with #315 which adds 6 minutes to the current trip. Over on UP-NW, accessibility to stations has been updated, the trip on #632 has actually been shortened by 4 minutes... not the usual for Metra to make trips shorter, and #650 no longer runs center track.

Nice to see they've finally padded 359's departure, moving it up by a few minutes. With crowds both getting off (since it's usually turned from 352) and waiting on the platform to board, 359 would almost never leave at 1835 anyway; the crew would need 10 minutes at OTC just to sort the crowds out...

New UP-N, MD-N, MD-W schedules are posted online... all the new weekend trains added are express trains of some sort... bold move, first Sunday express service to be added to a Metra schedule in a while. MD-N now has more Sunday service than BNSF. I wonder how long this schedule will remain in effect. When Metra revised the old UP-NW schedules a few years back, I remember express service being cut to provide hourly locals.

A surprise move by Metra has a new SWS schedule coming out May 19th as well. Only one time change, #833 will leave at 6:58p instead of 7:00p.... No other changes besides 143rd being fully accessible. The least they could have done was shorten the time out to 179th, by now they should know a train without freight interference can run 3-4 minutes early.

And speaking of the new UP/N schedule, minor weekday changes include a tweak to the departure times of 352 & 359; both trains have been moved ahead 5 min. However, I've never understood why the weekend Ravinia trains aren't made permanent, nor why 813 has to leave at 1745. If the Saturday Ravinia train was added permanently, and turned into a Waukegan local, you could then move 813's departure ahead 50 min. to 1835, which would keep the hourly headways going into the early evening. Besides, most folks heading to Ravinia on Saturdays would likely want to get the new express (811) leaving OTC at 1710; it's scheduled to make the stop there anyway. Maybe there's crew or equipment considerations at work here, I don't know; or simply a desire to remain predictable even with small changes on the surface.

I can certainly see new Sunday MD/N express 2619 being popular with Cub fans returning from the game; but what I can't figure out is why a new schedule was printed for MD/W, when nothing new was added; unless there was some tweakage to some rush hour trains. Still, it remains to be seen whether or not Metra's first real attempt at Sunday express service is merely a temporary, knee-jerk reaction to overcrowding, or something that could actually work long-term; it's hard to say. The real test for these trains will come later in the year, after the summertime crowds have died down...

MetraRI wrote:MD-N now has more Sunday service than BNSF

Amazing, yes. But I'd wager BNSF still does more business with fewer trains...

doepack wrote:I can't figure out is why a new schedule was printed for MD/W, when nothing new was added; unless there was some tweakage to some rush hour trains.

On MD-W 2239 was tweaked and runs all the way to Big Timber instead of going into the yard at Elgin, most likely this train will turn into the 7:10 departure instead of 2243 which was pushed back a few minutes. Other than that, nothing major changed.

Yeah, I see that now, thanks. But if 2243 is indeed turning to 2250, then I don't understand why they'd add 5 minutes to 2243's schedule since it cuts into the recovery time, that's kinda strange. Might be one for the "bizarre scheduling" thread...

2239 will turn as 2250, and 2243 will turn as deadhead 7122 toElgin.

2245 now departs at 6:10. In addition to 2243 departing 5 minutes later, they also made an on-board announcement last week that it will depart from track 2 at Western Ave. This is normally an inbound track. No explanation given.

F40CFan wrote:2245 now departs at 6:10. In addition to 2243 departing 5 minutes later, they also made an on-board announcement last week that it will depart from track 2 at Western Ave. This is normally an inbound track. No explanation given.

You sure they didn't mean track 3, on the south side of the depot? I know some afternoon rush hour MD/W & NCS trains load from there...

doepack wrote:You sure they didn't mean track 3, on the south side of the depot? I know some afternoon rush hour MD/W & NCS trains load from there...

I don't know if he meant it, but he did announce Track 2. That's what caught my attention. He also meantioned the middle platform so he may have misspoke.