New BNSF Railway Schedule

.pdf Schedule Removed From Metra's Site

From first glance outbound rushhour train times have been changed and express trains to mid zone stations now make stops at Halsted and Congress Park. The new logo is on top of the schedule. Clyde is gone as well as the ticket agent at Harlem

Its interesting to see the minor changes made to the inbound schedule. Some trains making stops at West Hinsdale and Highlands have switched to different trains. The current 1230 will now start at Naperville and is changed to 1232. 1254 also added stops, 1256 and 1258 changed, 1370 is later. 1274 also leaves Aurora later, skipping stops until Main Street. More afternoon stops at Halsted have also been added.

It also gets me that even though Clyde has been removed... time was still added to weekend trains, pushing them back to :42.

All weekday outbound trains after 7, have also been pushed back to leaving at :40 instead of :30. The new schedule might be able to fix 1261's problem of always being right behind 1253. Not sure if it makes sense to me for adding Congress Park to LaGrange expresses.

Do the changes affect deadhead trains at all??

Thanks.

Best regards...
Matt
M.J.B. Ryan

Some random observations on the revised schedule:

1205 leaving CUS 2 minutes later is beneficial. Sometimes, this train gets delayed due to a late turn from 1204. 1204 at times falls prey to freight interference, usually near Eola. 1205 usually has a pretty decent crowd.

The old schedule does not have Westmont listed as a stop on 1221, unless there's a misprint in the current schedule.

1280 will benefit from 1241 skipping stops. 1241 has a hard time keeping schedule at times, especially from Hinsdale west.

1253 and 1261 both had their schedules pushed back 2 minutes. I don't think the change will fix 1261 being behind 1253. These two trains result in 1267 unloading its passengers on the south platforms at Naperville and 59 (I like sometimes how people refer to the train unloading its passengers on the "wrong" side of the tracks).

Outbound rush hour trains after 5:30 suffer from a late turn of equipment quite often and pushing the schedules back by a few minutes should help alleviate that problem.

I find it interesting that 1230 and 1232 traded spots, although the running times remain largely unchanged.

I like that 1370 leaves later. But by this time, there's little parking left in downtown Naperville.

As for weekend trains, I can see why time was added. BNSF has a hard time running weekend trains on time, usually heavy passenger loading is the culprit.

metraRI wrote:The current 1230 will now start at Naperville and is changed to 1232.

When I give it a second look this evening, 1230 was edited to begin at Lisle.

Hmmm, must be why they took the .pdf schedule offline... interesting.

MetraBNSF wrote:1280 will benefit from 1241 skipping stops. 1241 has a hard time keeping schedule at times, especially from Hinsdale west

Yeah, and it's strange that the only stop it now makes between DG Main and Aurora is... Lisle? I thought it would've been Naperville. Sure that's not a typo?

MetraBNSF wrote:I like sometimes how people refer to the train unloading its passengers on the "wrong" side of the tracks.

Guess they never heard of CTC. Our amusement at their reaction is a railfan thing, they wouldn't understand...

MetraBNSF wrote:Outbound rush hour trains after 5:30 suffer from a late turn of equipment quite often and pushing the schedules back by a few minutes should help alleviate that problem

In a perfect world yes, but do remember it'll be quickly shot to hell if BNSF suddenly decides to run eastbound freights at the time of day for a week or two, particularly those hotshot stack/UPS roadrailer trains during the holidays. Then the passengers waiting at CUS for those post-1730 trains can chant the dreaded mantra... "delays due to freight train interference..."

MetraBNSF wrote:As for weekend trains, I can see why time was added. BNSF has a hard time running weekend trains on time, usually heavy passenger loading is the culprit.

Aw, what's a little more padding? Got an "on-time" reputation to uphold, you know

One wonders when they'll stop using the F40 logo on the top of the schedule cover, and begin using one with an MP36 (which has been drawn up - it appeared on Metra's website, though I can't remember exactly where).

Metra put the .pdf back up for the new schedule, making one change... keeping 1232's starting point at Lisle instead of Naperville. All other things from the original are the same.

they also fixed the fare zone chart. It listed Harlem as having a ticket agent

Another interesting wrinkle in the new schedule is that Halsted will see a 50% increase in the number trains stopping there, rising to 18 from the current 12. You can bet that the recent housing/condo construction in the immediate area has much to do with that. Also, the last three outbound departures on weekends from CUS have been pushed back 10 min, leaving at :40, instead of :30, don't know what the rationale behind that is...

doepack wrote:the last three outbound departures on weekends from CUS have been pushed back 10 min, leaving at :40, instead of :30, don't know what the rationale behind that is...

Makes sense, accomodating people that choose to stay in the city later

MetraBNSF wrote:

doepack wrote:the last three outbound departures on weekends from CUS have been pushed back 10 min, leaving at :40, instead of :30, don't know what the rationale behind that is...

Makes sense, accomodating people that choose to stay in the city later

Fair enough. Maybe it's time to bring back that old 1:15am last downtown departure, as it used to be 30 years ago. I bet more people would ride that train nowadays, especially on weekends. And if that did happen, just think- on weekdays, it would be just a 2 hour gap between 1325's arrival into Aurora, and 1200's departure to CUS!

doepack wrote:In a perfect world yes, but do remember it'll be quickly shot to hell if BNSF suddenly decides to run eastbound freights at the time of day for a week or two, particularly those hotshot stack/UPS roadrailer trains during the holidays. Then the passengers waiting at CUS for those post-1730 trains can chant the dreaded mantra... "delays due to freight train interference..."

I've noticed so far this week that eastbound freight traffic has been very heavy during the height of the afternoon rush, with expresses forced to run on main 1 to at least Berwyn, if not Congress Park. I think its the Z trains that are getting priority once again.

MetraBNSF wrote:

doepack wrote:In a perfect world yes, but do remember it'll be quickly shot to hell if BNSF suddenly decides to run eastbound freights at the time of day for a week or two, particularly those hotshot stack/UPS roadrailer trains during the holidays. Then the passengers waiting at CUS for those post-1730 trains can chant the dreaded mantra... "delays due to freight train interference..."

I've noticed so far this week that eastbound freight traffic has been very heavy during the height of the afternoon rush, with expresses forced to run on main 1 to at least Berwyn, if not Congress Park. I think its the Z trains that are getting priority once again.

Do you think this just a coincidence, or does this phenomenon seem to be a quarterly occurence? I don't railfan over there often enough to be sure, but it seems like BNSF has these "quarterly" Z train rushes, since the last one occurred just before last Christmas...