Now Running: SWS Saturday Service

I read in the Chicago Tribune this evening that Metra wants to start running saturday trains on the SWS starting possibly as early as February 2009.

SouthWest Service Line could add Saturday transit from city to Will County by February
Saturday transit on SouthWest Service Line is in the works

By Richard Wronski | Chicago Tribune reporter
July 29, 2008

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 0220.story

Metra trains could be running Saturdays on the SouthWest Service Line by early next year, providing a long-awaited commuting option for thousands of residents in Chicago and in booming Will County, officials said Monday.

Two or three round-trip trains would operate under a proposed one-year demonstration project that U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) called a "first step" toward full weekend service.

"With the high cost of gasoline, the cries for weekend service have gotten greater," Lipinski said.

Details of the plan are to be worked out by Oct. 1 between Metra, the Regional Transportation Authority and freight railroads, officials said. The earliest that Saturday trains could be running is February.

The SouthWest line primarily serves Chicago's Southwest Side and suburbs from Oak Lawn to Will County.

The line carries about 9,000 riders each weekday, or about 2.4 million passenger trips per year.

As with other mass-transit service, the line's ridership is surging, up 7.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008 versus the same period in 2007.

SouthWest Service was expanded in January 2006 to the Will County towns of New Lenox and Manhattan. Will County added 171,000 residents since 2000, the biggest increase of any Illinois county.

Plans for the expanded service were discussed by transportation officials and local leaders at a meeting convened Monday by Lipinski at Toyota Park in Bridgeview.

The SouthWest line is one of three Metra lines that do not offer any weekend service. The others are North Central Service to Antioch and the Heritage Corridor to Joliet.

The cost of operating the new service has not been determined, but officials said operating money likely would come from a so-called innovation fund set up by RTA legislation the state legislature approved in January.

A key obstacle to more service on the SouthWest line—and the source of many delays over the years—has been the heavy volume of freight traffic on intersecting tracks.

Adding Saturday trains would require the cooperation of freight railroads, which previously moved some trains to weekends to accommodate more weekday passenger trains.

Officials agreed to work out a way to accommodate the freight schedule.

"That's the challenge," said James Dodge, a Metra board member and Orland Park trustee who attended Monday's meeting.

"We need to balance the need for more transit with the realities of freight traffic."

Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin said officials have been lobbying Metra for years to add the weekend service.

Three train stations, the third of which was completed last year, sit along the SouthWest line in the village of 60,000 residents.

The new service would boost the fortunes of the village's transit-oriented Main Street Triangle development, where more than 200 town residences and additional retail space are planned, McLaughlin said.

"It will be a great benefit for people and the region," he said.

"We have a lot of people who work downtown, and I'm sure they will appreciate it."

It's about friggin' time...

Something I would like to see... will be interesting to see when Metra plans to run trains if only 2/3 trips will be made.

I was in that meeting at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. From what was tossed around, the generally slow progress/lack of funding for the CREATE initiative is the big holdup on frequent weekend service (namely, all the planned flyovers). When/if it does happen next year, it'll be limited to 3 or 4 round trips a day due to the resulting scheduling concerns with the freight lines. That's the part that's due on October 1st - the freight railroads getting something together which shows all the holes in their schedules where passenger trains can be run across the diamonds. Allegedly, the "new start" service increases two years ago forced them to defer much of their weekday traffic (which would normally interfere with SWS operations) to the weekends. Reps from the BRC, IHB, CSX (I think), NS, IDOT and the RTA were there, along with various village officials of the communities the SWS serves. Interestingly, no one from CN was in attendance - this seems a little suprising since the diamond where the NS crosses the Elsdon Sub is a common problem area.

At one point, it was suggested to pull the necessary crews off the 20 or so Rock Island weekend runs (it was brought up that the RI has the lowest weekend ridership of any line with it), to which Pagano humorously responded that the municipalities the RI serves might have a problem with that. Interestingly, he also said that there was no reason that weekend runs wouldn't go all the way down to Manhattan, meaning it and Laraway Road might feasibly have more service on weekends than weekdays.

byte wrote:At one point, it was suggested to pull the necessary crews off the 20 or so Rock Island weekend runs (it was brought up that the RI has the lowest weekend ridership of any line with it)

It should also be noted that RI has the lowest amount of trains running on weekends, so of course ridership will be lower with fewer trains. However, RI trains are still busy and I'm sure things will only increase when a 35th Street/Sox station opens next year. I would hope taking service from RI and moving it to SWS is not the answer, tho I support weekends on SWS... I don't think a train on SWS would be busier than a train on RI.

I live near the SWS, and it is fianlly about time, some kind of weekend service is really needed in the southwest surburbs, and that pace dont have really good bus service down here compare to some parts of the northern, and western, and southern surburbs,on weekends, & when it begins I can stop driving to Midway to get the Orange Line on weekends.

If 2 to 3 train will run per saturday, so what the time frame will be. I guessing that it may be if it 3 round trips that it will be 1 morning, 1 afternoon, and one evening round trips, and when the last train of the day will run, is that TBD.

Also the SWS do get alot of delays from crossing traffic, especially the IHB/CSX at Chicago Ridge, the BRC, in Chicago, and the NS chicago line that it uses to reach Union Station.

The CN line at Ashburn not as much delays as the other 3 lines, and I am wondering is metra going to run the entire line to Manhattan, or ending at 179th St that still TBD.

byte wrote:I was in that meeting at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. From what was tossed around, the generally slow progress/lack of funding for the CREATE initiative is the big holdup on frequent weekend service (namely, all the planned flyovers). When/if it does happen next year, it'll be limited to 3 or 4 round trips a day due to the resulting scheduling concerns with the freight lines. That's the part that's due on October 1st - the freight railroads getting something together which shows all the holes in their schedules where passenger trains can be run across the diamonds. Allegedly, the "new start" service increases two years ago forced them to defer much of their weekday traffic (which would normally interfere with SWS operations) to the weekends. Reps from the BRC, IHB, CSX (I think), NS, IDOT and the RTA were there, along with various village officials of the communities the SWS serves. Interestingly, no one from CN was in attendance - this seems a little suprising since the diamond where the NS crosses the Elsdon Sub is a common problem area

Interesting indeed...

Still, I can't help but wonder if the potential delays to freights due to SWS traffic on weekends (minimal though it may be) isn't overstated a bit. If 3 to 4 round trips are planned, theoretically, 1 set could be used to cover the schedule running at three hour intervals (i.e., assuming service to/from 179th) so we certainly aren't talking Burlington levels of weekend service here. To further illustrate, allow me to cite Deval as an example. UP/NW trains crosses two freight lines at this location, one of which is CN's busy Waukesha sub, which runs a single track through here. Combined with the double-track UP Milwaukee sub (aka ex-CNW "New Line"), there are about 50 freights a day pounding the diamonds, yet there's Metra traffic twice an hour on Saturdays from early to late afternoon, traffic that coexists fairly well with freights for the most part. As a result, delays to Metra traffic are kept to a minimum because Metra gets priority. I realize there could be other factors at work with the SWS proposal, but on the surface at least, it shouldn't be that big a deal giving Metra priority at the busier cross traffic locations, especially given the minimal level of proposed service...

byte wrote:At one point, it was suggested to pull the necessary crews off the 20 or so Rock Island weekend runs (it was brought up that the RI has the lowest weekend ridership of any line with it), to which Pagano humorously responded that the municipalities the RI serves might have a problem with that

What Metra ought to do is add a few weekend mainline express trains to Joliet on the Rock, that alone would improve weekend ridership...

byte wrote:Interestingly, he also said that there was no reason that weekend runs wouldn't go all the way down to Manhattan, meaning it and Laraway Road might feasibly have more service on weekends than weekdays.

Hm. May as well maximize the reach, I guess. Either four-hour intervals, or add another set, then...

JamesT4 wrote:If 2 to 3 train will run per saturday, so what the time frame will be. I guessing that it may be if it 3 round trips that it will be 1 morning, 1 afternoon, and one evening round trips, and when the last train of the day will run, is that TBD.

Best bet is that trains will run during the busiest time of the day, which tends to be late morning for inbounds, early-mid evening for outbound on Saturdays. I can see one set making a round trip from Manhattan then back to CUS with another set from 179th making a one way trip to CUS in between during the morning, then the same set up in the evening, with a gap in the mid-afternoon.

doepack wrote:What Metra ought to do is add a few weekend mainline express trains to Joliet on the Rock, that alone would improve weekend ridership...

Agreed! That will be the day.

doepack wrote:Still, I can't help but wonder if the potential delays to freights due to SWS traffic on weekends (minimal though it may be) isn't overstated a bit.

I think this is the case too, though there are some meager, though valid points. I've been working within earshot of the Oak Lawn station all summer, and can always tell when a freight vs. commuter train goes by. The only freight run I've heard regularly on weekdays lately is the usual transfer of intermodal/RoadRailers from the IHB at Chicago Ridge to Landers (I think that's where they end up). I think they're deferring service to the Beatty Lumber in Oak Lawn as well as the chemical plant down in Manhattan to the weekends, when the locals aren't likely to get in the way. I drive by the Beatty Lumber every weekday and noticed yesterday that a lumber car sitting there all of last week had been taken away sometime over the weekend.

More or less, even if it's an indirect way of doing so (at the expense of SWS weekend service), I think they're trying to get local governments to start writing to Springfield to start earmarking some funds for CREATE - which is a very valid cause. Thus far the freight railroads' participation has been more or less apathetic aside from the Brighton Park reconstruction, but as both freight and passenger traffic grows it's going to become very necessary to finish it. At the meeting, I heard a few RTA/Metra officials asking village government administrators to support CREATE for that reason.

An interesting article:
Metra looking out for the Southland

Everyone: Good news on METRA adding weekend service on the former NS SWS line. I was a regular visitor to the SW Side-specifically 78th Street and S.Kedzie Avenue from 1973-1988 and I got to know about and use the at-first to me N&W commuter train-Landers(now Wrightwood)Station was only one block away and I watched the line slowly evolve and grow with the move of the single train to Union Station,the improvements from the RTA takeover and increased service under METRA in its earlier days as well as the best move METRA made concerning this route-purchasing the line from NS after it was abandoned S of Brisbane. I was also famaliar with the Ashburn Station-I remember the angular diamonds at that crossing and I remember the racket they made when higher speed GTW freight trains crossed them-I remember also occasionally that sound was audible clearly from the 78/Kedzie area even.

The SW Side of Chicago and the SW Suburbs were once described to me as the most rail transit deprived area of Chicagoland-since my regular visiting days improvements have been made-the CTA opening the Midway Rapid Transit line and the steady increase of weekday service on the METRA SWS top this list.

Hopefully things can be worked out concerning rail lines that cross the SWS line-as well as the trunk line that goes N towards Union Station. One problem with Union Station access was the bottleneck of the South Branch Bridge-practically everything coming from the S must cross it on those two tracks as many know. Does METRA or Amtrak control it today?

With the big exurban growth in the SW Cook and Will County areas this is welcome news-the older established areas like Oak Lawn will definitely benefit from this service in ways like increased property values and good Downtown Chicago access naming just two.

Memories and insight from MACTRAXX

Weekend service, good news?

Not for those of us who work there. It took me 18 years to find and hold a good job assingment.
Now it may be ruined by becoming a 6 day a week assingment just so we can bring 12 passengers to the city, not including the railfans that will ride these trains at first.

Hopefully the weekend work will go to the extra board like on the Rock. It should according to the way I read the agreement, But you never know.If not it looks like I'll have to go back to the Rock Island. Ewwwww! That thought makes me sick to my stomach.

bones wrote:Hopefully the weekend work will go to the extra board like on the Rock. It should according to the way I read the agreement, But you never know.If not it looks like I'll have to go back to the Rock Island. Ewwwww! That thought makes me sick to my stomach.

Is this what "bumping" means? Why wouldn't you be able to stay on SW if the crew assignments don't go to the extra board?

I could stay even if the weekend jobs DO NOT go to the extra board. But if the weekend jobs don't go to the extra board, that means jobs like my afternoon job will be working 6 days per week. Mon thru Sat. That's my problem with weekend service. I do not want to work weekends. I don't even want to work Mon thru Friday most of the time as it is.

So if the weekend work goes to the extra board, fine. If not then I my have to go to the Rock. Excuse me now while I find my vomit bag.