Is Metra Falling Apart?

Disclaimer: I have been thinking about this before the incident with the director apparently commiting suicide.

This year there seem to have been a major series of train delays and cancellations due to "mechanical problems". Also, I have been on coaches where the HVAC failed, all electrical power failed, etc.

Are years of age or deferred/minimal maintainance catching up with Metra? It would seem so.

Metra's still a pretty solid system and hasn't gotten worse. The whole deal with the late Mr. Pagano will likely amount to some changes in management but operations are unlikely to go down the tubes as a result. In my opinion, there are a few things which make things seem worse than they actually are:

- Public transit is in the news more than it was ten or fifteen years ago, for a variety of reasons. This means that more little snafus (locomotive failure, switch problems, etc) are going to make it into the press and thus it will seem like more of them happen.

- Ridership is higher than a decade ago. In cases where trains are late by 10-15 minutes, much of this can be attributed to slow passenger boarding because so many more people are riding.

- Infrastructure upgrades can cause delays and make things seem like the show's not being run real well. For example, there were several morning rush hours this winter where switches froze at Gresham interlocking (on the RI), causing 30-45 minute delays. This happened after heaters were disconnected while the whole interlocking was being renewed and improved. Although there were delays then, the end result is a vastly improved junction. Expect this type of situation to occur when the UP-N/NW bridge replacement goes into effect; putting up with more delays now so the next 75 years are problem free.

Hello Byte

While not indicated in my profile, I commute daily on Metra, so I regularly check the delays. It seems that every week we have multiple failures due to "Mechanical Problems" which usually means the locomotive failed to operate -- although of course there are brake line failures, etc. Please note that I specifically exclude anything related to the Right-of-way, freight interference, "pedestrian incidents", "police activity", and the like as these have virtually no effect on the reliability of the equipment.

Typical case in point: A fellow worker got on the BNSF at Route 53. His train wouldn't/couldn't move. They waited for the next train which coupled onto the first train, and a 20+ unit train took folks downtown. [railfan note: I sure would have liked to have gotten a photo of that.]

Another case: One of this group's favorite units apparently blew a generator, stopping everything on the (Mil. west?) line for a while.

Another case: A locomotive had mechanical difficulties on UP North, apparently before Winnetka. Outbound, and return inbound trains were cancelled, and these were in the rush hour.

Now, I am fully aware that these are all individual cases, but it is not winter which is really hard on equipment and crews. And, it just seems to me that all the old locomotives are starting to wear out, perhaps a lot faster than Metra expected.

Despite the rash of locomotive failures (which can hit one or two lines particularly hard at times), I don't think the system is falling apart per se; but signs of a gradual unraveling in certain areas is becoming evident. I think the planned infrastructure upgrades for BNSF, UP/W, UP/N, and MD/N over the next 12-18 months will address some of these issues, and the improvements will eventually speed up service. But to get there, the short-term pain of construction related delays will have to be endured, which will do little to alter this perception among those who don't ride the system often enough to know (or care) about what's really going on...

The 611 failure you note is an outlier - it's the oldest unit on the system and was actively neglected for a few years, between MP36 deliveries and F40 rebuild program. That was a "when", not "if", something would happen.

Otherwise, I would assume equipment utilization is up due to higher ridership, meaning time between service is up, too. This can mean more failures.

And as an update, 611 was on a shakedown run yesterday, back in service. Not "falling apart" from my perspective.