Transportation Issues G8/NATO Summit

JLJ061 wrote:I wonder how many more trains will be annulled due to passengers refusing to cooperate?

Hopefully that kind of passenger can be kept of the trains or kicked of during individual screening at Hegewisch or if they make it that far, at 57th St.

The statement "any significant threat or onboard disruption will result in the train being rejected from the McCormick place red zone and reversed to its origination point with intermediate stops" wasn't in Metra's warning/instructions to passengers - although I assume it would also apply to the Metra trains. What the Secret Service considers a significant threat or enough of an onboard disruption to bar the train from the "red zone" will not be the same as a commuter who just wants to get to work.

Hopefully everyone cooperates.

justalurker66 wrote:

JLJ061 wrote:I wonder how many more trains will be annulled due to passengers refusing to cooperate?

Hopefully that kind of passenger can be kept of the trains or kicked of during individual screening at Hegewisch or if they make it that far, at 57th St.

The statement "any significant threat or onboard disruption will result in the train being rejected from the McCormick place red zone and reversed to its origination point with intermediate stops" wasn't in Metra's warning/instructions to passengers - although I assume it would also apply to the Metra trains. What the Secret Service considers a significant threat or enough of an onboard disruption to bar the train from the "red zone" will not be the same as a commuter who just wants to get to work.

Hopefully everyone cooperates.

Whatever ridership there is that day. I think most of Metra's and CSSSB's commuters are going to drive to/from work, telecommute if possible, or simply take the day off.

Everybody I know is working from home, and quite a few just plain left town. I'm across the lake painting the cabin today with friends and family, and we all took the Wolverine/BlueWater just to be safe. Turns out NS has a signal failure on my sister's train around Burns Harbor, and they had to crawl to the Porter switch. Add that to the trackwork in East Chicago area and you've got a slow ride.

NICTD emailed a clarification for Sunday and Monday to the NWI Times ...
Passengers will be checked as they board regardless of station.
All stations will change trains at Hegewisch to cars that have been swept by police bomb dogs.
Passengers will undergo individual screening as they board their Hegewisch to Chicago trains.
Police will ride along on the trip into Chicago.
On the way out of Chicago passengers will be screened before they board.

One thing I noticed ... NICTD says their security rules are in place Sunday and Monday, Metra says their security rules are in place Saturday, Sunday and Monday. That seems to be inconsistent. NICTD has banned alcohol Friday through Monday.

There was a TV shot last night of "stopped Metra Electric" trains, but the footage from the news chopper as a shiny South Shore train.

Tadman wrote:There was a TV shot last night of "stopped Metra Electric" trains, but the footage from the news chopper as a shiny South Shore train.

I noticed on the CBS Chicago website several shots of South Shore trains ... including a Bi-Level. I guess they are more photogenic than Metra's cars.

Only one major trouble on Saturday. Someone left an empty suitcase on a Metra train and the train was stopped at 53rd St while it was investigated. Based on Metra's security that suitcase should not have made it on to a train today ... I wonder if it was abandoned yesterday and no one noticed until the security sweep approaching "the red zone". It looks like delays were kept to around an hour, although an outbound South Shore train was delayed two hours overall by the incident.

Hopefully tomorrow and Monday will go smoother.

It looks like it was a good day on Metra/NICTD. I saw no alerts for either railroad and nothing was mentioned on the Chicago news site I checked.

Just a few more hours and the fences can come down and it will be all over except the court cases.

In my neck of the woods on UP/W, there were no NATO-related delays; in fact, Saturday ridership was much lower than normal, and some trains were actually a few minutes early. Picked up a little bit on Sunday morning for the crosstown classic, but it lightened up by afternoon, and pretty much stayed that way for the rest of the weekend. Looks like a lot of folks around here got the memo, and stayed off the trains.

And the fences have indeed come down as of approx. 1700CST: Just heard on my radio that UP commuter control has relayed Metra's message to all crews stating that the NATO restrictions are now over, and to resume normal operations. As the word spread to the engineers, one sarcastically replied: "You mean all the world's problems are solved now? And it didn't take 3 days? Well, yippie, ...i guess".

While I did not ride Metra yesterday (NATO Monday) as I was off on the previously mentioned day-trip to San Francisco (through security with no extra attention), from talking to a fellow rider this morning, there was no extra security or checks at Roselle or any of the other station our train (2220) stopped at and that there would have been nothing stopping you from bringing large packages, lunch, coffee, etc. However, he did see inspections of departing passengers at CUS. Wouldn't want to have the protesters sneaking potentially bad stuff OUT of the Loop, would we.
So not only, IMHO, did Metra go overboard with their draconian restrictions, it would then appear they had no method in place for enforcing them. I wonder if they thought they would get local police and/or outside security firms to do it only to find most of them had more important things to do (local police) or were already contracted elsewhere (security firms - I know the building I work in in the Loop had more security guards than usual).

lstone19 wrote:While I did not ride Metra yesterday (NATO Monday) as I was off on the previously mentioned day-trip to San Francisco (through security with no extra attention), from talking to a fellow rider this morning, there was no extra security or checks at Roselle or any of the other station our train (2220) stopped at and that there would have been nothing stopping you from bringing large packages, lunch, coffee, etc. However, he did see inspections of departing passengers at CUS. Wouldn't want to have the protesters sneaking potentially bad stuff OUT of the Loop, would we.
So not only, IMHO, did Metra go overboard with their draconian restrictions, it would then appear they had no method in place for enforcing them. I wonder if they thought they would get local police and/or outside security firms to do it only to find most of them had more important things to do (local police) or were already contracted elsewhere (security firms - I know the building I work in in the Loop had more security guards than usual).

While I noticed the same lack of security presence as I went running by the Galewood station Friday evening perhaps it was left to the conductors with security backup onboard? Or as you said the restrictions were largely un-enforcable. I'd bet on the later. Anyone see security checks at outlying stations?

I rode the BNSF out to Downers Grove on Saturday and noticed police and K9's at every station along the route.