All Activity

Every active unit in this series is active and has been rehabbed. 4341 and 4318 sit along the south fence and their rehab status is unknown. i don’t think they’ll be overhauling 4307 due to its bad shape has anyone seen 4375?

614 went to the Illinois Railway Museum last Sunday (February 23rd).

#8926 is at SS.

Evanston RoundTable article that while employees are to be turned over, there is still a dispute for how much Metra has to pay to lease the tracks and stations.

#8909 and #8918 are at SS.

#8854 has also entered service out of NP this morning and ended up on a SS run.

#8844 is currently in service out of North Park.

#8908 and 8934 have arrived at SS.

Surprisingly #8854 is currently in service out of North Park but was only short lived on the 148 this morning.

4020 is back in service at north park

The biggest change for those with discerning eyes is that UP has transferred the switching locomotives that long have moved the sets between california yard and ogilvie to metra and are patched to metx reporting marks

As of right now nothing new has popped up at FG. 1653 and 1636 are sitting outside the garage facing elston as of right now.

Looks like it is coming close. Feb. 2025 agenda item "for the transfer of UP transportation employees and functions to Metra. ... Metra will assume the responsibility of operating UP lines, as well as direct oversight of the employees operating commuter trains and various support functions. UP will remain responsible for dispatching all trains on its mainline territory and for local tower operations." The new agreement is to be effective April 16, 2025.

You're answer is right here chief.

Is 3 still in the works to receive a handful of electric Novas or has that been scrapped

1517 has returned to service on the 63 after being out for 2 years.

Progress. Slow, but progress nonetheless.

Rode 7172 today. 7171 was lead car.

These recent artic moves indicate that 103rd's artics are dropping out a bit sooner than anticipated, and that Kedzie doesn't need all that many artics to cover the few routes that use them. And Kedzie's east-west routes that are currently all or mostly artic on weekends can make do with only 40-footers most of the time.

I agree that the 3200s will be around for s while longer. I think CTA Will exercise one option with CRRC so those cars can move to the Green Line and those Green Line 5000 series cars can be used for RLE. The 9000s can be used to retire the 3200s which i think would be back to the Brown and Orange Lines before being retired. Those 3200s will be at least 40 yrs years old by then, which is consistent with the amount of time other series have been in service before being retired.

CRRC has the chance to finish the 400, and maybe the chance for either an otion order or to bid on this, but if this is the signal that the options are not being exercised on the CRRC contract, it looks like this doesn't get expansion cars in time for RLE, unless CTA plans to run 2600s/3200s on the Blue Line a lot longer than thought.

Train numbers: Probability of conflict with the railroad that's operating it, especially UP and BNSF. Express trains: Probably works better on UPNW than UPN, as the express trains use the central track and bypass a zone of stations. MDN trains used to, but have a more skip*stop pattern after the Lake-Cook and North Glenview stations were added. Downtown stations have electronic schedule boards with this information. Outlying stations have announcements and scrolling signs, at least with the next train expected arrival time and destination.

Yeah I noticed the train numbers can be kinda wild but reorganizing numbers might cause overlap at terminals which they might be avoiding. I don't know how big the signs are in person but to someone who would hypothetically know what line/train they need but don't know the platform in a pinch for time could just take a peep at the train instead of having to stop and read the screens. The tricky part in this case is unlike cta where you'd at most have to put in signs for short turns but otherwise trains all stop at every stop in between metra on top of turning trains early in the line also has to convey that AND varying service patterns lol

It might be better for train numbers to be reorganized for the other lines to match an express zone/service pattern, similar to the MED and then just use the train number. Looking at the UPNW for example, they just count up from 603, but "local to Des Plaines", "express to Des Plaines", "express to Palatine" and "local full stop" should all probably be grouped differently. But, to your example, I can see the benefit of "641 express to Palatine" or "643 express to Des Plaines", I just think it might also be too much information to read quickly.

4070 and 4090 K > 3