Metra

Chicago taps Cubic for regional transit mobile app

Chicago area transit agencies Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, and suburban bus operator Pace have awarded Cubic Transportation Systems a contract to supply an integrated, smart phone-based system supporting a variety of mobile ticketing, mobile top up, and contactless mobile payment applications using Near Field Communication (NFC), account management, and advanced trip planning technologies that incorporate all three regional agencies.

Metra flirts with fixed seating

Throughout its three decades of existence, Chicagoland’s Metra regional rail service has resisted the widespread adaptation of “fixed-seat” consists by other North American transit agencies, arguing that its customers prefer the choice of facing forward (or backward) on rides and, as well, that such choice poses little danger to riders obeying railroad safety rules.

Metra revamps bicycle policy

Chicagoland’s Metra announced Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014 that it is revising its “Bikes on Trains” policy to replace bans during exceptionally busy periods with “warning dates,” in which bicycles will be allowed but owners will be cautioned that crowded conditions could prevent Metra from accommodating an initial or return trip.

BLET ratifies Metra contract

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement with Chicagoland’s Metra, affecting approximately 200 locomotive engineers, who operate trains in more than 100 communities at 241 stations in the Greater Chicago area.