[ardecila]

Metra held a depressing conference about electrification a few years ago as they were evaluating what to do with ME, and basically dismissed the idea of further electrification entirely while acknowledging it made sense to keep it on ME. This is a huge change to see that some of Metra’s leadership is open to the idea of further electrification, as well as a frequent service to O’Hare that starts to resemble CrossRail in some ways - a good backup plan if/when Musk’s tunnel fails. Electrifying the rest of the lines will be a huge uphill battle with freight railroads, even the Milwaukee District is heavily used by CP. It makes sense to start with the low-hanging fruit of RI and build expertise, especially if the new system will be 25kV AC instead of the DC system on Metra Electric.


They’re not wrong when they point out that fleet replacement is the most pressing capital need, along with bridge work. But it’s good to see they are finally acknowledging they can’t just go to the taxpayer year after year crying poverty while they continue to operate 1950s style rail service. They’ve gotta get more relevant to more people, because right now not enough people are convinced.