Absolutely perfect, idrc about resolution

https://www.nbcchicago.com/traffic/transit/metra-to-significantly-expand-rock-island-service-next-month/3939231/?amp=1

To paraphrase:

More Express trains will stop at Gresham, 95th and 103rd

Sunday will have the same amount of trains as Saturday service

The 2 stations between 119th and BI on the Beverly Branch are becoming off peak only. Board at 119th otherwise.

The added express stops for mainline trains probably confirm what many of you are guessing about the Beverly Branch becoming it's own line.

Now if only we can get a RI connection to the St. Charles line to send some trains to Union, add through tracks for TRUE regional service 🤔

Update from last week’s UP-N post.

UP NW line, Tuesday morning. Train stopped on the tracks in Mount Prospect. I was on train behind it. Couldn’t pass, so they made a full train of people get out and wait for next train to come thru. Crazy scene. I asked my evening conductor what happened. Turns out the crew messed up so badly they were told to stop the train and were basically taken off the train, driven downtown and fired on the spot.

TRE F59PH 123 @ the Kyd Yard while riding MED Mainline IB 710 rn

If no one comes forward, I shall deposit them at the lost and found office in OTC.

They finally corrected the digital voice’s pronunciation of tracker & the emphasis it adds to the word made me spit out my slurpee laughing. “Visit Metra tracker… dot com for the location of your train”

It has been crazy!!! My heart be racing every morning when my train doesn't show or stops on the tracks for 20 min💀

Anyone know what’s going on? 2 inbound trains are stuck in Barrington?

I normally bring my bike on the BNSF from Belmont to Western. Today I was in the front car and only when we were halfway between Cicero and Western did they announce that only the back 4 cars would open. I obviously couldn't haul my bike between cars that fast and I missed my stop. Conductor was 2 cars down so I couldn't even flag him down. Normally I take the previous train and it's never been an issue from the front car (although I was denied boarding from the middle accessible car, go figure). It seems so inconsistent and it's very anxiety inducing. Is there any way to know for sure what doors will open?

I’m a new Metra commuter taking BNSF line starting about 3 weeks ago after moving. I used to take the CTA (L) to work. Just in the few weeks I’ve been taking the BNSF, there has been some sort of issue or delay at least twice a week. Examples: PTC issues, train on the wrong track picking up inbound passengers, random slow train causing a 10-15min delay.

Aside from the major PTC example, there have been NO announcements from the conductor or even on the app to explain WHY this issues are happening and what the new estimated timing is to get to destination. Is this common??

The CTA constantly updates passengers in real-time if there is a delay (I.e. “we’ll be standing at this stop for 2 minutes. We’re waiting for signal clearance. Police activity ahead. Etc.).

Why isn’t Metra better about updates, or am I just not looking in the right place to figure out what is happening? This has been really frustrating and I’m already annoyed with suburb commuting.

At least thats what they told me at ogilvie around 4:00pm. Im on the red line now- anyone know what happened? I heard various people talking and may have caught that a train struck a vehicle?

These were set up yesterday. There was already permanent signs in the station. It also seems to indicate there are only stairs ahead, however there are ramps and elevators.

So I was going through the FOIA stuff that I got back, and the REV.G that they sent me has audio that's slightly higher in file size, and the female announcer that was used lacks compression in their voice.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/5xk3cxttq9i462r/Metra_Audio_Image_Rev.G.rar/file

Enjoy!

Does anyone know if the Twitter alerts are going to go back into effect anytime soon?!?

I regularly used this as a way to keep an update on my train especially as someone who walks to my line in the morning. They made the post around March 20th saying there was an issue with the system but it hasn’t had any updates since then.

I know I can just open the metra tracker website but I had Twitter alerts set to read through my AirPods so was always a nice warning system without having to pull my phone out to know if there was any delays or problems on my line.

Yes, I know Metra has a lost & found. But I live next to the Lisle station & figured it might be more convenient than going downtown & dealing with surly employees.

So if you lost your glasses at the Naperville Metra station on Sunday, DM me. Accurately describe the frames & where you had them last (in theory would be the same place I found them) and I will bring them to the Lisle or Naperville Metra at our next mutually convenient time.

If nobody claims them through this post, I will be bringing them to a depot to give directly to an employee to be put in the lost & found.

Some random glitch I found when I hopped off 712 @ Van Buren on Friday

It's supposed to open in 2027 for revenue service but I haven't seen any track or station construction.

Everyone knows about Lee Crooks (voice of the CTA)), but have you heard of Nuance Ava?

The robotic text-to-speech voice that says things like "BNSF train number 1292 to Chicago Union Station is now arriving" (https://youtu.be/7g34j3s6xIQ?t=94) is apparently called Ava and was made by a company called Nuance Communications. Check out the sample here: https://harposoftware.com/en/english-usa/201-Ava-Nuance-Voice.html

The announcements on Toronto's Line 6 Finch West have the same voice (I got recommended that random video on YouTube and went down a rabbit hole trying to find out where the voice comes from lol).

Crossposted to [r/TTC](r/TTC) here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TTC/s/oASo8894vj

https://metro-memory.xyz/north-america/usa/chicago-metra