Metra Drafts an All-Day Railroad: The Systemwide Network Plan Would Rewrite 11 Lines Around the Clock, Not Just Rush Hour
The draft plan would keep the downtown rush-hour railroad Chicago knows, and add predictable clock-face trains through the middle of the day, the evenings and the weekends — and Metra wants riders' comments by a November 16 virtual meeting.
Metra has released a draft Systemwide Network Plan that would shift the region's commuter railroad away from its peak-oriented roots toward consistent all-day, two-way regional service across its 11 lines — roughly 500 route miles and 242 stations across northeastern Illinois.
Under the proposed framework, Metra would preserve downtown Chicago's morning and evening rush-hour capacity while introducing clock-face frequency patterns through off-peak weekday hours and weekends, giving riders regular, predictable trains all day rather than a timetable built mainly around the traditional commute. The study responds to post-pandemic ridership shifts and aligns Metra with mandates under Illinois' newly enacted Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act; the finalized plan will be submitted to the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, known as NITA, which replaces the Regional Transportation Authority over fare policy, capital allocation and unified regional operations.
What the draft does not yet contain is money or dates: total capital investment figures and infrastructure estimates were not disclosed, and no full implementation schedule has been released. Making the frequencies work would also require renegotiating dispatching and capacity agreements on corridors owned by freight railroads such as BNSF and Union Pacific, whose tracks Metra trains share on several lines.
Riders get their say before any of it is final. Metra is taking feedback through an online portal, and a virtual public consultation meeting is scheduled for November 16. Similar shifts toward clock-face regional rail are under way in Boston, where MBTA Commuter Rail has moved to consistent 30-to-60-minute headways, and in Toronto, where Metrolinx has committed billions to all-day two-way service.
