Riders board Elgin-bound Milwaukee District West train at Western Avenue Milwaukee District-North Central station. If the proposed Metra fare zone changes are approved, these riders will pay less for their tickets than they do now. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)

Metra is considering making several changes to how it sets ticket prices.

If approved, it would become the first major fare system overhaul in the commuter transit agency’s history.

Like most commuter train operators in United States, Metra sets fares based on distance. The farther away the station is from downtown Chicago, the more the riders have to pay. While that fundamental principle will remain the same, Metra is considering eliminating some of the farther-flung fare zones and shifting fare zone borders at and near Chicago. And, for the first time ever, it would introduce cheaper tickets for off-peak trains and an app-only day pass.

To get input from the riders, Metra ran several online surveys, and it held open houses throughout February. Agency spokesperson Michael Gillis told the Chronicle that the final recommendations will go before the Meta Board of Directors sometime within the next few months, and it is expected to make the final decision as part of the planning process for the next year’s budget.

The Chicago commuter train lines were originally built by private companies, and different companies had different fare policies. As what would eventually become known as Metra started to take over service, it established 13 fare zones that would apply for every single line in the system. The fare zones were based on a combination of distance from the train terminals in downtown Chicago and track length. It also established the same type of tickets and passes that would apply all across the board.

In the summer of 2016, Metra contracted Four Nines Technologies, a California-based consulting firm, to help study a series of possible fare changes. They put together a customer survey to get their feedback on a number of possible changes to the current fare structure. The firm and the transit agency staff then held two meetings with the Metra Board of Directors to review the results. Two of the ideas — to extend the Metra weekend pass and make reduced fare tickets for seniors and people with disabilities unusable on rush-hour trains — were eliminated in the process.

As 2018 began, Four Nines Technologies did launch another survey to get the rider feedback on the remaining ideas. And in February, the consultant and Metra held a series of open houses throughout Chicago and its suburbs to get more feedback.

Fare Zones

As part of the proposal, Metra is proposing changing the way several fare zones are mapped — and combining the further-flung fare zones into one.

First, Metra is proposing shrinking Fare Zone A so that it only includes the four downtown terminals — Ogilvie Transportation Center, Chicago Union Station, LaSalle Street Station and Millennium Station — as well as Metra Electric Line’s Van Buren and 11^th Street/Museum Campus stations, the two stations closest to the city center. The rest of the Fare Zone A stations would be moved to Fare Zone B.

Riders can use single-ride tickets (left) and 10-ride tickets (right) to make transfers, so long as they’re in the same direction. When a rider asks for a transfer, the conductor hole-punches an “I” for inbound transfer and “O” for outbound. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)

On Metra Electric Line, the affected stations would include 18^th Street station, which serves Prairie Avenue Historic District neighborhood and the Soldier Field, McCormick Place station and 27^th Street station, which serves northern edge of Bronzeville neighborhood.

On BNSF line, this includes Halsted station, which serves University of Illinois at Chicago and the surrounding University Village and Pilsen neighborhoods during weekday rush hour, as well as Western station, which serves Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods.

On the Rock Island District Line, this would only include 35^th Street/Lou Jones/Bronzeville station, which serves White Sox’s Guaranteed Rate field, Illinois Institute of Technology and the surrounding Bridgeport and Bronzeville neighborhoods. Clybourn station is located at the spot where Union Pacific North and Union Pacific Northwest line split off, serving what used to be a largely industrial Elston Corridor and West Town neighborhoods. Another Western station serves Smith Park neighborhood, and it is the only stop for both Milwaukee District lines and North Central Service lines outside Union Station. Finally, Union Pacific West Line’s Kedzie station provides weekday rush hour service in East Garfield Park neighborhood.

As Metra noted in its proposal, moving all those fare stations to Fare Zone B would reduce the prices for riders who are traveling to these stations from farther-flung neighborhoods and suburbs. Riders who are coming or heading to downtown Chicago, on the other hand, would pay more.

For example, assuming the ticket prices remain the same in each fare zone, a rider taking a Rock Island District train from Blue Island to catch a Sox game would be able to pay $11 for a round trip — $1.50 less than they would now. If they use a 10-ride ticket, they would pay $52.25 — $7.25 less than they would now. A workplace commuter heading downtown from BNSF line’s Western station would need to pay 50 cents more, though the difference becomes more dramatic if the same commuter buys a 10-ride ticket, which would go up from $38 to $40.50,

Metra’s 2014 Boarding-Alignment count — the most recently set of numbers publicly available at press time — suggests that most of the riders who use these stations would wind up paying less. All stations have the same pattern — most of the riders who use the stations get off one of the inbound trains in the morning and get onto the outbound trains in the afternoon. Still, in some cases, the numbers of riders traveling between these stations and downtown isn’t small. Clybourn Metra station saw a total of 314 riders take the train to Chicago over the course of two days, and a total of 295 riders taking the train from downtown to Clybourn during the same period. The Western Avenue Milwaukee District-North Central station saw a total of 188 riders taking the train to downtown and 179 riders getting off from the suburban-bound trains.

Metra also proposes merging fare zones J, K, L, M into a single fare zone J. As the agency explained, these fare zones have the priciest tickets in the system, and they collectively account for about 1 percent of the system’s overall ridership. The agency hopes that, by reducing the prices, it would attract more riders.

The change would affect five stations — Union Pacific Northwest Line’s Harvard, Woodstock and McHenry stations, North Central Service’s Antioch station and Union Pacific North Line’s Kenosha station.

For Kenosha, Antioch, Woodstock and McHenry riders, the price of one-way tickets to downtown Chicago would drop from $10 to $9.50, while the 10-ride ticket prices would drop from $95 to $90.25, and the monthly tickets would drop from $290 to $275.50. The same price drops would apply to Harvard, which is the only station in Fare Zone M and has the highest ticket prices in the entire system. Riders wishing to go downtown currently have to pay $11 for a one-way ticket, $104.50 for a 10-ride and $319 for a monthly.

Metra also plans to address one of the policies that has long been a point of contention for riders living within the city limits. Under the current fare-zone boundaries, some stations that serve the same streets wind up in different fare zone. For example, on Metra Electric Line, the South Chicago branch’s 83^rd Street station is in fare zone B, while the main line’s 83^rd Street/Avalon Park station is in fare zone C. While the riders at the former station pay $4.25 to get downtown, the riders at the later station pay $5.50.

Metra is proposing moving several stations one zone closer to downtown. On Metra Electric line, that would include the aforementioned 83^rd Street/Avalon Park, as well as 87^th Street/Woodruff and all Blue Island branch stations within Chicago city limits. Elsewhere in the system, that would include Southwest Service Line’s Oak Lawn and Palos Park stations, Rock Island District’s 123^rd Street station, Milwaukee District-North Line’s Forest Glen station and North Central Service’s Rosemont station.

The Metra also proposed changing the difference in prices between fare zones. While, in most cases, the prices go up by 50 cents in each fare zone as riders move further from downtown, there are a few exceptions. At Fare Zone B, the prices increase by 25 cents, while at Fare Zone C, the prices increase by $1.25, the prices at Fare Zone D and Fare Zone I increase by 75 cents.

Aside from Fare Zone I, all of those fare zones are either in Chicago or close to the city limits.

Metra is proposing gradually shifting all fares so that the difference between fare zones would be 50 cents all across the board. Assuming the fares otherwise stay the same, this would mean that, while riders in Fare Zone B would pay more, riders in fare zones D and C would pay less.

If all fare zone related recommendations are implemented, Blue Island branch riders would stand to benefit the most, since they would not only get one fare zone closer to downtown, but the ticket price for that fare zone would drop as well.

Fares

The other two Metra proposals have to do with fares.

First, it proposes creating a one-day pass. Like a monthly pass, it would allow unlimited trips within a certain set of fare zones, but it would last for one day instead of 30. It would cost the same as two tickets for the same fare zone — so a ticket between Des Plaines and downtown Chicago, for example, would cost $13.00. And, in a first for Metra, it would only be available through the Ventra app. Metra stated that it would make it easier for riders to transfer between lines and let them buy one ticket for a round trip instead of having to buy two tickets.

Union Pacific West Line’s Kedzie station would be shifted from Fare Zone A to Fare Zone B under Metra’s fare change proposal. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)

Under the current fare system, both one-way tickets and 10-ride tickets allow transfers — but only in one direction. When a rider requests a transfer, a conductor takes the ticket and hole-punches either an “I” for inbound or “O” for outbound to indicate which direction the transfer issued for. This means that, for example, riders can buy a ticket for fare zones B through E and use it to board the Rock Island District line at Tinley Park, transfer to Metra Electric line at Blue Island and take it to Hyde Park’s 55^th-56^th-57^th Street station. But if they want to board the Heritage Corridor line at Romeoville, transfer to Rock Island train at Joliet and take it to Mokena, they would need to buy a separate ticket for each line. Even though the entire trip would fall within fare zones F through H, the Heritage Corridor train is an outbound from Chicago, while the Rock Island train is an inbound.

A one-day pass would make both trips possible — and allow the riders to make either trip in both directions.

The second proposal calls for lowering fares during “off-peak” trains, which would include all trains except for inbound morning rush-hour inbound trains to Chicago and afternoon rush-hour outbound trains. The off-peak trains would be able to pay 50-75 cents less than peak riders, and riders wouldn’t be able to use off-peak one-way and 10-ride tickets on peak trains. Metra explains that it hopes that the change encourages riders to take off-peak trains, relieving overcrowding on rush-hour trains. The transit agency also noted that it would benefit reverse commuters.

As previously reported by the Chronicle, reverse commuters — riders who take Metra to work in the suburbs and Chicago neighborhoods further from the center — are a growing ridership segment. Most notably, almost as many Metra Electric commuters get off at the stations serving Hyde Park as at the stations serving downtown Chicago. 20 percent of Union Pacific North Line commuters take morning trains to Evanston and North Shore suburbs. And on Milwaukee District North Line, the suburban Lake-Cook Road station has seen the highest number of morning arrivals in the entire system outside of downtown Chicago.

Metra and the consultant will now look at how the changes would affect ridership and revenue and use to make the final recommendations to the board of directors. The board is expected to adopt the changes during the 2019 budget process, which normally takes place in the fall.

Gillis told the Chronicle that the date for the final report hasn’t been set at press time.

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