Metra warns of shutdown if brake-warning deadline not extended

Chronicle Media
Metra commuter station in Geneva, Ill.

Metra commuter station in Geneva, Ill.

The Metra commuter rail board last week said it was prepared to shut the system down in January if the federal government moves ahead with a mandate to install a brake-warning system by year’s end.

Meeting last week at the Kane County Government Center in Geneva, the board said that the unfunded mandate had not been successfully put in place anywhere in the country and that no rail system will likely reach a late December deadline

Congress mandated the Positive Train Control initiative in 2012 in the wake of a 2008 Metrolink accident in which 25 people died.

Metra Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman and other Metra officials last week the problem with that mandate is that the law was passed without understand the technology or how cost and time consuming the implementation would be.

“The point is that this can be done,” board member John Plante said.

Metra is asking Congress to extend the deadline until mid-2019. That would allow enough time for the system to be installed by the end of 2018, and appropriate testing could be completed in early 2019.

Metra already has committed $135 million to the project and anticipates that the cost will climb to more than $350 million. The cost of implementation nationwide is estimated at more than $7 billion.

Officials said the Jan. 31, 2016, deadline was arbitrary and that fines against Metra could be as high as $17 million a day if the deadline is not met. Under those circumstances, Metra “would have no choice” but to stop services entirely, Oberman said.

Newly-appointed board member Ken Koehler of McHenry County said seeing the resolution in his agenda packet was an eye-opener.

“What would happen to the city and suburbs would be devastating,” he said. “It’s great to see this board being proactive informing the public. I would hate to be sitting with my family at the Thanksgiving table and find out the trains might not be running by New Year’s.”

In other action, the Metra board expanded its pilot program to allow small pets in carriers on weekend trains — welcome news for a lot of pet owners. It also reported that the new Metra app is being tested and is on target for release in the fall. The app will allow users to pay for rides and manage accounts on their smartphones.

Metra’s on-time performance met goals for the sixth straight month. Trains were on schedule 96.3 percent of the time for the month of August.

Metra’s commuter rail system serves the six-county metropolitan Chicago area, with lines also extending into southern Wisconsin and northern Indiana. Metra’s monthly board meetings rotate between locations in members of the six-county regional transportation agency.

 

 

 

 

— Metra warns of shutdown if brake-warning deadline not extended–