Metra to STB: Ensure Passenger Service on UP Lines ‘Continues Uninterrupted’
Approximately 38% of Metra’s annual ridership (12 million out of a total 32 million passengers) is associated with the three lines owned, used and dispatched by UP: UP North (to Waukegan, with limited service to Kenosha, Wis.), Northwest (to Harvard and McHenry), and West (to Elburn). Those lines (see map, below) were once operated by the Chicago & North Western Railway. Metra has eight other lines; one of which, the historic Chicago, Burlington & Quincy line to Aurora, runs on right-of-way owned by BNSF, which still operates it under contract with Metra.
Metra and UP have for several years been negotiating the transfer of commuter rail services on the three UP lines. UP has historically provided service for Metra under a PSA (Purchase of Service Agreement), which has been extended several times while the railroads negotiate a new agreement.
To that end, UP has been transferring and Metra has been hiring former UP personnel for customer service, equipment maintenance, and train crews and service, a process that Metra reported in its STB application (download below) “should be completed by the end of April 2025,” with “[s]elect engineering/maintenance of way positions” targeted to transfer later in 2025. UP would continue to maintain the tracks and manage train movements on all three of its lines.
Financial negotiations, however, have been “ongoing, including compensation for Metra’s use of Union Pacific’s tracks and infrastructure,” UP reported last month. “In August 2024, Metra and Union Pacific agreed to mediate the compensation matter before the Surface Transportation Board. The mediation, which had been extended several times, ended Jan. 31, 2025, without an agreement. Union Pacific extended an offer to Metra to use binding arbitration to resolve the issue.”
According to Metra’s new STB filing, effective July 1, 2025, UP could terminate its use of the three lines. “To ensure that its passenger service on the UP Lines continues uninterrupted, Metra is submitting this Application under 49 U.S.C. § 11102 to the Surface Transportation Board … to require UP to allow Metra to use these terminal facilities and, if necessary, establish conditions and compensation for that use,” Metra wrote. “Metra requests that the Board proceed expeditiously so that Metra can continue providing a vital service without interruption.”
Metra explained that “[d]espite their efforts, including the mediation that the Board ordered in FD 36800, Application of Union Pac. R.R. Co. for Mediation Under 49 U.S.C. § 28502 (STB served Aug. 14, 2024, Oct. 15, 2024, Nov. 12, 2024, and Dec. 12, 2024), Metra and UP have been unable to negotiate a successor trackage rights agreement to allow Metra to operate over the UP Lines. Metra and UP have agreed to a series of short PSA extensions, but there is no assurance that those extensions can or will continue. The most recent PSA extension ends June 30, 2025.”
Metra reported that its “strong preference has been, and remains, to reach a negotiated solution with UP.” However, it said, UP “should not be allowed to dictate terms for the future relationship that produce a windfall for UP for Metra to use the UP Lines at Metra stakeholders’ expense. Metra’s priorities remain to maintain safe, reliable, and high-quality service for its passengers, while being a good steward of taxpayer dollars.”
According to Metra, its STB application “is an appropriate vehicle for assuring continuity of service without disruption.” The circumstances, the regional/commuter rail operator said, “provide compelling justification for the Board to grant terminal trackage rights relief under 49 U.S.C. § 11102(a)”:
- “First, Metra meets the eligibility criteria as a rail carrier under the Board’s jurisdiction for granting terminal trackage rights.”
- “Second, the UP Lines over which Metra operates constitute terminal facilities, including mainline tracks for a reasonable distance outside of a terminal.”
- “Third, Metra’s use of the facilities is practicable and manifestly in the public interest.”
- “Fourth, Metra’s use of UP’s facilities will not impair UP’s ability to handle its own business.”
UP on March 10 told Railway Age that it is “aware of the filing and will review.”
The next move: STB’s.
