The intro is heavily inspired by this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pc1yarml3djPgX0.html

As a Swiss citizen, I have always been fascinated by the fact that a country is able to launch people into space just for fun and at the same time have a third-world transport network

Wow. In Tokyo a train comes about every 5 minutes, on every line. You need a line map but not a schedule. You might have to wait 15 minutes out in the boonies of metro Tokyo. There are no ticket collectors, the ticketing is automated at the station. That was 40 years ago.

I took this everyday for over a year, my dad took it everyday for like 10 years I never realized our double decker train cars were weird. I love them cause I can always have a single seat to myself on the upper level

As a suburban of Chicago, when I saw the title of the video, my first thought was " oh hell no - this guy is not about the shit on my Metra." But as the video progressed I couldn't help but realize he's right about everything on the list 😅 nonetheless some of my fondest memories growing up were taking the train to Chicago being a train lover when I was a kid

Other rail systems: Replacing their older locomotives Metra: *Tis but a scratch*

The Glorious Republic of New Jersey appreciates your praise.

I live in Japan and here we have "tourist railways" that are only famous for how irrelevant and obsolete they are. It has better schedule than Heritage Corridor.

I can't imagine the infuriating rage Alan will get into, if he even glances at the road history of my country, Nepal. It took us a decade to build 40mile of highway on a hilly terrain 😭😭

If our highways were run the way our rail system is, it would just be a string of lots for paid parking connected end to end across the country.

Another core problem with Metra is that Metra and CTA are run as completely separate agencies with separate constituents and separate goals despite the fact that the people of Chicagoland travel within the region and often need both services. As such, unlike in European cities, there is little connectivity between the commuter and local rail services. These systems are not integrated very well at all. The downtown Metra terminals don't even directly connect with the CTA rail lines downtown (except Millennium Station). This severely limits the options of Metra commuters to transfer to CTA rail for destinations not in the Loop as well as Chicago commuters going into the suburbs. There are only a few direct connections between Metra and CTA rail. This just underscores the lack of regional planning, vision, or purpose between Metra and CTA politically and functionally to the great disservice of the people of Chicago.

As a German former living in acity called karlsruhe, which is often pointed to as very innovative in Local Passenger Service, i can tell you that one lesson learned is: demand comes with frequency. You need to run your service at least any 20 Minutre, and you need to expand the dayly operating hours, than you will notice a massive increas in usage.

Metra's locomotive needs: - EMD prime mover -Easy to maintain -Will last for ever if you're stubborn enough. Clearly the answer is to repower some RS-3s. /s

As a German, I was already very upset with our own railway, but now after watching this video I think its actually amazing! Thanks a lot Edit: Wow thx for all the likes, just to explain for those who didnt know if I meant that last bit sarcastically: Yes I did.

I can't blame them for liking 2 stroke EMDs so much. Once you've worked on one, they're pretty much all the same. Parts availability is great and they're simple.

From a UK perspective, our high speed rail links from south to north (probs equivalent size to state length rail) where there is a train every 15mins running from 5am until 12:45 at night. If you miss a train you’re so likely to manage to get on a different one it’s superb

When you talked about no one taking the train because of fear of missing one, it really hit me why America’s transit is so bad. In the UK, on most routes if you miss a train it’s 10-20-30 minutes for another depending on the time and the route, e.g. my town to London can be every 5 minutes during rush hour, but on a Tuesday morning a few hours after it’s only every 20 minutes, and if the train got cancelled, then I could always take a different route and catch a different train back to one of the 3 train stations in town, and if all the trains got cancelled? I’d just catch a coach or bus, or at the worst take a cab, and if I really couldn’t travel I’d just need to stay at a travelodge or something overnight. In a world where if I miss that 6pm train I’m literally screwed, I think I would just drive everywhere, much like everyone does…

The Metra Electric line honestly has the best case for operating as rapid transit with a bit more frequent service. Unless all the other Metra lines can operate like this we're doomed to keep expanding highway lanes like on 294

To make a big correction, EMD does still exist, it was just sold by GM in the mid 2000's. 645 and 710 series diesel engines are some of the most cheap and easy to maintain in the industry, if not *the* easiest and cheapest. Parts are still made to this day and are cheap/easy to come by.

I went to Chicago for a wedding needless to say I found out how the system works. I also found out I sat in a station for two hours when I didn't have to because I was worried I was gonna miss the train back to where I was staying. They also have a star system which doesn't work out so well because there's no interconnecting things when they needs to be.

3:14 Worth noting, that actually isn't the worst commuter rail schedule in the US. It does get worse, ever since the pandemic, the Northstar commuter rail in the Twin Cities went from a schedule cut of 12 daily trains, with 5 morning+1 reverse and 5 evening+1 reverse, to just *four daily trains*. Two in the morning, two in the evening. Currently working on a video on how the Northstar can be fixed but much of what this video covers can easily be applied to it + other US Commuter rails.

EMD DOES still exist - it still does locomotive engineering in it's original location in La Grange. EMD bought by Progress Rail who is a subsidiary of Caterpillar. But the building still operated with the EMD logo. Progress Rail still makes EMD parts and locomotives. Surprises me Alan got this wrong

Another nice thing about Metra owning all the track is finally getting some maintenance. You ever sit on a 50-year old gallery car traveling over some weakly welded track near a grade crossing at 70 mph in Berwyn? Its just like Action Park!

I just spent a month in Chicago, took the Union Pacific North line into town every day and honestly it was really good, they had trains running frequently and you would buy tickets on their app and it was pretty smooth

Just to be fair, the schedules were reduced due to lower ridership because of covid. They have recently added more trains.

Incidentally I just got home in a double decker train wagon of a German IC train and the design of those gallery cars literally gave me a brain aneurysm. Are you sure this was a rational decision to safe labour costs and didn't just result from a brainstorming session of a bunch of railroad executives, after they snorted their way through a hopper wagon full of cocain?

EMD still exists. It's owned by Progress Rail which is a subsidiary of Caterpillar, Inc.

1:46 I love how one of those power utility poles in the foreground is shaped like a pantograph.

I always wondered why Metra cars had that weird cutouts on the second floor. Also great point about rider perception; that's very important. If your network is perceived to be unreliable, slow or "for the poor people only" like it is in a lot of cities, nobody's going to ride it

Hoooooold up. I agree with a lot of this, except for the EMD slander. First of all, you're acting like there's tons of locomotive manufactures in this country. There's not. For the longest time, EMD and GE were the only big players in that space. But the real reason why Metra chooses EMD is because there's way more replacement parts out there available on the secondary market. GE, in their infinite wisdom, does not allow parts to be made second hand, and requires people to go exclusively to them to get replacement parts, which you're never going to believe this, they are wildly expensive. That's why the vast majority of new/poor commuter rail services use EMD products: because it's simply the cheapest and most reliable option they have. And that is also why you will never see Metra buy the P42s from Amtrak. The cost to maintain those locomotives are astronomical compared to EMD units, even though they may look better or whatever

Fascinating. Having used Metra four times in my life (as a visitor from the UK), I was intrigued (baffled) by the Gallery cars and now I understand why they were built. Let's hope the "real" double-deck cars come into service quickly to boost ridership numbers. Perhaps a more modern fare system (tap in, tap out) might reduce the need for on-train inspectors - but will this upset the Unions? I also suffered from Metra's poor schedules which severely restricted usage. Like many US commuters services, they seem geared solely to "inbound in the morning and back in the evening" which severely limits or eliminates the possibility of off peak or contra-directional travel.

8:35 *C O M M U N I S M I N T E N S I F I E S*

God. I was working for them (EMD) in the mid 2000s. They still exist, even under progress rail. The whole old team is still there. They just stopped making passengers, usually working with others, like bombardier doing much of the engineering, but no liability.

So, by now even AFRICA gets high speed rail and the US is still stuck to figure out how to effectively operate commuter rail, make it more relevant for more commuters. At the same time, me living in a village in southern Germany: annoyed that the commuter rail serves the village only 3 times per hour / a train every 20 minutes in each direction

As a German sitting in brand new Siemens, Stadler and Alstom regional trains I‘m rather shocked about the design of US double decker cars. That is how our livestock transports look like from the outside. And the inside looks like a prison.

In Britain, the trains run every 30 mins to my closest city and they keep running till 11:30 at night. This isn’t representative for the whole country but it’s pretty decent. If I miss a train I can’t imagine having to wait 2 hours to catch the next one. Plus it’s like 3 quid for a ticket

For whatever reason your intro made me nostalgic for a time on a rainy night, driving home from my accounting job in Chicago through late night traffic, enjoying the radio. Like A LOT, the memory was unbelievably vivid and comforting. I'm 17 and the closest I've ever come to Chicago was a 1 week vacation in Montreal.

Correction regarding gallery cars: Those actually weren't from the 1960s/70s, but originally from the 1950s, built in several different series for the CB&Q, C&NW and Milwaukee Road, all in the greater Chicago area. I agree that it is good to phase them out; they have the additional problem of just having one entrance door in the middle with steep stairs so they are not accessible for wheelchairs or the elderly, and station stops take a long time boarding and alighting through that one door. European perspective: A big city commuter system of course must be electric and run at least once every half hour throughout the day. Running that many trains justifies the expense of electrification, which is a fixed cost and once it's built you can run as many trains as you like on it. Track ownership? Sure there can be mixed freight/commuter lines. That's the fine art of timetabling. But where commuter traffic is densest it's better to separate passenger from freight tracks to minimize mutual interference. The intermediate solution? They can buy all F59PHI they can get a hold of (that are replaced by Chargers elsewhere). Progress Rail (EMD's successor) specialized on freight locomotives, though there is the F125 built since 2015 for Metrolink. It uses an engine from Caterpillar (nowadays the owner of Progress Rail / EMD). Probably because those big 2-stroke engines aren't that ideal in the stop and go operation of commuter trains. On the long run Metra should look at electrification. And isn't there a chance to get federal funding for this? So it's not all up to the freight railroads that happen to own the tracks. They certainly wouldn't say no if they can get a track upgrade for free with federal money, even if it means their lines will be busier with hourly (or more) commuter trains so they have to run their freight trains in the gaps between.

I find it weird how much double deckers are used in the us and canada, especially for regional lines. If the capacity of each train is lower, you can improve the frequency, which ends up increasing overall ridership

My family has been taking Metra to commute every day since it opened. I never realized how bad it was until someone on KZfaq told me. Now I'm going to lobby the government to nationalize the south shore line. Watch out Michigan City.

Another reason why commuter rails don’t have GEs anymore is because they are slow at loading AMPS so it takes them much longer to accelerate than EMD. With stops being so close to each other on METRA, they need to accelerate quickly.

I grew up on the BNSF Aurora line (or "The Burlington" as we called it) and I remember loving going to Chicago on weekends or the Brookfield zoo just whenever. It was such a great line.

One of the major problems with US transit, not just metro is it always seems to be an after thought for cities. By the time they get around to planning anything like a light rail there is no room for it without knocking down buildings and destroying businesses and homes. Then the city tends to get funding from local companies for the project, with the normal back pats involved. Meaning the rail doesn't go where it needs to go based upon trafic hot spots... it goes where who ever donated the most money. So it might go from the Mall to City hall and the local Stadium but some how totally by pass any residential area's to pick people up.

Was a Metra commuter for 7 years. NCS schedule used to have 10 trains in each direction but was cut back due to low ridership which came about when covid first hit. At that for almost a year the NCS line only had 2 trains going in each direction and they were only about an hour apart. I rode that line a few times during that Era and I must say even two was one too many, there were hardly any passengers. All but just a couple line schedules were cut back at the start of covid and all but a couple remain cut back to this day however they've added several trains to each line as ridership started to come back. These days it seems ridership is almost completely back but, still have yet to return the schedules to what they once were

My uncle who worked in railroads for a while (LIRR, some things abroad), said that to make American railways better requires a fundamental change in government.

Hey Alan, I found your Channel recently andI've been breezing though a lot of your content! It's up my alley lol First I wanted to say I live in Chicago and specifically I've lived next to a Metra line for 4 years. I moved here from the South (Florida/South Carolina), and I never learned to drive and all issues aside between this and the CTA I've never been more mobile and it's really great. I'm able to travel to downtown and even to some Suburbs and I only wish people could experience this down south. There was this Lawyer who lived in Charleston, SC i met named William Hamilton who was always very passionate about improving public transit while I was living there and living up here has made me appreciate his passion so much more especially as I've become more and more invested in trains as a concept for the future. (When I left Charleston was trying to Impliment some kind of BTR but idk if it made much progress yet) So from my perspective this is fantastic although I admit a bit of a hole in places and agree completely it needs to be upgraded and run more but man I'll take this over maybe getting a bus every other hour on sunday. (Charleston has a lot of Unique design issues that would probably make a great video tbh if you ever find yourself looking into it, the city is basically a giant historical landmark and a upgrades and building in the city is heavily regulated due to this. Highly reccomend it although you may already know) Secondly, and idk if anyone else would chime in but I have a passion for public transit and livability in cities, and rural areas and for a while I had considered civil engineering as a possible goal but Urban Planning also seems close to my heart the more I learn about it. I would love to follow something like these into some kind of career but I'm not sure where to start or what to start with at the moment and am trying to do more research to best suit what my goals are, any advice on where I could start looking?

Great video, however I just want to correct you on one thing at 6:12. You mentioned that Metra won’t buy the Genesis engines because they aren’t EMD, which could play a part in it, however the primary reason is that Metra actually tested P42s a while back but found their load speeds to be too slow compared to the F40s.

When Illinois Central still owned the "Electric Line" they used to have bar cars on the trains out of the city on Fridays. According to an old alcoholic that lived next to the Richton Park station.

I've seen some of the wildest parties in these cars on St. Patrick's day, game day, and other days where a single car becomes a double decker party bus. Service definitely needs to be better...

Biggest problem I see with metra is the frequency. Other than that it’s really not bad, it has good coverage. Coverage and Frey are the most important things IMO and they got one of them and both of them in select places.

Your videos are informative and this one was really entertaining! I'm a lifelong Chicagoan and live on the Metra North Central line. To be fair, it's not meant to be a weekend & stay late in the city line, its sole purpose is to connect commuters from areas of the northern burbs that have difficulty accessing expressways during the week. I've taken this line for work and take another local line to the city on the weekends, which is only about a 15-20 minute drive. Since other public transport options are crap in the burbs, having a car is a must anyway. This line and others like it on the Metra network aren't as bad as they may seem on the surface and really do serve an important need.

"This isn't even the worst line that Metra runs. THIS is." It's going to be Joliet. "This is Metra's Heritage Corridor." Yay! That's me!

The most egregious issue with METRA is that the old Illinois Central electrified line is just sitting there, and could be turned into a real rapid transit service to some of the most underserved parts of Chicago almost for free. Yet METRA operates it like it's 1950 with a ticketing system completely separate from the CTA and schedules almost solely designed to get office workers into the loop with trains 1 or 2 hours off peak (it's especially bad on weekends). I've spent a lot of time in Chicago and a lot of time on the perennially overcrowded CTA buses to Hyde Park stuck in traffic on Lake Shore drive. It's absurd when there's an electrified rail line that almost 100% duplicates the same service that is underused and costs a fortune to maintain.

The bus schedules here are also insanely disappointing… they come early and leave you, they come late even when the schedule says arriving… like it could say arriving at you’re standing at the bus stop for 15 minutes 💛

4:43 Pass through on the double deckers are for fire escape reasons. Also stops a fire/emergency from happening up top and having the bottom riders unaware of what’s going on and vice versa

Accessibility on the gallery cars does suck, but the seat design (the back flips so you can always face forward or sit with a group of 4) is the best around. The SD70 order is a cheap way to improve the state of good repair when the F40s are failing daily. They can get way more of those than new chargers.

The gallery cars aren't too bad provided they are used for their original intention: conductors checking tickets without having to go around both levels. Which I think is pretty cool, BUT I know lots of commuter services don't do that: VRE down in the DC area also uses Gallery cars AND THE CONDUCTORS JUST GO UP BOTH LEVELS ANYWAY

When I lived in the suburbs I loved going to Chicago for all kinds of things. The train was almost never a viable option due to how early I would have to get to the station to make the last train home. I really hope they fix things. Chicago is a great city and it deserves better.

Your opening segment gave me flashbacks to driving home in the rain through crammed Chicago traffic. I’m British, 18, and have never set foot in America.

One departure every 30 minutes at peak times in a city of nearly 10 million? Compare that to Oslo, a city of 1 million which has departures every 10 minutes at peak times.

the gallery is mainly for single riders compared to families or groups, who can manipulate the seats on the main floor, as well as the mentioned conductors and ticket collections. the big things for me, as someone who rides the Metra Electric on a regular basis, is the other metra lines should have consistent schedules and weekend scheduling. The Electric goes from 4am to 1am/2am on a daily basis regardless of weekday or weekend, the only changes are the number of lines around rush hour and on Sundays specifically the trains being bihourly. another thing you mentioned in the video that the electric does well is sharing space. There are many, and I mean MANY, freight lines and depots that parallel Metra Electric, as well as some Amtrak lines, and then for a significant portion of the route (115th/Kensington to Millenium Station) the independent South Shore Line shares the tracks with Metra Electric in a partnership. there's tracks set aside specifically for the Electric and South Shore trains, 4 on the west side of the usually 6 track railways, and 2 used for regular freight trains, one for inbound and one for outbound. If other lines were able to have tracks set aside for themselves and other set aside for freight companies to have as their own it would be mutually beneficial. The main issue, unfortunately, if just how big Chicago is in the rail industry, both commuter and freight, as well as many tracks going through suburbs and the increase in tracks would result in less space and most likely demolition of land. This is still at the end of the day an amazing analysis of the Metra and it's issues

my dad is the director of finances at the Oregon department of education and seriously thinks America has a """""GOOD""""" rail transport system

The worst train schedule I've seen in my travels around the world was in Tibet in the middle of fking nowhere, where you had 4 trains a day at literally these times: early morning, mid morning, afternoon and early evening (that was what the schedule said, no times given). To think that a city like Chicago is barely doing better than that, that's insane. To compare, a tiny village of maybe 2500 inhabitants in the Netherlands (this is back in late 90's when I lived there) had a train every hour from 5 a.m. to midnight, even 2 at peak hours, and that's in both directions.

I've never seen a more ridiculous passenger car design. And that on a loading gauge that can easily support two full levels.

"This can be seen in their overabundance of F40PHs and F59PHIs" as an MPI MP36 rolls by

8:08 as a Mississaugan the name "canadian pacific railway" makes me violently twitchy every time i hear it and i appreciate that theyre so infamous for their stubborness and pointless hatred of passenger rail that even non-canadians recognize them for that

I love metra, the double decker seats are cool to me, it never seemed wierd.

AHHH YES THANK YOU FOR CALLING OUT CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LOL SO MUCH FOR BEING THE POLITE NORTHERNERS EH? sorry, I'm Canadian.

When you’re gonna roast Metra, I already saw that rolling stock part coming. And I was satisfied, fully.

Dear god Even in Belgium we have dubbledeckers with good second floors

One more thing Metra should do: build a ring-line along the periphery. Many commutes these days are from suburb to suburb, and a ring-line would be essential to opening transit to these commuters.

Being from Chicago, I've had plenty of times where the North Central Service line would've been super useful, but that line has even more issues than you mentioned. Not only is it horrible infrequent with no weekend service, but it also makes only one intermediate stop within the Chicago city limits, and that is Western Ave which is the first stop out of Union Station. It skips all the other Milwaukee District West line stations before it splits off onto its own route, and the only other transfer point with any other line is at Prairie Crossing, which is way the hell out. It's unique in the way it meets up with another line, but the fact that its route takes it way the hell west before going North and making no stops except for Western Ave along its way west makes it even less useful.

Seems a little harsh to put so much blame on Metra. Most of the issues outlined are way above what Metra is able to do. Everything listed pretty much just comes down to money, from acquiring ROWs, to new rolling stock, to training workers on how to service new equipment. Metra has had some serious corruption issues which have exacerbated financial issues, but short of changing how it gets it funding, it's hard to drastically change things and it seems they are doing their best to make do with a somewhat lousy hand.

this country needs you as transportation secretary

You know, for all it's faults, I never really realized how lucky I was to grow up not too far from the Union Pacific Northwest Line. At least until my family moved nearly half a day away from the city and state that was our home. Living in the Twin Cities area right now and while the bus schedules can be pretty good, certainly better than Tennessee, it's nothing compared to what Metra is and could be at it's best. If Metra had greater control of their track mileage, were directed to run every line like their best, and required to create a few ring lines to connect places without needing to go into the city, they'd outpace and outperform so many transit systems. Metra could be more than a suburban commuter service and they should be.

After watching this, I am even more bummed to see that it's not just us here in new york city environs that have to put up with railroad scheduling issues and equipment problems. Since the MTA controls the LIRR, MetroNorth, various bridges and tunnels, and the buses and subways, they do nothing well.

Great video, I've been using the Metra BNSF line for my entire life and have always loved it but had absolutely no clue how bad some of the other schedules were on different lines. There's nothing better than finding out you happened to get on an express train that will take you to Union Station in 20 minutes instead of 45.

That Metra schedule looks very similar to the West Coast Express train into Vancouver BC which I have used in the past. Translink (BC gov agency who runs it) would like to put more runs on but they have to pay millions of dollars just to use the track as it is. It is already heavily subsidized and loses money even though it's at maximum capacity and is not exactly a cheap service. It's a real shame the commuter rail tracks were torn up decades ago when cars became the in thing and there was no such thing as gridlock.

The best story I have about Metra is taking it into Chicago and coming back from a concert. I took the L back to Evanston and missed the train back to Waukegan by 5 minutes. Having no other options and a dead phone. I had to find a random ice cream shop then charged the phone just enough to double check the schedule. Yep no trains. Then I had to pay a Lyft to drive me back to Waukegan to get my car.

I went to Poland for 2 months just to get away from America's infighting and the thing I loved the most was their TRANSIT SYSTEM! Every 8-12 minutes there was a trolley car; in any direction. Every 15-20 minutes there was an SKM train (similar to a subway but from city to city) in any direction. Only from 4am to 6am did the train schedules slow down, but there were still trains operating. You could live in Gdansk, take a train to an all night rave in Sopot, get hammered, and take the train back at 6am without having to worry about a D.U.I. or killing innocent people while driving drunk. And best of all, the police knew what you were doing, but didn't care, because you "Weren't breaking any laws!" Go home and sober up. Or get robbed in an alley. It's up to you. So long as you pay $0.90 for the train fair and don't pee in public. American transit was behind Europe in the 1980's. Now we are 30 years behind and are a laughing stock for the rest of the world. Let's wake the Hell up! Great video by the way. I love 'More than just bikes.' He feels like a brother I've never met because I agree with a lot of his city planning views.

What isn't mentioned is that Metra inherited a lot of things including all the different infrastructure, something that's still left over from the earlier days of railroading with Chicago being a major hub between eastern and Midwestern/western carriers (still is even under larger systems). Private competing infrastructure also created duplication and convoluted setups in some instances as railroads have moves farther around and outside Chicago to reduce freight congestion (yet it's still a massive problem all these years later) The gallery cars were first introduced by the C&NW for their commuter service in 1958 and I think CB&Q was another Chicago operation that used them as well, so the fact that Metra inherited such a fleet and wanted to standardize with that makes sense from an economic standpoint even though it traps them into existing designs (GO Transit designed their own Bi-Level coaches after trying out gallery cars in the mid-70s from CP in Montreal) Though EMD doesn't exist in name anymore, they still very much exist as Progress Rail which was the name given to it when Caterpillar acquired them in the mid-2000s. Though EMD hasn't designed and built their own commuter engines for a few years, MPI made locomotives using existing EMD or similar components including trucks and prime movers which can been seen on many notable commuter railways today with GO Transit using them as the backbone of their fleet While GE units have eclipsed EMD for dominance in mainline freight, that hasn't really happened for commuter service and with parts availability and rebuilding still viable options, I'm guessing most commuter railways would sooner switch to square wheels than go with GE

The schedule thing is the most ridiculous aspect of North American commuter trains, like, I live in a countryside city that’s served by a commuter rail, the first train departs at around 4am and the last is at around 10:30pm, during peak hour, there’s one train in each 4 minutes and outside peak hour it’s in each 8 minutes

this makes car-brain so much worse. “Trains are unreliable!” No they’re not, we just don’t know how to manage them because of the car-brain

I actually get why Metra went to that initial weird double-decker design. NJ Transit, who uses the "full" second level double-decker design, has had major problems with its conductors not "collecting" tickets because of the second floor and because of an ill-advised management decision to evaluate trainmen (or trainwomen) based on their "hitting the platforms" at train stops. As a result, on loaded trains many tickets simply don't get collected, especially on the upper level, because the conductor can only collect so many tickets or check so many phones between station stops when they are forced to be outside so that the evaluators can see them. So, if you've "bought" your ticket on your phone app and haven't activated it, you can get a free ride. I'm told that NJT did an internal audit and found that pre-pandemic that upwards of 50% of tickets were not being collected. I've ridden a number of times over the years where my ticket, and those of my traveling companions, were not collected. The double-deckers also have the disadvantage of significantly lengthening dwell times in stations. I know that commuters hate the middle seat on single-level Comet cars that have 3-2 seating. The double-deckers add a level without necessitating that dreaded seat that often goes unoccupied. I'm told that federal funding doesn't give the option for 2-2 seating for single-level cars, so state commuter rail agencies are forced to buy the double-deckers. It's a form of blackmail. Perhaps Metra doesn't have the ticket collection issue, although the old "reach up" cars suggest that they anticipated that issue before NJ Transit found out how much of a problem it could create.

Everyone: Please update your locomotives, they're aging Metra: I missed the part where that's my problem After seeing Metra's horrendous schedules and rolling stock, I'll never complain about a train being late nor overcrowding on the LIRR ever again... And as a New Yorker whose parents were born in NJ, I for one welcome our new Glorious Republic of New Jersey overlords. Seriously, New Jersey serves as a role model for how rail (and trams) should be done...I know it's odd to say NJ is a role model (especially from a New Yorker) but it absolutely is.

Phoenix doesn’t even have commuter rail. However, when Valley Metro was doing their feasibility studies for commuter rail, they were thinking of 30-minute peak service and 2-hour off-peak service. That’s half of NJTransit’s North Jersey Coast line (at least, the section north of Long Branch), and that goes through much more rural areas, and the trains would still only be useful for commuters, even if service was improved and public transit serving the stations was better, due to the internal layout of the train cars used. There are a fair amount of seniors living in the Phoenix valley, with medical centers in a bunch of diff places, and I imagine even university students could use commuter rail service.

Hey Alan I've got a question for you, which private US freight Railroad (IE any that operate in the US) would you say is the best host railroad for commuter/long distance passenger rail?

Alan don’t forget NCS and Heritage Corridor don’t even run on weekends

I hope Metra Electric wil buy European style EMUs in the future

Your reaction to rolling stock had me in tears laughing, because it was my exact reaction 😂 As a European i feel like I'm back in the 70's (well im Irish so more like 90's for us) watching Metra trains. Very good video to show why train travel in America hasn't caught on as it has in Europe and Asia and why many American passenger railways struggle to make a profit in my opinion. Here's some of the US - European comparison I made while watching, The Racetrack - here all 3 lines have trains running both directions meaning delays can be caused by having to hold trains to move a train from one road to another, using all 3 roads like this also increases workload on CTC. In Europe however, most rail corridors like this are 4 roads, usually labelled up slow, up fast, down slow and down fast, all 4 roads are generally platformed at each station, each road is signalled for bi-directional working but each road in general operation will only hold single directional traffic, fast roads hold Intercity and express services, slow roads hold commuter traffic and freight, commuter trains can be moved from the slow road to the fast road of the same direction to pass slow freights if needed without impeding the 2 counter flow roads. This means European railways can operate trains at a higher frequency and more efficiently, while still retaining by directional working to route trains around any failures or track issues to minimize any delays. Bi-level coaches - considering the global push to cater for the mobility impaired I am surprised these are still in operation. Most bi-level cars have their doors below the chassis of the coach meaning steps are required to step up on to the floor of the coach, especially on commuter trains. Compare this to most European countries which operate single level units on commuter services, this allows the doors to be place at floor height and platforms are made level with the doors which removes the steps allowing for easier train access to those with walking aids, wheelchairs, parents with prams/buggys and the elderly. Most European single level commuter coaches interior's are laid out in Metro, Suburban rail or Commuter styles depending on the capacity level each operator wants. Loco Hauled Commuter Trains - loco sets cost more to run and require more staff to run that Multiple Units. Add to this the acceleration and braking of loco sets is alot slower than multiple units, this can be come a congestion problem on commuter routes with regular stopping intervals. In comparison, European countries use Electrical Multiple Units (EMU's) or Diesel Multiple Units (DMU's), these consist of a driving cab at each end and the rest of the train is passenger capacity, also as the doors are placed at Chassis level, the engines, electric motors, compressors and other mechanical parts can be mounted under the chassis to allow more passenger capacity. Most European countries operate multiple units commuter services with a crew of 1, the driver (Engineer), most loco sets require a minimum crew of 2, driver and guard (conductor). In terms of set lengths, it takes alot of shunting time to resize a consists with loco sets, where as multiple units generally come in 2, 3 or 4 coach units, most European countries use 3 car units, this allows for easier construction of train lengths and shunting. In terms of overall operating costs, made up loco sets will operate all day on commuter services no matter the passenger levels at that time of day, each train operates at a fixed cost for the day, where with Multiple Units, they are generally cheaper to operate as a starting point anyway, but when you consider the ease of reducing or increasing set size allows for more flexibility in operating cost, for example 3 x 3 car units can operate a 9 car rush hour train, then in the afternoon lull a unit can be removed and stabled allowing the train to operate as a 6 car or even 3 car trains at lower passenger demand times of day, this reduces the cost of running the train to the operator, with more savings the more units they removed from a train. Lower operating costs starting, flexibility in your daily operating costs and lower crew costs make Multiple Units a much more viable option than loco sets for commuter services. Train Appearance - the 1970's look stainless steel passenger coaches look so outdated, even the new coaches look tired and worn in my opinion, in comparison with the bright, vibrant colour schemes of European and some new US (cough, cough, Brightline) operators. Freight - while in Europe freight trains share the main lines, most yards are required to have a reception loop on the entry or exit of yards, this allows a stretch of rail for freights to get up to speed before pulling on to the main or pull off the main before reducing speed, this ensures the operating speeds of the mains are not compromised allowing for effective flow off passenger and freight services. Track ownership - while in the US most track is owned by companies, in Europe most rail networks are owned, maintained and controlled by the government, much like the system of Airports and Air Traffic Control is worldwide, with operators then paying a fee to the government to run on the rails and for government employees (Signallers, controllers, station staff etc) to service the train. This allows for this revenue to be reinvested in the maintenance of the network freeing up government rail investment in to new rail and major upgrade works. The savings provided to operators in the forms of, not having to pay to maintain the network, staff savings in track maintenance, station staffing and signalling staff (these would all be government staff), then allow the governments to put stricter safety and quality control measures in place knowing that operator's now have the capital to keep their fleets well maintained and modern, ensuring passengers are offered the most up to date comfort, efficiency and reliability. Tracks and Track Speed - In Europe most passenger rail networks are double tracked at a minimum unlike many of the US freight rails used by passenger services being single track. The double track network allows for contra flow working (one track for one direction, the other track for the opposite direction), this then allows signalling blocks to made shorter allowing the network to run more trains more efficiently along with periodic cross overs to allow any failures or track issues to be manoeuvred around minimizing delays. With the US freight rails speed limits can vary wildly throughout a trip, where as in Europe, all passenger rail networks are generally maintained to speed limits depending on the type of services running on the rails, these are usually High Speed 160 - 170 mph, Intercity 110 - 125 mph, Commuter 90 - 100 mph, Suburban 60 - 70 mph and Freight only 40 - 70 mph. Travel Cost to the Public - From what ive seen of US rail prices they vary wildly and can get quite expensive. In Europe rail travel costs are near universal and are considered relatively cheap. In general European ticket prices are (these are converted to dollars as it is a US rail video) Suburban travel $3 - $7, Commuter Travel $15 - $25, InterCity Travel $50 - $75 and Overnight Sleeper Travel $100 - $250. Also 1st class and onboard catering is generally only offered on InterCity, High Speed and Over Night services in Europe. The Buy America Act - In my opinion this law stifles the open rolling stock market in the US and is a major part in why the US built rolling stock are not competitive in the worldwide rolling stock market as many countries dont want to buy US as the US dont buy their built equipment, along with the cost of US rolling stock. An open rolling stock market in the US would reduce the nicheness of the US rolling stock industry and force US manufacturers to compete on price and quality in the US market would make US manufacturers competitive on price in the global market and would remove the 'they can't buy our equipment so we wont buy their equipment' view at the same time. This act also stifles the variety of different trains to see and travel on which appeals to rail fans and travel fans the world over. Brightline in Florida is the closest US operator ive seen operating a European style service. I know this is a long winded comment/spiel but it is a topic i am highly interested in and am looking forward to some responses as it is always nice to hear differing views and opinions, and there are many ways to run a railway

NYer here. Most seats in the middle never get used because people dont wanna be next to some random mooley. The 1 seater might actually be a hidden boon for those who suffer some social anxiety or just plain dont wanna deal with people

I personally like the million dollar cost over run for a new train station on the northwest line! EMD's are workhorses and can be rebuilt, 40 years plus and I rarely see a broken down F40-PH.

2:05 can I just say that I find these multimodal vehicles really fascinating? My favourite is a fire brigade in Switzerland that has six fire trucks that can also use the railways to ensure a response time of

The problem is unless you're willing to build another right of way's worth of tracks (so entirely different line,) you're going to have to pick between good freight or good passenger. Europe has prioritized passenger, and a lot more of their freight are handled by trucks. US has prioritized freight, and we have some of the more developed freight rail systems in the world.

the sass, this is why i love these videos and this channel

The beauty of the North Central line is that it's the only Metra rail which serves O'Hare airport. Now certainly, if you're going into downtown, the better option is to take the CTA Blue line, which goes from the airport itself to the loop downtown. But if you're heading to the suburbs, you have your choice of going north towards Antioch or, well, going north towards Antioch. (again, the CTA Blue line is better for getting downtown). Another problem with the Metra is the lack of connectivity between the lines outside of downtown Chicago - something which the acquisition of the EJ&E line would have done wonders to solve, but instead CN acquired the line. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin,_Joliet_and_Eastern_Railway

Some things you said are straight up wrong And they need to be corrected. Gallery cars were 1st made in the early 1950s. CP is not the railroad that is hostile. It's CN because they're the ones not allowing Metra To expand the schedule on the heritage corridor and North central service. And while EMD doesn't exist anymore, It's new owner progress rail is the one that still provides service for existing locomotives made by EMD. Therefore it's not bad that they still use EMD locomotives, The problem is that they don't have the funding to buy new Locomotives and that they have to resort to buying locomotives 2nd hand. Get your facts straight before you embellish a Commuter system that isn't as bad as you make it seem.

Correction about the Metra Electric: The schedules are relatively frequent during daytime. I think 30 minutes is the maximum headway during daytime (greater after the hours of like 8 to 6), but during the evening peak I found that there were trains leaving every few minutes out of Millennium Station. This schedule still *sucks* though, since the MED is the only transport link along Chicago's Southern lakefront, and the line has the capacity to run metro-style services but Metra doesn't want to.

Another thing: The reason you don't have full-width seating on both levels is because that would make the cars too tall. I don't know if you've ever ridden on a bilevel car, but the lower-level seating area doesn't have enough headroom to stand up. There must be a gap in the upper level to provide sufficient headroom for people walking through; sitting down on the lower level, you obviously can have a lower ceiling height. The fact that the open center also allows for the conductor to check tickets without having to walk up and down the stairs in car, saving a considerable amount of time, is also a benefit of the design. The height restriction is dictated by the straight center sill of the car, dating back to the original bilevels developed for Chicago-area commuter railroads; obviously, you must put your floor atop the center sill, which runs atop the trucks and in a straight line between the couplers. With the newest bilevel designs, such as used in the NYC area, the sill is depressed in the center, between the trucks, allowing you to have a bilevel coach that still fits within the much lower East Coast loading gauge (the same reason there are no Superliners in the Northeast).

I grew up on the north central line in mundelein. I remember wanting to join my friends in Chicago one weekend who lived in nearby suburbs. I wasn’t able to because my line did not run on weekends. Thank you for bringing attention to my plight.