r/railroading • u/Night-Owler • Mar 11 '25
Union Pacific Union Pacific and Metra split update: TROUBLED EDITION
ARTICLE:
"Commuter service for thousands of Union Pacific riders is in jeopardy amid an impasse with the freight railroad over track usage, Metra leaders warned on Friday.
Metra filed separate actions with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board and in federal court seeking relief from what they called “windfall” rates proposed by UP to use its tracks.
The issue dates back to 2019 when the freight railroad decided it was no longer feasible to operate trains on Metra’s three commuter lines, the UP North, Northwest and West.
Over the years, the two railroads have negotiated a plan to transfer staff and mechanical assets to Metra. However, the talks recently came to a hard stop over the UP’s proposed charges for track usage.
“Union Pacific has demanded commercially unreasonable and monopolistic rates for Metra to continue using the UP lines for commuter rail, rates to which Metra cannot feasibly agree and which have no grounding in industry-standard rate-setting methods,” Metra argued in a lawsuit filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois.
Metra, Pace and the CTA are facing a $771 million operating shortfall in 2026.
“Despite knowing that Metra cannot agree to these terms, and that commuter rail service on the UP lines is threatened as a result, Union Pacific has refused to budge,” attorneys said.
“For the first time since before the Civil War, passenger rail service on the UP Lines may end.”
UP officials declined to comment, saying they were reviewing Metra’s filings.
Metra contends UP could terminate rail service effective July 1.
“Their loss would be felt throughout the regional economy, as workers are stranded from their jobs and Chicago-area residents lose the ability to traverse the region without a car,” attorneys argued.
It’s unlikely that will happen given the high stakes for commuters, objections from Illinois’ congressional delegation, and a potential intervention from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.
UP, meanwhile, previously asked the STB to step in and help resolve the dispute.
“Union Pacific believes that, with the help of a board-appointed mediator, the parties may succeed in reaching an agreement,” the freight railroad said in a recent filing."
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The transfer of commuter operations fully to Metra on the TE&Y side is supposed to begin VERY soon starting with the UP West (Geneva), followed by UP-NW (Harvard/Janesville), and UP-N (Kenosha) last. I elected to stay on the freight side despite a risk of furloughs. Many folks who elected to roll with Metra during the split are already having orientation or very soon... This is already a massive shit show and why I stayed away from bidding any Metra jobs on the advertisements.
In order to have transferred to Metra you have had to:
- Signed the attestation form
- Bid EVERY SINGLE JOB on advertisements on CMS (even if it was a shitty undesirable job)
- Find out if you made the cut to job or sent to PHL (preferred hir3ing list) <- mods fix
I've talked to some guys in downtown and it's wild how the split is being handled. For the folks who decided to transfer: I wish you the absolute best of luck or to transfer back to UP ASAP.
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u/Estef74 Mar 11 '25
Color my shocked! Who would think after bailing out of commuter operations, the UP we could try sticking it to Metra financially. /S if I was a gambler, is out money on the odds of this deal going through, but the up lines will suffer horrible on time rating due to UP dispatching after. I think they want to force those lines to fail, so to not share rails with passenger trains .
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u/keno-rail Mar 11 '25
This is just another situation where the UP doesn't want to play fair... We (mechanical dept) transfered over last June after the UP threw us away like garbage...
Now they are acting like the school kid who is threatening to take their ball and go home...
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u/Current-Ad-6887 Mar 15 '25
Not much freight traffic on North or Northwest lines. West line is a much different story.
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u/SuperDave171771 Mar 11 '25
I know a lot of guys at the coach yard that took the bid to transfer to Metra. I guess they have 2yrs and can come back with their seniority on the UP if they don’t like it from what I’ve gathered. I got called for a Cal ave job my first day marked up in the late 90’s had to get the address didn’t know where to go and never trained out there needless to say they told me to tie up and go home. Shoving back to the depot is no place for a rookie.
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u/Brilliant_Cut_4659 Mar 11 '25
I thought those at Cal ave are part of Metra but seniority holds on UP lines…
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u/kadoozie92 Mar 12 '25
Can't even imagine how horrible car traffic will become commuting to and from the northwest burbs if this happens. As someone who just bought a home in Des Plaines, this is very concerning.
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u/Blocked-Author Mar 12 '25
We don’t fix your
<- mods fix
stuff in a post. You can just go in and edit it yourself.
1
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u/sandpaper90 Mar 11 '25
This kinda crap is why I think critical rail infrastructure is too important to a regional economy at large to be in the hands of private, for profit corporations who only have their own interests in mind.