Metra (short for Metropolitan Rail) is the second busiest commuter rail system in North America, after the LIRR, and serves Chicago, IL and its suburbs. Metra is part of the Illinois Regional Transport Authority (RTA) and operates 11 lines (495 miles) which feed into Chicago from its suburbs. Seven of the lines are owned and operated by Metra, three are operated by Union Pacific, and one–the busiest line– is operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). Metra is the second busiest railroad in North America in terms of daily ridership, after the Long Island Railroad and ahead of Metro-North. The busiest station in the system is Chicago Union Station which serves as the terminus for six Metra lines: the BNSF Line, the Heritage Corridor, the South West Service, the North Centrel Service, and the Milwaukee district North and West lines. Three lines terminate at the Oglive Transportation Center: the Union Pacific North, Northwest, and West Lines. The La Salle Street station serves as the terminus for just the Rock Island District Line. Metra's sole electrified line, named "Metra Electric", terminates at Chicago's Millenium Station which is also the terminus for Indiana's South Shore Line Commuter Rail Service. Union station is also used by CTA "L" trains and Amtrak trains which provide service from the station on twelve routes. More connections between Amtrak and Metra, as well as CTA transportation are available at many stations on Metra's lines.

Diesel locomotive pulled trains are operated on all of Metra's lines except for the Metra Electric lines where trains are operated using Electric Multiple Units(EMUs) called "Highliners", powered from overhead caternary. Metra primarily operates variants of the EMD F40, but has recently purchased 27 more powerful and modern MPI MP36s. Diesel powered Metra trains are normally long (6-12+ cars), but unlike most other long commmuter trains in North America, save GO train, they are pulled by single diesel locomotives. Electric trains are usually 4-8 cars in length. All Metra station platforms, except those on the Electric Line, are low-level, and the Gallery cars that Metra uses can only be used with this type of platform. The Electric Line, on the other hand, use exclusively high-level platforms. The set up of the Electric Line (electrified equipment and hi-level platforms) is similar to some Commuter Rail systems in the Northeast United States, such as SEPTA. Metra operates its trains exclusively with Gallery cars. Many of these cars are 30-40 years old, but Metra has recently purchased new ones (2002-2005) from Nippon-Sharyo. Other Gallery car operators around the country also purchased the same or similar cars from Nippon-Sharyo. The cars are more comfortable than the compartitively spartan older cars. Metra has also sold many of their older Gallery cars to other commuter rail agencies around the country including the Virginia Railway Express (VRE), Music City Star, and MARC. They proved to be very popular with the other commuter services, because of their low price and high passenger capacities, but not so much with the riders because of their relative lack of comfort. The EMUs (Highliners) used by Metra Electric are Gallery cars similar to the ones used for diesel service but configured for access to high-level platforms, although the Nippon-Sharyo EMUs can also be used at low-level plaforms. 


Locale:
Chicago Metropolitan Area, IL 

Operation Start Date:
 Original Railroad- 1976
 Present Day Railroad- 1984 

Ridership:
Average Weekday- 300,100

No. of Lines:
11

Map of Route: