CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Expanded rush hour service started on seven Metra lines Monday morning to help meet the need of growing post-pandemic commuters.
Ridership hit another post-pandemic high last week, surpassing 68,000 passenger trips on Thursday.
“Last week, we were averaging about 24 percent of our pre-COVID ridership, which is the basis we have to do everything from,” said Metra CEO and Executive Director Jim Derwinski.
Metra expects those ridership numbers will continue to increase in the coming months.
“We hear clearly from the business community down here, the employers that a lot of employees are being asked to come back into the office right after Labor Day,” Derwinski added.
New schedules are in effect on the Heritage Corridor, Milwaukee District North and West, SouthWest Service, North Central Service and Union Pacific Northwest and West lines.
The rail commuter system is also launching new pilot schedules on the BNSF, Metra Electric, and UP North lines.
The goal is to provide more off-peak options and more frequent service throughout the course of the day.
“Metro had been looking at about five years of a decline in ridership prior to the pandemic,” Derwinski said. “And so we'd been out surveying, trying to figure out what would make a difference, what would bring [people] back to the system and understanding that people have much greater choices now.”
Derwinski told WBBM Newsradio the expansion is based on data collected from passengers, which found people would use the trains more discretionarily if the trains were more frequent.
A new pilot schedule for the Rock Island Line takes effect July 19.
A full list of new schedules can be found at metrarail.com.
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