CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Metra announced Wednesday that, if freight train workers go on strike Friday, at least four Metra lines will be impacted and will not have service.
Metra Executive Director Jim Derwinski told the agency's board of directors during a meeting Wednesday morning that, if the freight train workers walk out, there'll be no commuter service on the BNSF and the Union Pacific North, Northwest and West Lines.
There's a question mark right now about the Heritage Corridor and North Central Service.
"Our commitment is to continue to monitor this," Derwinski said. "We have daily conversations with labor, daily conversations with the Class 1 railroads represented in the AAR and we continue to monitor the situation. What we can control, we will and what we can message, we absolutely will."
According to Metra, there were about 83,000 passenger trips or an estimated 41,500 commuters yesterday on the four potentially impacted lines. Still, Tuesday ridership is generally higher during these late pandemic times than Friday ridership when more people tend to work from home.
Derwinski said Metra is talking with its sister agencies to see if they would honor Metra tickets if there's a freight train workers strike.
In its statement, Metra said it expects to be able to operate scheduled Friday service on the Metra Electric, Rock Island, SouthWest Service, Milwaukee District North, and Milwaukee District West Lines.
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