Metra Reduces Schedule On Heritage Corridor

LEMONT, IL – In response to low ridership due to the coronavirus crisis, Metra will temporarily further reduce the schedules on its three least busy lines, the Heritage Corridor, SouthWest Service and North Central Service, starting Monday, May 4.

On the Heritage Corridor, the schedule will be temporarily reduced to one inbound trip in the morning and one outbound trip in the evening, Metra said. The new schedules can be found online.

The Heritage Corridor line runs from Joliet to Chicago, making stops in Lockport, Romeoville, Lemont, Willow Springs and Summit. The morning train will now leave Joliet at 6:25 a.m., and the evening train will leave Chicago at 5:25 p.m.

“We hope our customers understand why we are making these schedule reductions,” Metra CEO/Executive Director Jim Derwinski said in a release. “We are trying to find the balance between providing service for essential workers while stemming the huge losses we are seeing in fare revenue and sales taxes, our two major sources of operating funding. We are being forced to make some tough decisions.”

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During its April board meeting, Metra outlined a preliminary estimate that it will lose about $535.5 million in fares and sales tax in 2020 and 2021 due to this crisis. Metra is expecting about $480 million in federal relief aid. The schedule reductions are expected to save about $470,000 a month in labor and fuel costs, Metra said.

The temporary schedule changes are being made due to very low ridership under the current schedules, which are already reduced from the regular weekday schedules. On the Heritage Corridor, the three morning inbound and four afternoon/evening outbound trains have been serving a total of about 35 riders per day.

All trains will have enough cars for customers to be able to practice social distancing, and Metra will be prepared to add trains when ridership begins to return to normal. Some riders on the Heritage Corridor may be able to use the Rock Island or BNSF lines as alternatives, Metra said.

Read more:

• Illinois Coronavirus Update April 29: 50,355 Cases; 2,215 Deaths
• 64 Confirmed, Suspected Cases Of Coronavirus At Silver Cross