Baldermann Joins Other Mayors to Oppose Possible Metra Service Cuts

Congressman Dan Lipinski is leading 18 Southland mayors in opposition to Metra plans that would reduce weekday service to its Southwest Service line and entirely cut it on weekends.

On Wednesday, 22 elected officials, including New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann, called the plan "unfair" for the south suburbs.

"We want to see an increase in service, if anything," Baldermann said in a phone interview. "The more service you provide, hopefully the more people will take the train. But now it's our residents who could see a financial impact."

Metra is facing a $100 million budget deficit, but in the letter the mayors said cutting southwest service would only be a "tiny fraction" of budget gap.

Metra’s board of directors rejected a plan in July to implement unprecedented service cuts across all of Metra’s service lines that would have only saved 8 percent of its budget shortfall.

Now the transit provider is floating a plan before its directors that eliminates weekend service on three lines, including the Southwest Service line.

The plan also calls to eliminate some weekday service between 179^th Street and Manhattan on two trains. In total, Southwest Service riders would lose all six Saturday trains plus some weekday trains while eight other lines would experience no service cuts.

Lipinski said that Southwest Service riders would be unfairly targeted and that the proposed service cuts would only save $800,000, about a half-percent of what Metra needs to plug its budget deficit.

The letter asks Metra to reconsider the cuts, emphasizing the importance of the service to the communities represented along the line, which include Evergreen Park, New Lenox, Oak Lawn, Orland Park, Palos and Tinley Park, all of which had their mayors sign the letter. (To see a full list of signatories or to read the full letter, click on the PDF to the right of this article.)