Commuter Ops

Vice Local Chairman for Metra Mason Lockett (312) 315-5756 Let's utilize our elected officers before contacting the Local Chairman for general questions.

He lives in Geneva & commutes on Metra.

STB filing # FD_36844 Docket # 309539

Union Pacific urges STB to turn down Metra bid for trackage rights

By David Lassen | June 5, 2025

WASHINGTON — Metra’s request to the Surface Transportation Board for terminal trackage rights in the Chicago area is an effort to maintain below-market rates for access to the Union Pacific system, UP says in a filing responding to Metra’s initial arguments to support that request.

Such a financial dispute “is not the board’s problem,” UP argues in its June 3 filing. It cites a precedent in which the board said its involvement would be “simply inappropriate” if the “real reason” for a terminal trackage rights request is about having the board set a price.

The filing is the latest salvo in a long-running, litigious dispute between Metra and the freight railroad over an inability to establish terms of a new operating agreement now that…