NorthShore
Conductor
This article (except below) has me thinking on necessity being the mother of invention, and steps being taken (perhaps some of which are long overdue) towards evolving commuter systems away from just rush service as its primary use. How must transit systems reinvent themselves to stay afloat, and be useful or relevant moving forward?
Full article:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/1/18/23561316/metra-trains-new-rider-markets-youth-commuters-2023
The agency’s goal? Thirty-five million rides in 2023.
Passengers took 74 million rides in 2019, but annual ridership fell 75% in 2020 and has yet to climb back above 25 million.
The growth that has occurred, though, caused Metra to draw $94 million less federal COVID relief funding than expected this year, said chief financial officer John Morris.
To gain back more revenue, upcoming Metra marketing campaigns could focus on wooing high school and college students, non-office workers and reluctant drivers, Metra board members said Wednesday.
“Our mission now — the shift — is to remind people we’re there, actively and specifically reminding everyone in the region that we’re there,” marketing executive Stanton Lewin said at Wednesday’s meeting of the Metra board of directors. “Then we can play all those roles that we need to play in their lives.”
On average, a weekday Metra train now serves 43% of pre-pandemic ridership.
To test new scheduling priorities, Metra retooled the train service on four lines — BNSF, Metra Electric, Rock Island and Union Pacific North — to include midday trains. Ridership on these lines in the middle of the day came closer to pre-pandemic numbers than any other line during the same time of day in December, Lewin said.
Keeping Metra trains accessible to college commuter students could also pull in high school students and their families, who also travel from the suburbs and might otherwise drive, said Romayne Brown, chair of the Metra board of directors.
Full article:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/1/18/23561316/metra-trains-new-rider-markets-youth-commuters-2023