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Metra reveals $2.4 billion capital spending plan
Ive ridden in those cars includin the budds at Bnsf, they are fine and kept clean, its a waste to get rid of them and others cuz they are old, he should get rid of himself then, he’s almost 70. Use the $, for station building, triple trackin, signals, new hires, etc. Its a bad idea, maybe he and other cronies own Nippon stock.
I think its a tribute to the shop forces that these cars are in as fine a shape as can be, considering their age, yet increasing maintenance costs, parts availability and reliability makes this a sound plan for the future which will include increasing ridership. Hopefully line extensions will be a part of that future.
My son was on the USS Nimitz shortly before it was decommissioned. In many cases if a part broke they had to make another one in the machine shop as fifty year old parts were no longer available. It’s a costly way to maintain something. So much of that ship was unique, it being the only one of its class. These Budd cars are wonderful reminders of the past but the cost of maintaining them will only increase if parts have to be made for them due to lack of spares on the open market.
This capital spending plan on the part of Metra is long overdue. Most of Metra’s locomotives and passenger cars are beyond their normal life expectancy, and it is essential that funding be procured that will allow the purchase of new equipment. New passenger locomotives cost $6-to-$7 million each, and new commuter passenger cars go for about $3 million each. Metra can’t just keep on waiting, year after year, for Springfield or Washington to come up with the money they need infrastructure improvements and new equipment.
Would it be wrong to assume that the Budd car’s stainless steel “shells” are, figuratively, bullet-proof over their existence, and that the structure of a car is a large part of the cost of new commuter coaches.?
So…gut, without mercy, the Budds; then install contemporary parts, components, assemblies, systems and amenities…at a cost significantly less than, each, $3 million a car…got to factor in labor cost to strip the existing cars, and attempt to balance the scrap value of the stuff removed against the labor cost…
A plan to strip and renew in tight coordination…mas bueno!
No amount of rebuilding is going to make a 60+ year old passenger car the equal of a new passenger car in terms of reliability or operating costs. Amtrak retired most of their 1950’s vintage Heritage car fleet years ago because they were just too expensive to operate, and Metra needs to be going the same thing.
Having ridden METRA for many years while working in Chicago, I do applaud RTA and METRA for doing a good job for the limited funds they got over the years. Yes, there were the “hot” days when the AC was lagging, but that was not the norm by any means. But METRA’s response on 9/11, when the city exited in less than 3 hours was a lesson in dynamic schedule response capacity. Everyone applauded them.
One issue not discussed in replacing the rolling stock is that many of those 50/60’s era cars are not crashworthy, even the Budd’s. Some outer bars were added later, but they were never designed to those specs. Amerail/Nippon Sharyo and the later ones made were built with this in mind.
But you have to admit that when METRA made the MP38 purchase from MotivePower, they didn’t find out until after they couldn’t run on certain UP lines due to deferred maintenance by predecessor CNW on the bridges and were weight restricted. That is the kind of lack of attention to detail that gets them a bad rap.
METRA customers have requested onboard WiFi and automated ticketing since the 1990’s and all we heard was “how hard” it was to do. Maybe with the new funding sources, “how hard” will be replaced with “how soon”.
As long as METRA maintains total transparency with its paying ridership, price increases can be managed as long as people see the why’s and where’s. That is something that will foster future growth of the service.
It’s a shame that Amtrak can’t get the money to replace its old equipment. Thanks congress:(
Maybe EMD can get some of this business. According to EMDs web site, their F125 passenger locomotive meets tier 4 requirements.
Considering the plan calls for the one-way fare from Harvard to Chicago to go from $9 to $16, I have to wonder what these fare increases will do to ridership. Most times, when fares are increased, riders defect. Will be interesting to see what happens in this case.
It’s good to see a comprehensive, long-term, coordinated plan laid out including warnings of increased costs so people can plan ahead instead of being blindsided when changes are made. Sounds like Metra is indeed taking in the big view and doing it right.