Just because the transit service in Chicago is funded by the RTA does not mean that the divions talk to each other.
Heck even in METRA the BN service would not talk to the South Shore or to the CNW…
In New York you have to call one number for bus info and another for subway… and yet another for Metro North even though they are all MTA…
In Boston the Commuter Rail Agent at north station is loath to give out info to passengers on local ferry service or bus service. In reverse the MBTA Subway agents have no Commuter Train Scedules and can not talk to the Rail Divion even if they wanted to.
In Baltimore I had a heck of a time trying to reach the official who was in charge of Commuter Rail or MARC because the MD MTA office in Downtown Baltimore delt just with bus and rail and its Commuter office was located in Bowie MD…
Cleveland has a great system where rail and bus are run by the same people.
It seems waistfull to have 3 seperate adminstartions that have there own private fiefdoms and there own legions of public employees. I believe that consolation is the answer.
BNSF and UP only operate the suburban service under purchase-of-service contracts with Metra although Metra operates much of its service directly with its own crews, so contacting BNSF or UP for suburban information would be an exercise in futility. South Shore is not under the Metra umbrella, it is operated by NICTD, which is based in Indiana. This would be similar to the situation with New Jersey Transit and the MTA in New York.
Most transit authorities that operate rail suburban services tend to keep them separate from their bus, light rail and rapid transit operations. This may be in part due to labor law, railroaders are covered under the Railway Labor Act and Railroad Retirement Board, transit workers are not.
Last time I looked, Cleveland had bus, light rail and rapid transit only, no conventional rail service.
In Chicago, bus service in the suburbs is under the Pace label, bus and rapid transit inside the city limits is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority, both are under the RTA umbrella. This division is primarily based on historical and political realities, riders can transfer between Pace and CTA at many points and many closer-in Pace routes feed into the “L” at several terminals.
Consolidation sounds great but is often politically unfeasible and is probably almost impossible when more than one state is involved.
Plus, it cuts down the scope of liability in the event of a catastrophic lawsuit. It is for the same reason large corporate entities are really comprised of many smaller subsidiaries. Also makes the paperwork and bookkeeping easier.
Maybe from a standpoint of liability or bookkeeping etc. its better. But, in one city, they should be able to give you information on connecting services. Even if they only hand out a map or timetable.
Luckily, we in the Netherlands have one telephone number and one internet address for all public transport trip questions. Yet the individual companies still have their own trip planners which can give false information if the journey goes beyond their company…
The issue here is that differet divions of the same agency are loath to even talk to each other.
Part of the reason is History.
At one time the Commuter Railroads were owned by the the Freight Railroads and may have or not have been subsidized by the State. The Freight Railroads who ran the Commuter Trains staffed them with Railroad Employees not Public Employees
The Bus Company or Bus Companys in Cleveland OH were not a single entity. Cleveland OH had something like 20 local tranisit bus companys that were private or owned by there respective Suburb. RTA in 1976 finally managed to consoldates all the bus and rapid transit agencys into one unit.The Private Transit Companys were baught out and went into the charter Buisness.But transit service was still controlled localy out of the variuse garages
The Subways were built in New York City by private companys who were trying to captialises on the citys growth. The IRT and BMT (?) were seperate companys. Most other places the subways were built as public works projects. In Washington DC I still have trouble geting connecting bus info from subway agents. I dont know how much cross over there is on Subway Lines but the old rule was that you had to be a bus driver before you drove a subway car. In NY city they hires off the street.
The Subway Agents are often bus drivers on Light Duty. Not sure how that would work on a Commuter Railroad if the freight railroads asintgn there light employees to agent work