Metra Black Out Dates 2010

Metra has announced 2010 Bikes on Metra Black Out dates:

http://metrarail.com/content/metra/en/home/utility_landing/riding_m...

Active Trans met with Phil Pagano, executive director of Metra, in December and requested reduction of some blackout dates along with some other potential improvements to the Bikes on Metra program.

Our newsletter article about the meeting is here: http://www.activetrans.org/modeshift/03_01/metra-update

We did ask to only have July 3-4 blacked out for Taste of Chicago instead of the entire festival and hopefully that will be possible next year.

Please check out the newsletter article, we feel good about how the meeting went and possible improvements that could happen in the next few years including more bikes per car and additional service opportunities.

Black out dates have gone down considerably since the Bikes on Metra program originally launched. Please see below for a comparison (thanks to GV and the Critical Mass listserv for the background).

Thanks much,
Ethan, with Active Trans

2010 (17 days)

Blues Fest (weekend only - June 12 & 13)
All days during Taste of Chicago (June 25 - July 4)
Lollapalooza (August 6 - 8)
Air & Water Show (August 14 & 15)

2009 data missing, believe same as 2010 with addition of Jazz Fest, making total days 19.

2008 (20 days)

Blues Fest (Weekend only - June 7 - 8)
All days during Taste of Chicago (June 27 - July 6)
Independence Eve Fireworks (July 3)
Venetian Night (July 26)
Lollapalooza (August 1 - 3)
Air & Water Show (August 16 & 17)
Jazz Fest (Weekend only - August 30 - August 31)

2007 (21 days)

Blues Fest (June 7 - 10)
All days during Taste of Chicago (June 29 - July 8)
Independence Eve Fireworks (July 3)
Venetian Night (July 28)
Air & Water Show (August 18 & 19)
Jazz Fest (August 30 - September 2)

2006 (33 days)

Friday preceding Memorial Day (May 26)
Blues Fest (June 8 - 11)
All days during Taste of Chicago (June 30 - July 9)
Independence Eve Fireworks (July 3)
Venetian Night (July 29)
Tall Ships (August 3 - 9)
Air & Water Show (August 19 & 20)
Friday preceding Labor Day (September 1)
Jazz Fest (August 31 - September 3)
Halloween (October 31)
Pre-Thanksgiving Day (Wednesday, November 22 )
Day after Thanksgiving (Friday, November 24)
Magnificent Mile Lights Festival (TBA)

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jared on February 4, 2010 at 6:49am
Living in the city a lot of the trains I'd be taking on these weekends don't seem like they'd have much increased traffic. I can't imagine much difference in ridership on a midday or morning outbound train.
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on March 14, 2010 at 10:33am
Apparently today, March 14th, was a blackout date due to the St. Pattie's Day parade.
Permalink Reply by Jared on March 14, 2010 at 11:32am
Wasn't the parade yesterday?

Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:
Apparently today, March 14th, was a blackout date due to the St. Pattie's Day parade.
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on March 14, 2010 at 11:52am
I think so, but I guess the whole weekend was blacked out. The conductor wouldn't let me on at LaSalle St.

Wish they'd had it listed on Metra's website.

Jared said:
Wasn't the parade yesterday?
Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:
Apparently today, March 14th, was a blackout date due to the St. Pattie's Day parade.
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on March 15, 2010 at 12:24am
Saturday wasn't blacked out, at least not on the Rock Island. I had no trouble getting to Oak Forest for Open Streets or back again.

You say you were trying to get on at LaSalle St. Were you trying to go pub crawling by bike in Beverly yesterday?

In past years, I've occasionally had problems with spontaneous blackout dates that were NOT announced on the web site. I wonder how much of an issue that will be this year.

Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:
I think so, but I guess the whole weekend was blacked out. The conductor wouldn't let me on at LaSalle St.

Wish they'd had it listed on Metra's website.

Jared said:
Wasn't the parade yesterday?
Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:
Apparently today, March 14th, was a blackout date due to the St. Pattie's Day parade.
Permalink Reply by Liz on March 15, 2010 at 5:08am
The entire weekend being blacked out in both directions is irritating. Last year I was stuck up north unable to come inbound on the metra with my bike. It was a Sunday evening and the train was empty but since it was blues fest weekend the conductor would not let me on. I understand that peak times are more difficult to narrow down, but saying the all trains in all directions at all times are black out even when trains are mostly empty just hurts metra's ridership.

If it was limited to no bikes inbound in the morning/afternoon (9am-3pm) and outbound in the evening/night (3pm-last train) it would be more reasonable to cyclists who want to travel out of the city in the morning, ride, and then travel back to the city when they lose daylight. So that the large crowds on the train and car free city cyclists are both happy.

I do appreciate the effort to limit the days overall. Now if only we could get metra to give better service hours to the mountain bike trails...
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on March 15, 2010 at 8:59am
Anne,

I wasn't able to make the trip on Saturday, so I wanted to go check out the Tinley Creek Trail yesterday. Apparently, it wasn't to be.

Anne Alt said:
Saturday wasn't blacked out, at least not on the Rock Island. I had no trouble getting to Oak Forest for Open Streets or back again.

You say you were trying to get on at LaSalle St. Were you trying to go pub crawling by bike in Beverly yesterday?

In past years, I've occasionally had problems with spontaneous blackout dates that were NOT announced on the web site. I wonder how much of an issue that will be this year.

Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:
I think so, but I guess the whole weekend was blacked out. The conductor wouldn't let me on at LaSalle St.

Wish they'd had it listed on Metra's website.

Jared said:
Wasn't the parade yesterday?
Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:
Apparently today, March 14th, was a blackout date due to the St. Pattie's Day parade.
Permalink Reply by BalloonBiker on September 2, 2010 at 3:54am
Bumping this as there has been discussion on the CCM list that Jazz Fest this weekend was added to the list of Metra Blackout days:

•Jazz Fest (September 2 - 5)

http://metrarail.com/content/metra/en/home/utility_landing/riding_m...
Permalink Reply by Jared on September 2, 2010 at 4:08am
Thanks. Might have wanted to do a bike/Metra trip this weekend but I guess not.

jamimaria said:
Bumping this as there has been discussion on the CCM list that Jazz Fest this weekend was added to the list of Metra Blackout days:

•Jazz Fest (September 2 - 5)

http://metrarail.com/content/metra/en/home/utility_landing/riding_m...
Permalink Reply by BalloonBiker on September 2, 2010 at 4:24am
No idea, I had just seen this in the CCM listserv:
"Last month I posted this:

"Yep, this is the last of TWO consecutive weekends of the Metra bicycle ban.

It's also the LAST listed weekend ban for the year."

Guess what ? Labor day weekend, FOUR days from Thurs. the 2nd, thru Sunday the 5th, has been added !

Why they skipped Monday, who knows ?

It was not there at the date of my previous posting of 11 August."



So, sometime after August 11.

Cameron Puetz said:
Jami

Do you know how recently this blackout date was added?

jamimaria said:
Bumping this as there has been discussion on the CCM list that Jazz Fest this weekend was added to the list of Metra Blackout days:

•Jazz Fest (September 2 - 5)

http://metrarail.com/content/metra/en/home/utility_landing/riding_m...
Permalink Reply by David on September 2, 2010 at 5:49am
Which means that despite the nice meeting with the ATA, the effective number of blackout days really hasn't changed in years.

This basically works out to half the weekends in the summer. I'm with Liz above, I find it really grating that you can't take a bike on a midnight inbound metra when the cars are totally empty. A system-wide blackout is overkill. I realize bikes are a pretty tiny percentage of Metra traffic, but I don't see why they can't be a little more accomodating.

Chicago keeps talking up its support for bikes, but from my POV it seems that nothing has moved forward structurally in years. Sorry about the rant, it just bugs me.


jamimaria said:
Bumping this as there has been discussion on the CCM list that Jazz Fest this weekend was added to the list of Metra Blackout days:

•Jazz Fest (September 2 - 5)

http://metrarail.com/content/metra/en/home/utility_landing/riding_m...
Permalink Reply by Bicycle Poet on September 2, 2010 at 6:12am
Ethan, has Active Trans or Metra/RTA ever executed a survey to get some numbers on the Bikes On Metra program? I use Metra with my bicycle all year long, and have been since the program launched. My overall experience tells me that the numbers are growing, but I think it would be very helpful to all interested parties to see raw data.

Such a survey might show, among other data points: # of bikes per Metra line per day, peek usage days-of-week, peek usage hours, and average and total bikes per day, week, and month across the entire system.

If Active Trans is interested in initiating such a survey with Metra/RTA, I would personally be interested in assisting with the effort.

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