Still more rail news for a busy Friday:
— Metra’s reverse-commute pilot program on its Milwaukee District North line is exceeding its ridership goals after one year. The two-year program, a collaboration of Metra and businesses in Lake County, Ill., set a goal of 600 new trips by the end of the second year, with a first-year goal of 300 trips. The service, which celebrated its first anniversary on Wednesday, is averaging 550 new trips a day. “The results so far are more than encouraging – they are phenomenal,” Metra CEO/Executive Director Jim Derwinski said in a press release. AbbVie, Horizon Therapeutics, Trustmark Insurance, Tenneco, Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, Lake County government, the city of Lake Forest, Lake Forest Hospital, and the village of Deerfield are participating in the agreement with Metra.
— The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is urging railroads to take action to protect its members, their coworkers, and the public from the Covid-19 coronavirus with moves including suspension of attendance policies to encourage sick workers to stay home and providing high-quality disinfectant and hand sanitizers. Union president Dennis R. Pierce made the request in letters to Brendan Branon, chairman of the National Railway Labor Conference; Chuck Baker, president of the American Short Line and Regional Rairoad Association, and Paul Skoutelas, president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Assocation.
— The Phoenix-area Valley Metro transit system and Chicago’s Metra have become the latest agency to step up cleaning efforts over coronavirus concerns. The agency says it will wipe down frequently touched areas daily and disinfect them at least once a week, and is also conducting daily disinfecting of light rail stations, ticket vending machines, water fountains and other surfaces, the Arizona Republic reports. Metra also is paying extra attention to high-touch areas, cleans stations multiple times a week, and is increasing supplies of hygenic materials, WBBM-TV reports. The Chicago Transit Authority says it is not doing anything differently but emphasizes it already has rigorous cleaning procedures.
I’m sure the “News Wire Digest” format saves time for the Trains staff who put the News Wire together. It also seems to allow for coverage of briefer, less important subjects that don’t warrant a story on their own. However, as a reader, I much preferred the old format where I could do a quick scan of any day’s stories and know exactly what I wanted to read, and what I could skip.
A few months ago there was a great format, just a date, and stories for that day. Please use that again. Is there a reason for the switch to an unreadable format?
Agreed. The old format was MUCH better.
This “new” format sucks. The railroad themed second and third section groups of news stories are confusing, make no sense and serve no viable function. Please go back the the “old” format from a few years ago, where you simply listed stories as links under chronologically sequential day-of-the-week headings. It was simple and easy to follow or skip, depending on your preference. Could someone from Trains at least explain why you started using the new format. Have your forgotten the old adage: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
I like the old News Wire
Me too!
I miss the video Newswire, too.
I miss the Newswire video, looked forward to it every Friday. Is it coming back?
I have bi triubke with unvasive ads either.
No problem with ads on my screen. It is likely a specific technology issue where a certain brand or type of device, screen size, or advertisement software is causing the problem. It is likely that Kalmbach needs to include your type of system in their software, or you need to block the source of the ads or alter where they are posted on your screen.
The newswire summary would be much more useful if we could read ALL the text, instead of being blocked from the last two or three words in each sentence covered by ads.