A Metra Rock Island train approaches the 95th Street station on the Beverly Branch on Jan. 2, 2018, a day when temperatures hovered near zero. Even more extreme weather will lead to modified Metra schedules on Wednesday.
TRAINS: David Lassen
CHICAGO — Metra has announced modified schedules for its operations on Wednesday, Jan. 30, reflecting the forecast for extreme cold in the Chicago area.
Only the Heritage Corridor, which sees only seven trains per day, will operate on its regular schedule. The modified schedules for all other lines are available here. As an example of the modifications, the BNSF line schedule will include 46 trains on Wednesday, instead of the 95 that normally operate on weekdays.
The current Chicago forecast for Wednesday on weather.com calls for a high of minus-13, a low of minus-21, and wind chills as low as minus-47.
More than likely in the instance of a broken weld, or any broken rail for that matter, the break will be cut out and a “plug” rail will be put in and bolted up.
Having ridden Metra during deep freezes, the issues usually are not just with frozen switches, its micro-fracturing of the welded rail. Just as hot days can cause welded rail to buckle from expansion, extreme cold can cause the rail to contract until its weakest part fractures.
This fracture sets off a broken rail alarm and forces trains into a slow mode until a crew can locate and weld the fracture back together.