![Electric commuter train arrives at station](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/TRN_Metra_Hiring_Lassen.jpg)
CHICAGO — Commuter rail agency Metra says it is planning a “major hiring effort” in January in anticipation of schedule changes during the first quarter of 2022 as more workers return to downtown offices.
Jobs to be posted will fill a variety of positions that have been left open during reduced pandemic operations, as well as some that may be open because employees opt to retire rather than comply with Metra’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The positions will include locomotive engineers, conductors, coach cleaners, trackmen, maintenance, and openings in operations and administration. They will be posted online at the Metra careers portal. In a press release, Metra says some positions are highly desirable and may have a limit on the number of applicants allowed.
All new hires will be required to show proof of vaccination.
Brian, Where did that outburst come from? Are you really that ….
I don’t want to continue.
You do use your auto’s seat belt don’t you? And you obey the speed limits I hope.
Mr. Wayman, I can almost guarantee you that the only condition under which Brian Rose obeys speed limits is when traffic is so congested that no one is going faster than the speed limit. Mr. Rose, no one is forcing anyone to work for Metra. If you or anyone else don’t like that prerequisite, then look elsewhere for employment. That’s freedumb. Btw Mr. Rose, do you happen to be a fan of MTG? Surely you are not a fan of the Former Guy since he got vaxed and boostered.
Love the accompanying photo. I’m a 20 years retired Metra tower operator and train dispatcher and depending on what desks I worked I controlled that interlocking where Electric District Train#814 is crossing over from the Main Tk up from University Park to Tk1 north. It used to be designated Richton Yard Interlocking for the layover/storage yard immediately south and west of the single main. Perhaps it’s been re-designated by milepost number by now. Richton Yard Interlocking is/was a mouthful.,
MARK SHAPP —- My first impression of Metra Electric, around 1990, was that it was dilapidated. Whether new trains or new track, or both, the ride now is very comfortable. There’s been an impressive amount of work on many stations in the three decades following, but nowhere near enough – rebuilding more stations and adding disabled access is a task for a century to come.
My main problem with Metra Electric is Millenium Station. I’m very unhappy with the rebuild. Randolph Street was a dirty, dank dysfunctional hole in the ground. Millenium is a clean, well lit dysfunctional hole in the ground. For all the work below ground, there’s still only one grim entrance, which is on the west side of Michigan Avenue. Which means if one’s destination is on the east side of Michigan Avenue (such as, well, Millenium Park) one must walk under the Avenue, exit the ancient stairway, and recross at a traffic signal.
MARK – If you’re the towerman I met railfanning at LaGrange maybe in the early 1990’s, we’ve met.
Ok Charles, it may be we did meet. I used to trainwatch a lot on the BN/ BNSF Chicago Sub and not just at La Grange Road depot. Riverside, Downers Grove Main Street, Fairview Ave. Stone Ave, Hinsdale became a regular. I loved Highlands on weekends ‘cause no trains stopped there. And for that nice park adjacent to sit and have a sandwich…until the next train. I don’t know how the East End dispatchers did it…from Ft. Worth no less!
welcome to Nazi Germany where you need papers bowing to the government to work. are you awake yet
Mr Rose if you feel you are living in as horrible a place as Nazi Germany then you may need to find another country in which to live.