WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board on Tuesday, Oct. 15, granted Union Pacific a 30-day extension to the mediation period in its effort to reach an agreement with Chicago’s Metra regarding some financial aspects of an agreement to continue commuter rail service on three Metra routes on UP lines.
The mediation period was to have ended Oct. 14. However, UP said in its filing that, while the two sides had been engaged in the mediation process, scheduling issues meant the first in-person session would not take place until the week of Oct. 21. Metra agreed to the request, according to the filing.
The STB ordered mediation in August, after Union Pacific said the two sides had made “meaningful progress” in negotiations dating to 2019 [see “Regulators order UP, Metra to mediation,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 16, 2024]. Metra opposed mediation at that time, in part because it said UP had not provided financial information it considered necessary to evaluate a proposal from the freight railroad.
Operation of Metra’s UP North, Northwest, and West lines are in the progress of being transferred from UP, under a purchase-of-service agreement, to Metra [see “Union Pacific announces start of transition …,” News Wire, March 30, 2023].
