WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has set the schedule to address Metra’s request for action compelling Union Pacific to continue allowing commuter rail service on its Chicago-area rail lines, establishing a timeline that will have the matter in the board’s hands for consideration by late June.
In a decision released today (March 20, 2025), the board partially granted a Union Pacific request for more time to respond to Metra’s filing, giving it 20 days instead of the 30 requested by UP. That response is now due on April 18. Other deadlines are:
April 21, completion of discovery;
May 5, Metra opening due;
June 3, UP reply due;
June 23, Metra rebuttal due.
Earlier this month, Metra requested terminal trackage rights on UP throughout the Chicago area to ensure it can continue to operate trains, noting that a court decision had determined UP had no common-carrier obligation to continue that service [see “Metra asks STB …,” Trains News Wire, March 7, 2025]. The Metra filing said the two sides had been unable to agree on financial terms relating to the transfer of operations on three lines from UP and Metra, with the commuter operator saying it cannot “accede to UP’s unilateral and unreasonable economic terms.”
UP’s request for more time, which was unopposed by Metra, said an extension was warranted because the commuter agency’s request “raises significant threshold questions about the Board’s general jurisdiction … and its specific jurisdiction over the lines at issue,” and because response is complicated by a parallel Metra action in federal court.
